Wierd leg injury or illness on two week old chick

[MaryHaskett]

1) What type of bird , age and weight
two week old chick, not sure what kind

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
breathing w/ mouth open/panting, walking funny, lifting leg

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
3 days maybe?

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
no

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
he has a wound on his leg about where you would expect an anke that looks indented - it looks like he had something tied around his leg and it constricted while he grew. But he didn't have anything like that. He was limping and walking funny, but I thought it was his belly - I didn't see the problem on his foot until today when I soaked his feet in warm water

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
no idea

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
starter feed and water

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
normal

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I isolated him because the panting made me think he might have a respiratory problem. I've soaked the foot but I'm not sure if I should pull at the hard scabby part or not.

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? would go to a vet if they could help

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

I took these when I first took him out of the sink where I was soaking his feet. His foot is at the top of the frame and you can see a weird indention with stuff hanging off it.

Better image. He's laying on his back in a towel and you can see the problem above his foot. What the heck do I do?

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
pine shaving bedding

 

[shellybean40]

looks like something is wrapped tightly around his leg. You need to get some manicure scissors, or a pin, or something and lift it up and cut it off NOW!! There was a thread a while back about a hair on a chicks toe. That chick lost its toe.

 

[MaryHaskett]

I put him in the sink filled with enough luke warm water to soak the area. I really couldn't see much except it looked like it was maybe a scab from some sort of injury. It never occurred to me that something was wrapped around his foot because what could it be?

I started pulling at the area with tweezers and pulled off a long thin string that looked like a downy feather. He wasn't happy but didn't peep or give any indication that this was more painful than anything else was. I kept at it and kept pulling more and more feathers until a stringy mass of feathers came off from around his leg. Could he have ingrown feathers? The skin underneath was red but not bleeding. I put Neosporin on it and put him back. I tried to keep him isolated because I thought he would rest better without all the other chicks pecking at him but he was VERY unhappy to be alone so I put him back with the group. He's eating, drinking and pooping and not panting nearly as much. There might be more of whatever that stuff is to be pulled off, but I"ll look at it in the morning once he has had time rest and heal a bit.

How on earth could he have a ring of gunky feathers get like that? I'm baffled.

 

[BrattishTaz]

This is a first for me! It looks like the foot has good coloring so he may recover well. I was thinking it looked like the cord wrapped around his leg. I have no idea how feathers got like that.

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

I have a teeny baby bantam OEG, that is two weeks old. I had a feather duster in with her and her friend to keep her comfortable, and on multiple occasions I've found feather pieces from the feather duster stuck with poo and wrapped around her foot/ankle. From my own experience with chicks, you just have to watch them so closely, and inspect them constantly. It seems like anything and everything can go wrong with babies!!

 

[seminolewind]

Brat, I thought the same thing.

 

[bonniejohn]

I am new to this site and cant figure out how to post a question, but maybe someone can help me from here. We have a chicken that has something wrong with one of her legs. it is bending backwards when she walks, it doesnt' seem to slow her down but we were wondering if it could be broken. any help will be most appreciated.

 

[MaryHaskett]

Here is what his leg looks like one day later. It's still red but seems to be healing. He's stopped panting and is eating and drinking (and pooping) a great deal.