Will injured chick be able to integrate back in with the broody and siblings? +More

[DanaMirelle]

I have a hen that at one week into her second ever brood, I tried to sneak under her an abandoned egg that was days from hatching. She did great finishing it. It hatched. She boosted it from the nest. I think: the timing wasn't right and she knew it. Understandable. I took the chick to nurse and gave her her own clutch to hatch and raise.

(Chick recovers. I re-homed it to a house with similarly aged chicks when it kept me up all night on night three cheeping for companionship.)

She does amazing all through incubation. One chick hatches at 19 days, I find it passed just outside the nest with yolk sac still visible. I think: it hatched too early and wasn't going to make it, so she boosted it. Understandable.

Day 21 I go to check on her, because I'm cautious that she will boost again. There it is. A chick is barely breathing just outside the nest. I scoop it up and get it warm. I check under the hen, there is a happy chick under there but while I'm watching she grabs it by the foot and drags it a few inches. It cries, I poke mom, she leaves it alone. I go to check on the abandoned chick and notice it's ankle/foot is badly bruised. The chick cries when I touch it and won't stand. My guess is that the hen did the same thing that she did to the other and grabbed it's foot when she tossed it out.

I was advised that I should tape the foot as if it had curled toes. This morning I did that. The chick is in a lot of pain with any pressure on the foot. It's currently sleeping in a private brooder.

Mama hen hatched two more babies, totalling four, but lost one in the night when it got trapped in between the nest and the wall. (I have fixed the issue.) So there are two black chicks under Mama, and one white chick in the private brooder. Now that everyone is hatched, she is way less aggressive with them, I think.

So, here's are my many questions:

Is there anything else I can do for the injured chick?

Is there any hope of this chick healing enough in time to integrate back in with the hen and siblings?

What sort of time frame am I working with before the chick is too old to be snuck under the hen at night?

Is there anything I can do to make the hen more likely to accept it? Like maybe bringing it out to the hens brooder so they can hear each other every now and then?

If the hen turns out to be too aggressive and I have to take the two babies away, what can I expect from the hen in terms of her behavior? How long before she is back to her usual self?

How healed does the injured chick have to be to join the others? I assume if it's not fully mobile, it won't survive.

At what point do I accept this chick won't walk?

 

[azygous]

Bruising or the slightest laceration on a baby foot can cause the tissue to start to die, and there's a risk the chick can lose the foot. Soaking in warm Epsom salt to encourage circulation a couple times a day and Vetericyn in between to encourage tissue healing would be worth a try.

The broody hasn't demonstrated very good mothering tendencies. You might be wise to take all the chicks from her and brood them yourself. She will come off her hormones quickly, and in a few days, she won't care she ever had chicks. You may even hear her thinking, "Good riddance to the little pissants."

 

[DanaMirelle]

Bruising or the slightest laceration on a baby foot can cause the tissue to start to die, and there's a risk the chick can lose the foot. Soaking in warm Epsom salt to encourage circulation a couple times a day and Vetericyn in between to encourage tissue healing would be worth a try.

The broody hasn't demonstrated very good mothering tendencies. You might be wise to take all the chicks from her and brood them yourself. She will come off her hormones quickly, and in a few days, she won't care she ever had chicks. You may even hear her thinking, "Good riddance to the little pissants."

I've been observing the hen this morning and she seems to be mothering much better, but my kids have distance learning, so I haven't been able to just observe her for an extended time. I would definitely prefer a hen raise them and don't want to take them away if I don't have to, but this seems like a safe than sorry decision . . .

Is there a way to tell if the ankle is broken or just a really bad bruise?

 

[azygous]

If a bone is broken, the chick would not be able to use the leg, meaning it would likely fall over. Bruising and tissue death are different colors. Grey for tissue death and grey green for simple bruising.

Chickens lose toes and feet and can still get around, by the way. I had a chick last spring with an injured toe that she ended up losing. It happens a lot.

 

[DanaMirelle]

If a bone is broken, the chick would not be able to use the leg, meaning it would likely fall over. Bruising and tissue death are different colors. Grey for tissue death and grey green for simple bruising.

Chickens lose toes and feet and can still get around, by the way. I had a chick last spring with an injured toe that she ended up losing. It happens a lot.

The chick is not using the leg below the hock. It won't put any weight on the ankle. I'm not seeing any obvious grey. It still just looks like a bruisy purple.

 

[azygous]

People bruises are purple. Chicken bruises are grey-green, unless the legs are slate or black and the green doesn't show up. You could try splinting the leg. Wrap the leg in gauze first to cushion it, then use a light weight stiff material such as cardboard cut in thin strips, and wrap with more gauze or Vetrap. You would likely see swelling or a bone splinter protruding if it was more than a sprain.

A chick chair can also help keep the chick upright to eat and at the same time off the leg so it will heal better. Do a search for chick chairs on BYC. I used to have a list of them before Mozilla Firefox updated my browser and wiped out all that I had carefully saved over the years.

 

[DanaMirelle]

People bruises are purple. Chicken bruises are grey-green, unless the legs are slate or black and the green doesn't show up. You could try splinting the leg. Wrap the leg in gauze first to cushion it, then use a light weight stiff material such as cardboard cut in thin strips, and wrap with more gauze or Vetrap. You would likely see swelling or a bone splinter protruding if it was more than a sprain.

A chick chair can also help keep the chick upright to eat and at the same time off the leg so it will heal better. Do a search for chick chairs on BYC. I used to have a list of them before Mozilla Firefox updated my browser and wiped out all that I had carefully saved over the years.

I will look into chick chairs.

When I put my fingertip under it's toes, they do move to grab on, but it just doesn't want to bend where the coloration is without crying and struggling. Here are some updated pictures in better light:

 

[azygous]

The swelling indicates tissue damage, as does the grey discoloration. Soaking it in Epsom salt water twice a day could improve circulation and save the foot.

I'm not just repeating something I've read somewhere. A hen in my flock injured her toe and it turned dark and swollen and continued to get darker until the toe dried up and fell off.

I wasn't aware at the time that soaking it might have restored circulation and possibly saved the toe, but 20-20 hindsight is pretty useless. It's not too late for your chick, though.

 

[DanaMirelle]

The swelling indicates tissue damage, as does the grey discoloration. Soaking it in Epsom salt water twice a day could improve circulation and save the foot.

I'm not just repeating something I've read somewhere. A hen in my flock injured her toe and it turned dark and swollen and continued to get darker until the toe dried up and fell off.

I wasn't aware at the time that soaking it might have restored circulation and possibly saved the toe, but 20-20 hindsight is pretty useless. It's not too late for your chick, though.

How long should I be soaking it at a time?

 

[azygous]

For a tiny squirmy chick, about five minutes should do it. Ten minutes if you have the patience. Do you have Vetericyn? That will help the tissue heal.