Woke up to find my 2 week old Cochin w/slipped tendons in both legs.

urbanfarmqueen

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At almost two weeks of age my Partridge Cochin stopped standing up and is now walking on its hocks with her legs forward underneath her and both feet slightly turned outwards. Both legs are doing it and the toes are not curled. I have 4 pullets, all are doing great except her as of 1 week ago. All were on medicated/vitman packed chick started in a brooder with an inch and a half of pine shavings-no newspaper or hard surfaces. She wasn't one of the runty ones, in fact she was plump, growing great and running around -very active & seemed healthy until this happened. I am lost on what to do as none of the posts exactly relate to what she is going through (both legs straight in front, stands on hocks and no toes curled). I started immediately giving her two drops a day of the Poly Vi Sol infant liquid vitamins and pushing her tendons back in place with stretches daily. I even took her to an aviary vet on last Monday who said she is splayed legged and recommended trying chicken shoes and to come back on Thurs for the shoes....what! I doubted the vet's diagnoses/expertise and was thinking it was more likely a tendon issue.....aren't they two different problems? Anyway I took her to a different vet last Friday (she had been in a chick chair all week) who stabilized & taped her legs in the correct position, gave her a vitamin injection and said come back in 5-7 days for a re-bandaging. The vet said prognosis was not great, but I am hopefully. I keep visualizing her running around like normal. She is our first try at what we consider a "fancy" breed and I feel bad b/c she is actively eating, drinking and seems happy & has a little fight to her, but is severely disabled and can't live a normal life if the bandaging doesn't help. The vet said 2-3 weeks to see any improvement. It wasn't a fortune at the vet and the weekly re-tape is under $20. Anyone experience this before and have advice?
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this was my hubby's attempt to hobble her, this lasted a day before we took it off as it didn't seem to be the resolution. Pictures of her before vet visit:
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I have one hen who produces about 25% dwarfs and/or chicks with hock issues. Some of the hock issues are slipped tendons and some present like your chick. Unfortunately, I've never been successful in fixing one of them, I hate to say. We've tried many times until we just quit trying.

I'm not sure what's going on unless she just had severe weakness in the hocks and they gave out on her. You can try some vitamin therapy, but it may do nothing. Get some Avia Charge 2000 online (expensive, but a concentrate powder) or some baby liquid vitamins at the drug store, Poly Vi Sol without iron and give her a couple drops daily in her beak for a week or so.
 
Thanks. My husband and I had a chat this morning about what our plans are for this little one. I'm loosing sleep over it. We decided to put her in a chick chair for the next 3 days to relieve the pressure on her hocks and to see if she will straighten her legs out. I already have had her on the infant vitamins for 5 days now. If she improves with the vitamins and in the chair then there is hope, if not then we may put her down. Of all the pictures and information out there I haven't seen one like her in such bad condition. I don't seem to have any other reasonable options.
 
Now that we at least have a diagnosis and a vet who knows what to do I am a little more hopeful and relaxed. I just hope she improves. I am curious to know if anyone has experienced this before and what happened? Has anyone waited this long to see if the taping will correct the issues? The vet said taping the leg in the correct position should encourage the body to correct itself. Please provide any feedback you have.
 
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