Baby chicken with injured knee and leg?

[Tamara Reimer]

We incubated chickens and one came out with a splayed leg, but I’m not exactly sure if it’s splayed or just out of place. I tried the bandage/medical tape thing and it didn’t exactly work, because now the knee goes both ways. It bends the correct way but it often slips forward. She’s 4 days old now and almost always lays on her side.

I compared it to the other healthy chicks and it looks about the same the only difference is the veins are visible.

I don’t know what to do maybe someone could offer some advice.
She tries her best to walk but struggles, it looks like she can’t move it by herself because her leg sticks out and she’s trying to walk so she just goes in circles.

I couldn’t really capture what’s happening on camera but I hope this information helps someone figure out what’s happening.

 

[GodLovesU]

Does she eat and drink ok?Does she have any other symptoms?

 

[Eggcessive]

It might be a slipped tendon. Those can be hard to fix or to put back in place and wrap. Many of the chicks die or are put down because they cannot get enough food and water. Leg bone deformities are another common defect. There are a ton of threads and articles, videos online to Google, but here is one that might help:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/has-anyone-successfully-cured-a-slipped-tendon.1529504/

 

[Tamara Reimer]

Does she eat and drink ok?Does she have any other symptoms?

I used to help her drink, and I tried to help her eat but she just wouldn’t. So I made a mix of chick food and some seeds with some homemade fermented honey as a sweetener instead of sugar and I blended it together to make a paste and she really seems to enjoy it. So as often as possible I take her out of the enclosure to personally help her eat, once she got the idea she started eating the paste by herself.

The bandage method did work a little, her leg doesn’t stick out as much anymore which I think is a huge improvement, but I took it off because it was tripping her and I think it might be one of the reasons her knee is the way it is.

She tries to walk but she falls down ether it’s because she lost balance or an other chick knocked down and she just lays on her side until I come to check on her. She’s trying so I don’t think she giving up anytime soon.

Also she stands on her tippy toes when eating and her toes are smaller than her siblings. I don’t know if I should be concerned or not, but another problem is when she walks or tries to walk her toes twist and turn and kind of curl a little as if she can’t control them but I know she can because when I hold her in my hand sometimes she curls her foot around my finger. I don’t know what’s wrong maybe she just has weak joints on her toes and knee. But I’m still not exactly sure what’s wrong with her leg/hip it just sticks out.

 

[Tamara Reimer]

It might be a slipped tendon. Those can be hard to fix or to put back in place and wrap. Many of the chicks die or are put down because they cannot get enough food and water. Leg bone deformities are another common defect. There are a ton of threads and articles, videos online to Google, but here is one that might help:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/has-anyone-successfully-cured-a-slipped-tendon.1529504/

Thank you for the comment! I will be sure to look in the that. I help her eat and drink so I’m not to worry about food and water. Her tendon doesn’t seem to be out of place but I am a little worried about the fact that you can see her veins on her knee.

 

[Tamara Reimer]

I think she’s being bullied by the other chicks, because the back of her knees was kind of red and right now it’s a little brown,I think the bullying might be the cause for the knee problem. If she is being bullied I think I’m going to separate her from the others maybe with a friend, but I don’t know. What do you guys think, and what should I do?