silkie born with deformed feet?

[christytrav]

I have a three week old blue silkie born with its feet curled under. She seems to get along just fine. Even jumps up on the toys I ahve in the brooder. Anyone out there with good or bad stories of keeping a deformed bird. I would like some advice on what I should do. Right now I plan to keep it around as long as it isn't suffering.

 

[danielbrown]

One of my Ameraucanas chicks has one twisted toe, If its a pullet it will go in the laying flock instead of the breeding flock. If a bird has genetic defects, they could be passed on if bred.

 

[christytrav]

Good point. I will definately keep that in mind. I will only keep this bird if it is a hen, so...

 

[RAWR]

Quote:
i didnt know that

 

[spotsplus]

Genetic defects can always be passed on but some defects in chickens are due to the way they are incubated. I got an Orloff chick that both feet had all the toes turning in. At first the chick couldn't stand but I helped the chick to drink and eat and stand it's first two days. On day 3 the chick started to stand on it's own and I placed the feed and water a little distance so that the chick had to walk to get to food and water. I made sure many times a day the chick was able to do it and excersize the feet. Now you'd never know anything was wrong. For that I would say the chick was in an odd position in the shell. For a genetic defect definetly you wouldnt' want to breed it but as long as it's not suffering or in pain I have always kept them. I have a blind Wyandotte now that is 3 that does fine with some extra help. I used to raise zebra finches and they have all sorts of baby leg problems and I always had one handicapped bird at any given time. If you can just give the little extra that they need they can usually get along fine. A good thing to do is not to baby your chick- get him out and using the toes. As long as all else is healthy, he can eat, drink and poo fine than he/she will probably do fine. The extra excersize on the legs does do wonders to help birds straighten up as well.

 

[christytrav]

Thanks for the insight. My chick is three weeks old now and I honestly didn't realize there was a problem with her until about 5 days after they were all born. I counted toes at birth and all seemed well. I watched them every day in the brooder and one day noticed under all the fuzz on her feet that something wasn't right. She has all 5 toes but both feet are curled under. She has always gotten along just fine. She jumps around and hops up on things so I think she will be fine. As long as she is a she, I will keep her and hope she will be my good broody hen.

 

[KattyKillFish]

Quote:
i agree 100%, i've had a few chicks with deformities like bad feet. i;ve NEVER used any bird with any kind of problem for breeding. ex: deformed feet, had to help hatch, obvious weakness.

recently we had a dark cornish with a curled up foot as you mentioned. we corrected it!
i took a pieve of thin cardboard from an empty case of soda and cut it out in the shape of a duckling's foot, but just the size for "Gimpy". we straightened out his toes and put a large piece of tape over it. made him a little shoe. he was corrected the next day, but if you do this be sure to take it off every day to check the foot and make a new one for the chick.

here is a pic:

for curly toes, you don't need the cardboard, just do something like this:

hope i've helped!

 

[christytrav]

I actually did the shoes too but I think because I did not catch it soon enough they would not work. I couldn't flatten the feet out at that point. The one real bad foot looks almost like the toe was broken and folded under during development.
Thank you all. I have 15 Ameraucana's due to hatch tomorrow and I will check them all over very well as they are born. Hopefully I wont miss anything this time. Thank all!

 

[MeghanShane]

I just noticed my silkie has a deformed foot. She gets around just fine (walks a little weird but I think its cute) and seems just happy with the rest of the crew. I do wish I would have noticed this earlier so I could have done something to correct it (being a first time chicken mommy...I'm still learning). I got all of my silkies from the same women and I won't ever go back to her. Most of them had issues (again.. first time mom.. did not know what to look for). None of them were sick thankfully but my boyfriend has mastered the chicken enema. (I'll let you make your own visuals). HA!!