Splay Leg?

[greenthumbjaz]

Hi all! I’m new to chickens and looking for advice. Janice is from an online hatchery, she’s 9 days old. She was fine the first few days when she arrived and then started putting her leg in the air and could barely walk. I’ve been wrapping her legs with vet wrap and stretching them straight for the past 3 days before tightening the wrap but it seems like there’s been no improvement. She’s still eating and drinking but just lays there for the most part which seems so sad to me. The other chicks she came with are different breeds but they’ve grown, she still seems to be the same size. Is there anything else I can do to help her? From what I’ve read she’s a bit old to have splayed leg, are her odds good for it resolving? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi, and welcome to BYC!

You've done what most would suggest and what I do by binding the legs together with Vet Wrap. That looks a little far apart though so I'd try a bit tighter so both legs are directly under her and straight. For freshly hatched chicks, it takes about 3 days, for older ones, it would probably be another couple of days to a week. I'd also be giving her/them some Poultry Cell or Nutra-Drench in their water every other day. This one could use an additional boost of B-Complex. If you buy the drops, I'd just go 1/4 dropper full or less. If it's a pill, you could try break that in 4ths and give her 1/4 at most of one. We ground it first and divided it into fourths until we got the drops for ours we were helping with issues.

It could be she's got a hip or leg out of joint or slipped tendon. Here's an article about that in case that's what this turns out to be.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...and-caring-for-the-special-needs-chick.72163/

 

[greenthumbjaz]

Hi, and welcome to BYC!

You've done what most would suggest and what I do by binding the legs together with Vet Wrap. That looks a little far apart though so I'd try a bit tighter so both legs are directly under her and straight. For freshly hatched chicks, it takes about 3 days, for older ones, it would probably be another couple of days to a week. I'd also be giving her/them some Poultry Cell or Nutra-Drench in their water every other day. This one could use an additional boost of B-Complex. If you buy the drops, I'd just go 1/4 dropper full or less. If it's a pill, you could try break that in 4ths and give her 1/4 at most of one. We ground it first and divided it into fourths until we got the drops for ours we were helping with issues.

It could be she's got a hip or leg out of joint or slipped tendon. Here's an article about that in case that's what this turns out to be.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...and-caring-for-the-special-needs-chick.72163/

Thank you!!