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Ok, my friend/neighbor has recently taken some chicks that were hatched at her school(where she works!)that were not doing as well as the rest. They are some sort of mixed breed and she currently has 2. One of them was just the picked on one of the clutch. It was perfectly fine, peeping and eating and doing well. My friend and I agreed that the chick would live at my barn instead of going back to the school. That was yesterday...before IT happened. Somehow, the chick's leg went wacky. It at first softened at the joint and became slightly stiff. Then, it "curled" under him where he cannot walk with it. It kind of bent up at the joint. The chick is eating and drinking and being normal - except for his leg. He is not ruffled or showing signs of diarrhea. He simply has a curled leg! Anyone have any thoughts on that one?

yeah i have one that is doing the same thing. he is about a week old, and the chick waterer fell on him when his mom jumped on it (my fault for not securing the waterer) anyway his leg was stuck under it and now he cant lift the scaled part of his leg to walk... i cant feel anything broken, but he cant lift it or wont.
i hobbled it to the other leg and cut a qtip to keep his toes straight, then put some mighty small strips of duct tape to hold it on. the hobble is spread with about an inch of qtip too.
now he can shuffle around at least. if he doesnt get better i will have to do something else. but since he is so young i think it may get better.
you could try this with your chick.

check these sites

http://www.rockingtranch.com/spraddle.html

http://www.peafowl.org/ARTICLES/1/

Especially the "spraddle" one. I checked that site out a while ago, and found it very informational. Good Luck!


Greta

well i took the hobble off gimpy and he picks up his foot/leg now and walks, but had to outfit him with a little shoe like the one on the peafowl link above because his toes were curling under.
think i had the hobble on for 2.5 days before he could use the leg.
may have healed without it too?

good luck with your two little pets.

Thanks guys, i really appreciate the help. Unfortunately, the little chick died yesterday. He began to walk on his elbows and they became bloody. He started to also have black poop. If anyone can find this listed as a disease, I would like to know. I am wondering if I should put the other chick that was exposed to him with the rest of my flock. Thanks.

Sometimes chicks hatched at schools (or any incubators) have problems that are not disease related, but glitches during heat and humidity changes during incubation. Often the incubators are not top of the line and cannot be monitered regularly, such as weekends. And hate to say it, but some children do not handle them carefully. Also temperature, food and water after hatching is pretty touchy in a situation that may not be ideal. Those that thrive are lucky chicks--and you may just have gotten an unlucky one. Unlikely to be any disease, but the rest of your flock may do him in! So be very careful! Good luck, CJR

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. My friend had hatched chicks and they all died except for 3. Those that did make it were the classic meat chicken. They were a little wacky and way too top heavy and eventually died (after only a few years) of heart trouble.

well i have to give little gimpy a new name- he is 100%