3 week old chick limping, swollen foot

[Shezadandy]

Hi all,

Found my poor little BCM chick limping badly this afternoon. She's out with her momma and siblings with the flock that is used to broodies with babies. I don't see any signs of a bumblefoot type scab- plus I'd say it's unlikely in a chick this age anyhow.

My thought was to wrap it up a bit using vetwrap - there's no obvious "head" on the swelling. It seems to mostly be associated with the left (inside) toe and middle toe area.

Any other ideas on how to help her feel better?

 

[Eggcessive]

It looks sprained. Is there any swelling in the hock? Wrapping it with styrofoam, cotton, or gauze in the footpad, and wrapped with 1 inch strips of vet wrap, such as one does with bumblefoot surgery might give it support while it heals. You may also just fashion a shoe with styrofoam meat container and tape or vet wrap. Be sure and check circulation to not get it too tight. Below I have inserted pictures.

 

[Eggcessive]

 

[Shezadandy]

It looks sprained. Is there any swelling in the hock? Wrapping it with styrofoam, cotton, or gauze in the footpad, and wrapped with 1 inch strips of vet wrap, such as one does with bumblefoot surgery might give it support while it heals. You may also just fashion a shoe with styrofoam meat container and tape or vet wrap. Be sure and check circulation to not get it too tight.

Happily the hock appears unaffected. Thanks for the photos - I would never have thought to use styrofoam! I've wrapped a few feet for toenail injuries and a couple bumblefoots- just never on an itty bitty chick. Fortunately she doesn't have heavily feathered feet. OK - will do-- thanks! Should I try to offer her aspirin? Now to find some styrofoam or similar material.

 

[Eggcessive]

Aspirin is optional. It can help pain and inflammation, but pain can limit overuse of the foot.

 

[Shezadandy]

Aspirin is optional. It can help pain and inflammation, but pain can limit overuse of the foot.

Thank you so much! I didn't do aspirin in the end - as you mentioned, pain relief can work against an injury like that and I worry too about throwing off the digestive system.

I cut a little shoe out of some Styrofoam from an egg carton a customer left me way back when - traced her foot and trimmed it up with my little curved mini-scissors -- then I wrapped the shoe in vetwrap strips, leaving a long strip as kind of a "shoelace" once the styrofoam was covered to wrap it onto her foot - was having a hard time getting it started otherwise because of how itty bitty her foot is- then used a couple more strips to get the toes secured and a little way up the leg. Took about 4 days before she was walking around without a limp - then took the shoe/wrap off and all the swelling was gone and no more limp. Happy days!!

 

[Shezadandy]

Here was our cast-making setup. she sat and watched the whole assembly process, mostly because she was so sore that she just laid there with her wing cropped out.

Below was the first "version" which was too wide, but I didn't take a picture after adding the shoe lace on the final version - figured since she was going to be out in dirt with her mom, so the Styrofoam should probably have its own protection against breaking up. It was still intact when I cut it off.

 

[Eggcessive]

That is really great news. Thanks for the update.