Emu with Splayed legs?

[casuarius]

I have an emu that is 2 months old. she has always kind of hobbled and her toes were curled in as a hatchling, I thought this might be because of the way she was in her egg. She grew up with baby chicks in a box and always kind of hobbled around as space was quite tight. Recently I moved her with the chickens outside into the coop where she has a lot of room and seemed to be doing great. She still had slightly crooked legs and walked a little funny for an emu her age.
She just started on greens a few weeks ago and has been going great.
BUT.
Today my wife found her sitting with her legs out to her sides, unable to walk or stand.
I have braces of foam on her legs tonight and she is sleeping in a box in the house tonight.
Why would this happen so suddenly? is there anything I can do at this age she has already almost lost all of her striped baby feathers. Could this be nutrition related? she has eaten medicated chick start most of her life and has done well with it. she recently switched to half chicken scratch half chick start with the occasional pile of greens or grass from the yard.
Any help is appreciated.

Usually the problem associated with Ratites legs is confinement. They need to have as much space to run as possible. The other problem is Rickets which is a vitamin D deficiency. You can stop the progress of the splay legs by adding vitamin D to its diet, but the legs will never be normal again. Unfortunately, there are not alot of feeds out there with enough vitamin D, calcium, or phosphorous for ratites. Some catfish or koi feeds are pretty good though, particularly Purina Game Fish Chow. I would buy vitamin D drops, and add drops to the feed or water

 

[kathyinmo]

I had one similar to yours. (I have had 2 actually). I had to put it down. It got worse and worse.
I talked with a man about 45 miles from me. He used to raise hundreds of emus, and still has a few. He told me there is absolutely nothing you can do when there is leg problems. I tried correcting the splay. It worked for a couple days. That's all.
One chick was so terribly bad, its leg was so twisted, its toes pointed straight out to the side.

 

[CUBICcube]

Cool, I will look into the Vitamin D drops, usually she is SUPER sensitive to anything in her water but I'll add a little bit to the chickens water container that she shares.
I have started to put her in leg braces while she sleeps, I made some out of pipe insulation tubes with Velcro, BOY does she hate them but she falls asleep and sleeps well all night. Her circulation seems fine when she wakes up she stands right up, I think she is growing so fast that the problem is being solved... slowly. She walks perfectly now but her left leg is a little twisty still, definitely not as much as it used to be! She even has started to run correctly and is learning to graze on weeds from the chickens. She is a pet so all I hope for is that the problem is fixed enough for her to get around. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to ride her around now
I'll try to post pictures of her braces tomorrow.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Good good news!

S.E.

 

[Mark farr]

Cool, I will look into the Vitamin D drops, usually she is SUPER sensitive to anything in her water but I'll add a little bit to the chickens water container that she shares.
I have started to put her in leg braces while she sleeps, I made some out of pipe insulation tubes with Velcro, BOY does she hate them but she falls asleep and sleeps well all night. Her circulation seems fine when she wakes up she stands right up, I think she is growing so fast that the problem is being solved... slowly. She walks perfectly now but her left leg is a little twisty still, definitely not as much as it used to be! She even has started to run correctly and is learning to graze on weeds from the chickens. She is a pet so all I hope for is that the problem is fixed enough for her to get around. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to ride her around now
I'll try to post pictures of her braces tomorrow.

Hi, how did this all end? As I have exactly the same problem

 

[Mark farr]

Cool, I will look into the Vitamin D drops, usually she is SUPER sensitive to anything in her water but I'll add a little bit to the chickens water container that she shares.
I have started to put her in leg braces while she sleeps, I made some out of pipe insulation tubes with Velcro, BOY does she hate them but she falls asleep and sleeps well all night. Her circulation seems fine when she wakes up she stands right up, I think she is growing so fast that the problem is being solved... slowly. She walks perfectly now but her left leg is a little twisty still, definitely not as much as it used to be! She even has started to run correctly and is learning to graze on weeds from the chickens. She is a pet so all I hope for is that the problem is fixed enough for her to get around. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to ride her around now
I'll try to post pictures of her braces tomorrow.

Hi, how did this all end? As I have exactly the same problem

 

[Caseysfarmadventures]

Cool, I will look into the Vitamin D drops, usually she is SUPER sensitive to anything in her water but I'll add a little bit to the chickens water container that she shares.
I have started to put her in leg braces while she sleeps, I made some out of pipe insulation tubes with Velcro, BOY does she hate them but she falls asleep and sleeps well all night. Her circulation seems fine when she wakes up she stands right up, I think she is growing so fast that the problem is being solved... slowly. She walks perfectly now but her left leg is a little twisty still, definitely not as much as it used to be! She even has started to run correctly and is learning to graze on weeds from the chickens. She is a pet so all I hope for is that the problem is fixed enough for her to get around. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to ride her around now
I'll try to post pictures of her braces tomorrow.

Can you email me pics of what u did and how I have a 2 n a half month old with a leg turned almost completely sideways were goin to the vet tomorrow but I really wanna exhaust all options [email protected]

 

[Hyde]

I have an emu that is 2 months old. she has always kind of hobbled and her toes were curled in as a hatchling, I thought this might be because of the way she was in her egg. She grew up with baby chicks in a box and always kind of hobbled around as space was quite tight. Recently I moved her with the chickens outside into the coop where she has a lot of room and seemed to be doing great. She still had slightly crooked legs and walked a little funny for an emu her age.
She just started on greens a few weeks ago and has been going great.
BUT.
Today my wife found her sitting with her legs out to her sides, unable to walk or stand.
I have braces of foam on her legs tonight and she is sleeping in a box in the house tonight.
Why would this happen so suddenly? is there anything I can do at this age she has already almost lost all of her striped baby feathers. Could this be nutrition related? she has eaten medicated chick start most of her life and has done well with it. she recently switched to half chicken scratch half chick start with the occasional pile of greens or grass from the yard.
Any help is appreciated.

Too high on humidity during incubation.