Wobbles

An important post about hobbling by a GUEST WRITER!

Once I had a chick try to hatch and fail because the egg got stuck in the empty shell of a hatched egg. Ever since then I try and be vigilant to monitor at the 21-day due date for my sitting hens; in my experience some of them push out the empty shells on their own but a lot just keep sitting the whole mess.

This led me into finding my first chick with splayed leg and crooked toes.

It was nighttime, and I wanted to go to bed. This hatch was not going well. I had two chicks hatch out and I found them dead under the Mama (could it have been uneven temperature from very cold nights and a not insulated floor for the brood box?). Two chicks alive and well, and the final chick just sat there, wings out, not moving... I had read about this years ago but in its failure to manifest it got filed away in my mental archives. It was my husband who pointed to the legs and toes, and so I peered closer and the memory bells started to ring. The chick looked like it was doing the splits, and the toes on the right foot were all curled awkwardly inward. One toe on the left foot was curled back.

We brought the chick inside and commenced the internet search of "splayed leg and crooked toe fix". Of course, we all know that such searches bring up a plethora of ideas. We settled on cutting thin cardboard into the shape of the foot, small pieces of toothpicks (splints) the length of the toes affected, and very thin strips of vet wrap to secure the entire apparatus in place. I will not go into any more details than that because by the end of attaching these things to the feet of a less than one day old chick, I had beads of sweat forming on my brow and it was all I could do to control the mounting frustration that threatened to destroy my concentration (For anyone who has already worked with crooked toes, you are probably laughing at the "excessive' cure). It was well past my bedtime at this point, the chick was anchored by the equivalent of cement blocks attached to the feet, and I had not even attempted to correct the splayed legs. I put the chick back under its mama for the night and went to bed.

The next morning, with trepidation I went to retrieve the chick. The right splint, with the painstaking hour of work in took to get it on, was carelessly flung aside in the nest. The left splint was intact. I set up a little box in the living room and searched high and low for an incandescent light bulb, and set the chick under the light to stay warm. With the pressure of time gone and a night's sleep under my belt, I rethought the prescribed therapy.

Even if our current splinting interventions straightened the toes, the chick would never learn to walk with that much weight on her feet. I read that a chicken could live a full life with crooked toes, but splayed leg is a death sentence because the chick cannot reach food or water. I reprioritized the correction of the splayed leg, and removed the left splint (Of interest, the left toe had already significantly straightened overnight).

The Fix Part 1: I cut two tiny strips of vet wrap (great product, with a slight amount of pressure will adhere to itself) about 4 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. The chick was on my lap on a towel. Holding the shank of the leg gently but firmly (this takes courage because the chick will protest, but it was my acceptance of the need to hold it firmly that allowed me to work effectively, and I was able to do it alone), I wrapped each piece of vet wrap snugly around the SHANK of the leg and pressed it onto itself to adhere. Point of caution, if it is too tight it could cut off circulation which would be noted in a discoloration in the tissue below. Personally, I found it enough of a challenge to get it on period, I don't think I could have adhered the vet wrap too tightly. These two pieces of vet wrap act as an anchor for the "hobble", which is the therapeutic cure for splayed leg. The hobble consists of vet wrap that is again 0.5 cm wide by about 8-10 cm long, it has to wrap around the two legs and adhere to itself. The hobble forces the legs together, allowing the chick to stand. If the chick can stand, it will start to develop the musculature required to stand and walk on its own. The first hobble was too close together and the chick fell over and couldn't get up. So I let the legs out a bit further and the chick could stand! You may need to support the chick a little with a finger under her breastbone at the start.

The Fix Part 2: There was such a variety of splinting ideas for crooked toes.... In the end I chose to use the thick, white, waterproof, first aid tape because it doesn't stick to flesh overly and it has structure. I cut the tape to the length of the toe and wrapped it around each toe. On the right foot, I ended up taping a small piece of tooth pick between two toes to keep them separated.

And now I waited. Except the infant chick didn't know what to eat or how to drink so I had to teach it those things, which reminded me why I let my hens do the brooding. I gave the chick, which by now my niece and nephew named "Wobbles", the day in the box. Almost immediately the chick could stand and slowly walk around, when she fell over, she could get back up. Within hours her balance had improved and her speed was quickening. That night, after full dark because Mama hen would mercilessly pick at the splints and hobble if she could see them, I replaced Wobbles under the hen. First thing the next morning, before light, I retrieved Wobbles for assessment. I removed the toes casts and seriously, the toes were straight. I then took off the hobble, leaving the "anchors" just in case. She stood there, wavering slightly, braved a first step then wavered again. But she was doing it, so she won a few more hours in her little box under her light to be used for practise before full reintroduction to her life as a chicken.

By late morning she was independently walking around the little box, I put her on my lap to make sure she could handle hills and valleys, gave her a power breakfast of scrambled eggs, then returned her to Mama and siblings. I monitored a few times throughout the day to make sure things were going well, and then Done!

There are many other methods that could achieve the same thing. I read about using a band aid as a hobble, or a hair elastic with a piece of a straw. Be creative, figure out how to utilize the supplies on hand to achieve the desired outcome. And as always, prevention is much preferred. In my case, I can identify two potential contributors to the splayed leg. My hen had pushed the thick nesting material into a wall around her, exposing the smooth, painted wooden surface below. Therefore, the chick hatched on a slippery surface. Because of this the eggs may have heated unevenly because there was no insulation under the wood, so I will ensure the nest is better insulated during the early, cold spring.