We have fourteen baby chicks that are now five and a half weeks old. I've been meaning to post about them (and a zillion other things) for a while, either I need to brush up on my time management skills or life just keeps getting busier. Luckily I take pics of most things thinking ... blog .... so that when I get the time to finally sit, at least I have the photos.
During the first week, two babes developed spraddle (or splay) leg. In the past, the only babies we've had were hatched by mummy chook, but this time we incubated with our next door neighbour. We had newspaper down in the box covered with sand. At one change, not enough sand was put back in and this is when the damage occurred. DH was thinking he had to 'dispose' of these poor little things. I was determined to fix them. After making a quick trip to 'the university of google', I found this fantastic site with step by step instructions and photos.
Here is our chick with the 'bandaid splint'.
It took a little while for him to find his feet. We also separated the two from the rest of the chicks. One ended up dying because a couple of the bigger chicks got into their little area and he got quite a trampling overnight. After about a week we took the bandaid off, he was a bit wobbly for a couple of days but soon was running around like the rest.
The same little chick also had its toes curled, sort've like a club foot. We put a cardboard splint on the bottom of the foot and taped the toes to it very well. This fixed the problem after only a couple of days.
These days, you can't tell which one it was, we don't even know!
I was so pleased with the result, just goes to show that with a little love n care and some patience, you can work wonders.
