Friday Furkid Post - with Chickies!

[trystinn]

The chicks are growing (hatched Nov. 1 - 3rd) quickly and developing personalities. The big black chick is the most dominant of the three, which makes for some very interesting situations:



The big yellow one is a hoot, she's the most curious of the three:



Then little Pipsqueak who, receiving treatment for spraddle leg, is my favorite:



Its quite difficult to get pictures of them, as they are afraid of the flash:



Nearby, Libby is napping and feeling very smug about the whole thing:

Comments

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

That top pic with Gracie is begging for an icanhazchzburgerz-esque caption. Too bad I can't think of one.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

What comes to mind from the chick is "Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me!?!"

[wild-heart.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Once again, you've managed to put a shine on what's been a crappy few days. What in the world is "spraddle leg"?

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Always glad to put a sparkle back in your day.

Spraddle leg is the unfortunate situation where for whatever reason (and there are plenty of theories), the chick's legs bow almost straight outwards instead of lining up straight under its body.

To fix this, we hobble their legs together so the muscles and tendons can strengthen - bandaids and medical tape works pretty well. It takes somewhere between 8 - 30 days for this to occur, if it is going to fix itself. Unfortunately, the hobbling makes it very difficult for the chick to walk around - almost refuses to use his legs. If this doesn't work, we'll have to cull him out of mercy - a chicken that cannot walk doesn't have much of a life. *cross fingers*

And unfortunately, the directions to hobble aren't very useful - I'm unsure if I'm hobbling the correct part of his leg (i.e. thigh or calf), etc.

[dawnzee.livejournal.com]

Squeee! Baby pictures! I just hope the last of my chicks are hardy enough for the advent of winter.

I hope the hobbling is helping. Poor little fellow!