If your bird is doing something out of the ordinary then you may have to start doing some detective work to figure out what the issue with the bird is.
Something out of the ordinary may be the bird not putting weight on one leg. This article looks into why your baby chick is not putting weight on one leg.
Baby chick won’t put weight on leg:
Chickens and chicks are similar to each other, both of these birds are quite active and at any given moment can be seen running around, up and down your property.
Knowing this, if one of your baby birds starts showing odd behavior, if the bird won’t put weight on one leg, you’d be right to be concerned. This is why this happens:
Injury:
Injury is one reason why your baby chick may not be putting weight on its leg, both humans and chickens will limp when their legs are injured.
Your bird’s leg is likely painful as a result of the injury and the bird is trying not to put any pressure on the leg or trying not to put too much pressure on the leg and is limping instead.
Chickens can become injured quite easily, they can be clumsy, the bird may fall off of something high and land badly, the bird may stumble and twist an ankle, or the bird may become injured if it steps on something sharp.
What to do:
Unfortunately, this is not always something you can treat at home, the best course of action in this case would be to take your chicken to the vet.
The vet will physically examine the bird and may also take an x-ray of the bird’s leg to see the extent of the damage. After the examination, the vet will be able to treat the bird properly.
If your bird can not get the needed treatment for its injury then the injury may seriously negatively affect the bird’s life or even be fatal to the bird.
Bumblefoot
Another reason why your baby chick may not be putting its weight on its leg may be that the bird has a condition called bumblefoot.
This condition starts off when the bird gets a cut under its foot, bumblefoot happens when the cut gets infected with bacteria, dirt, or other substances.
The bird’s skin closes the cut with all the substances in it and the substances form a ball of pus. This is very uncomfortable and painful for the bird and your baby chick may start to limp as a result.
The affected bird may also become depressed and simply sit in one spot the whole time while affected.
What to do:
Bumblefoot can be cured by removing the abscess on the bird’s foot. Removing the abscess in a quiet place is recommended, this will calm the bird during this stressful procedure.
You’d need to start off by soaking the bird’s foot in a betadine and vetercyin solution, this will clean the foot. After this, dry your bird’s foot with a clean towel or a paper towel.
Next, you can use a scalpel, that has been cleaned with boiling water and alcohol, to open the swollen abscess.
Clean the abscess out as best as you can, you can also use a scalpel or tweezers to clean the wound out.
Once the abscess is cleaned out you can soak a gauze in some vetercyin and hold this to the bird’s foot so the product absorbs into the bird’s foot.
After this place a new clean gauze onto the opening and wrap vet wrap around the bird’s foot.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Quail Laying On Back, Quail Acting Drunk, Quail Acting Strange, Do Quail Spit?, Why Is My Quail Shaking, Turkey Chick Vs Chicken Chick, Baby Quail Can’t Walk, Quail Vs Chicken Raising, Newly Hatched Chick Not Moving