Chickens have bones just as humans do, and these birds can break their bones just as humans can. Thankfully, treating broken chicken bones is less complicated than treating broken human bones.
If your chicken has a broken knee joint this article will help you figure out what to do
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Chicken has a broken knee joint:
Chicken knees are hidden, they are covered by the bird’s feathers, you won’t be able to see them unless you go looking for them. Chicken knees are located between the bird’s thigh and drumstick.
If your bird is keeping pressure off of one of its knees, then you can assume that there is something wrong with the bird’s knee.
You can treat the bird’s broken knee at home or visit a vet. Below is a guide on how to treat the bird at home:
Splint the knee:
The key to helping your bird heal at home is keeping the knee immobile. A knee that is allowed to move won’t get the opportunity to heal, this is where splinting the knee comes in.
You can use items like popsicle sticks or tongue depressors to splint the bird’s knee.
Create a soft barrier between the knee and the splint by wrapping a thick gauze around the bird’s knee. Do this before you apply the splint to the bird’s leg. Doing this will keep pressure sores from developing on the bird’s leg.
Cut and size your splint of choice to fit the chicken’s leg and then place the splints on either side of the bird’s knee. File the sharp end of the splint and tape it down to keep it from digging into the bird’s skin.
Secure the splints in place using a soft adhesive wrap then wrap an ace bandage around the soft adhesive wrap. Wrap masking tape around the ace wrap to secure everything in place.
Isolate the bird:
Chickens play and chase after each other when they are together. The injured chick, not wanting to seem ill, will want to play with the other birds and act like it isn’t injured.
If the bird is allowed to use its injured knee in this way then the knee will become more damaged. Keep the knee injury from getting worse by isolating the bird and keeping it in a cage to recover.
Give the bird its own food and water while in isolation and keep this food and water within beak distance from the bird. Doing this will keep the bird from having to move too much.
You can reintroduce the bird back into the flock once the bird’s knee is fully healed.
Offer food and water:
Feeding your bird high-quality feed, all throughout the bird’s life is important, but doing this is especially important as the bird recovers.
It’s also important to feed the bird additional protein as it recovers, this additional protein will help the bird recover faster. Protein sources that you can give the bird include scrambled eggs, mashed-up boiled eggs, and, mealworms.
Feeding supplements, like a vitamin b complex, to your injured bird, will help with healing, and feeding electrolytes to your bird will also help with healing.
Electrolytes are also helpful as they help the bird calm down from the shock of the injury. Only give the bird electrolytes for 3 days.
Offer pain medication:
A knee injury will be very painful to the bird, the bird won’t show that it is in pain, even in front of you, even if it trusts you, but know that the bird is in pain.
Chickens have evolved to not show signs of pain, if a chicken in the wild were to show signs of pain it would attract predators and get itself attacked, for this reason, a chicken with a broken knee joint will try its best to appear normal.
Giving your bird pain medication, at least in the early stages of the bird’s healing, is recommended. Aspirin can be crushed and added to your bird’s water to help with the pain.
Crush up 5 regular (325g) aspirin tablets into a gallon of water and give this to your bird to drink to help with the pain.
Visiting a vet:
You may not be able to accurately diagnose what’s wrong with the bird, or properly treat the bird, but a vet can.
If you have access to one, you can take the bird to the vet to have it examined and have the vet take an x-ray of the bird’s leg.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Chicken Walking On Hocks, Chick Walking On Hocks, Chicken Has A Broken Ankle, Chicken Limping And Has Diarrhea, Rooster Has A Broken Leg