Recently, I rescued several chicks from our local farmstore, 3 with severely pasted bottoms that did not make it, one with limberneck who has made almost a complete recovery and one with a severe leg fracture/infection. The bone was decaying and the chick was not going to recover, so my vet and I decided to amputate the leg.
She/he is making slow improvements and is indoors in a cage with her friend and being kept on a blanket for softness rather than the wire cage of course. All is healing well and she helps to balance by using her wing. I will keep her indoors until the weather warms. She was born around March 4th.
My concern is that the remaining leg will become stressed. Any ideas on making a prosthesis for a chicken? Materials, design, how to attach? I do plan on modifying her chicken area outside to make some things easier for her. But, wondered about the prosthesis. She will not have a tail to balance, the leg was taken off right above the hock joint. She does use her wing a bit to balance and flies/hops then rests to get about the cage or when on the bed to move about while I am cleaning her cage. She is an Americuana, so should not be a heavy breed, but will be a larger size.
I am just sending out feelers on this to get people in the special needs or chicken-related rescue thinking. If you have any thoughts or ideas of who to contact, please post. Katharine and Hoppi
One-legged Chick-Prosthesis?
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- Location: KY
- GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily
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I saw a bird on Animal Planet who had two prosheses. I cannot remember what kind of bird, but I'm thinking Cockatoo.
It can be done, and you might think of a soft plastic. How to attach would be the trick. Some sort of nylon velcro'd harness?
Wow!
It can be done, and you might think of a soft plastic. How to attach would be the trick. Some sort of nylon velcro'd harness?
Wow!
Karen, Andy's ^i^ mom
Lethal White Aussies Rule!
INTERACTIVE RESCUE SITE!
http://www.s8.createphpbb.com/lethalwhiteauss/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LethalWhiteAussieRescue/
Lethal White Aussies Rule!
INTERACTIVE RESCUE SITE!
http://www.s8.createphpbb.com/lethalwhiteauss/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LethalWhiteAussieRescue/
Well...here's Sebastian. http://www.handicappedpets.com/sebastian/index.html