# a chicken walking up straight even bending back a little



## TheChickDiary (Aug 23, 2015)

Heeey everyone,

my family and i have a whole bunch of chicks and chickens, theyre all super healthy and lay a ton of eggs 
but one of our younger chicks is a bit odd, its a grey Brahma Isabella, very beautiful breed and color, everything was going great at first but pretty soon we noticed something off about her.

she started walking up straight, kinda like a human would, just straight up... the other chicks were bullying her so we took her out of the group cage and put her in a seperate cage with two other chicks.
one of the chicks was born late so pushed away by the mom and the other chick has one leg growing the wrong direction, anyhow... 

she kept walking up straight (like a pinguin) and she seemed fine other the walking up straight... but now, she's kinda bending over backwards and im really starting to get worried about her and i wanted to ask 
why this is happening? is it our fault? is i genetic? why dont her sisters have it? is i rare? is she in pain? what should we do?

im sorry for asking so many questions... but im just really curious and slightly afraid of whats going on with my chick...

I hope someone recognizes this problem and has a answer to why the chick is doing this...


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Normally when you hear about a stance of walking upright the thought is egg bound but from your comments this bird sounds too young to be laying yet. 

Someone else might be familiar with this happening with one that young and will be along. For now put it on something like Manna Pros rooster booster, or polyvisol there might be a vitamin deficiency that can be addressed that way.

It would be very helpful if you could post a pic.


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## TheChickDiary (Aug 23, 2015)

Thanks for the help Robin416,

thats right, she isnt that old, i dont exactly know how many weeks but she's approximately around 3 months old... 

so i went to the room and took her out of her house to take the pictures for you and while i was taking pictures i could really see the bulge when she was standing up, im about 80% sure its her knee, but i cant quite say... so i took a couple of pictures but i was hard for her to stand up still cause when she does she starts to lean back and gets the feeling that she's falling over so she starts flapping her wings around... 

and also i was wondering like, im in europe, netherlands to be exact... so the medicine you adviced, do you think is available over here? and if it wouldnt be do you think i could order it online?

but here are the pics, i hope you or someone else could help me by seeing her... 

Sorry for all the questions and pictures... we just try to give every chicken a fair chance, and if what she has is treatable then we are all for doing what it takes..


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That sounds like a dislocation. Is there any chance she can go to the vet there? An x-ray will be necessary to determine just what is going on with that joint. If it is a dislocation, the vet will have to attempt reducing it and then probably stabilizing the joint until the connective tissue can heal. 

If she's eating and drinking she probably doesn't need any supplements. 

No, I have no clue what is available in the Netherlands for poultry when adding supplements. Polyvisol is children's vitamins in liquid form here in the states.


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## TheChickDiary (Aug 23, 2015)

ok... well ill see what my vet can do, i dont know if i can just walk in there with a chicken or no, but ill inform on monday... 

and thanks for helping  lets hope they can do something...


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Europe has been the most accepting about seeing chickens, let's hope yours is the same.

Here in the states the most willing are the large animal vets.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

TheChickDiary said:


> ok... well ill see what my vet can do, i dont know if i can just walk in there with a chicken or no, but ill inform on monday...
> 
> and thanks for helping  lets hope they can do something...


How is your chick doing?


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## TheChickDiary (Aug 23, 2015)

*fine i guess...*



seminolewind said:


> How is your chick doing?


hi, the chick is doing fine i suppose, still eating and walking funny. i called my vet to ask about it they said they dont know when theyll be able to do surgery on the chick... mainly cause the chick is not gonna die is they dont do anything so they said theyd call me when theres a open spot to help the chick... 
so i dont know if thats good news and if i should do it cause they said the surgery is very expensive and probably dont change much cause during the process theres a chance of damaging the muscles and nervs and that the chick might be partially or completely paralized after the surgery...

im not a dr, so idk if any of this is true or not but i guess we wont do the surgery... its really sad that the chick has to live like this, but atm theres not a lot i can, we did however tried to put her in a lower cage hoping she'd bend over forwards and start walking straighter, she is walking the way we hoped now, but as soon as she can stretch out shes doing her pinguine thing again and then falling backwards...

i hate seeing animals not being comfortable but im also not the type of person to end her life just cause she's not like the others...

what do you think? let her live or not?

i hope this is enough info and i appreciate all the help i got from you


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Everything they said is true but then it's true for any surgery like that, whether it's a human or animal. The thing I see missing is the warning that the longer the bird is like that the less likely the surgery is going to be beneficial.

The only person that can answer the question on whether it should be put down is you and yours. You see what it's day to day life is like. If it doesn't seem to be in pain, is able to eat and drink sufficiently without help that will make the choice easier. If none of those things are true then you need to ask yourself, does the bird have any quality of life?


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## pinkmartin (Aug 11, 2015)

Well said, robin.


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