Chicken Orthopedics.

Are you my mummy?

This was taken about 13 weeks ago she's one of my first born Polands, and she is wearing a little bandaid shoe I made her to straighten her foot. Sometimes chicks can be born with this, it isn't a genetic problem but a hatch one, because the chick did not use its feet enough during hatching so the muscles did not strengthen. It can also be caused by letting a new chick walk on a slippery surface. Often it can be fixed by taping the chicken's toes straight or by making a "shoe" out of pipe cleaners or plasters, but has to be corrected within days or it will be impossible to fix.

This poor little thing had two scrunched up feet, I had to make two shoes..

And this has all the info about Chicken Orthopedics:

http://sites.google.com/a/larsencreek.com/chicken-orthopedics/leg-braces