Every year we see a series of young birds presented with various leg deformities. Most of them are due to damage occurring while in the nest. Sometimes it is the hen dropping down on them too hard, sometimes it is due to a calcium imbalance and other times there is no obvious explanation.

Many of them involve fractures of the lower limb or rotation of the last joint in the leg. Generally they are very obvious and detract from the value of the bird because they look abnormal or the bird cannot perch or walk normally.

Over several years we have operated on a lot of these cases with pretty good results. Often it involves rebreaking the leg and putting a pin in the limb to get it realigned. Other times treatment involves repositioning the feet and toes to roll the joint back into the correct position. When the birds are young their bones heal really quickly and mostly they can be salvaged as a breeder or as a pet bird.

The difficult and unrewarding cases are those where the bird hasn’t been bought in until after fledging and the bones and joints are much more mature. If there is a mid – shaft fracture then we can still salvage the bird but joint involvement usually means a bird with a “gammy” leg.

Obviously a lot depends on the monetary value of the bird – but before you decide to cull it you should get it checked to see if a simple procedure can save the bird.

Apart from the obvious calcium support – Calcivet, D Nutrical or True Grit, you should look at the boxes and logs you are using if this is happening repeatedly. Sometimes fitting a baffle to the box will stop the hen dropping down on the chicks and save them from this sort of injury.