To consider not taking my lame pet to the vets?

[THERhubarb]

Before you all tear me apart let me explain....

This is a 2 week old chick. We have 3 of them and this is the youngest. I paid around £3 each for them and they are being cared for by one of my hens.

Yesterday I noticed this little fella was limping but was still getting around. I checked its foot, couldn't find anything stuck in it so let it go back assuming it would get better by itself.

Today it cannot put any weight on the foot. I have taken it indoors and examined it and it's not any of the usual foot diseases I've so far googled. I can't feel any broken bones so could just be a sprain, but obviously I don't know for sure.

The chick is a Pekin bantam so its tiny still and difficult to treat I would imagine. I've not put it back with it's mum or the others but have brought it in as it was not coming out of the hutch for food or water, at least this way I can make sure its eating.

I've just phoned the vets and they charge £10 consultation fee plus whatever else for treatment/medication.

Now when all is said and done, it is just a chick and doesn't appear to be in constant pain, it just can't walk around as it refuses to put the bad leg down. I am tempted to just pop it back under mother hen tonight, then take it out again tomorrow and do what I'm doing today, which is to keep it in an egg box with food and water and hope that the leg gets better with plenty of rest so it can eventually join the other two and mother hen.

Would this be totally unreasonable?

[Wellwobbly]

Rhubarb,

newcastle disease. Horrible! I don't know what it is, but it seems to destroy the nerves. Pick the chick up, handle the foot and see if there are any reflexes. if the foot and toes are completely floppy/no resistance/ paralysed, its fucked

[Wellwobbly]

A little side note for MN to think about:

do you know what has harmed animal welfare more than anything? The RIDICULOUS European laws that have taken medication out of the hands of anyone other than vets. In days past, agricultural stores had fridges with vaccines and other medication. Now you have to register to buy dewormer for your dog! People experienced in animal husbandry are now not allowed to administer antibiotics to their animals.

As the call out fee for country vets is astronomical (around our parts, £110 just to get in the car), this has meant a lot of suffering for animals who now get no attention.

I, Rhubarb, Mr Rhubarb and other country folk can take one look at a sheep or other animal and see it has mastitis post lambing, for instance. Or, if it was dull we would check the temperature (hot ears) and know that an infection was starting Before, we would give it a shot of tetracycline and all would be well.

Now? THEY DIE.

Another thing [Wobbly building up a head of steam]. Do you remember all those righteous demonstrators stopping the calf exports???
Oh, what a caring bunch. They demonstrated all day, then took themselves home, and poured themselves a nice cup of tea. What needs to be born, for milk to be made?

If you care about calves, EAT BRITISH VEAL. Do you know what happens to those economically unviable bull calves now? At a few hours old, THEY GET SHOT.

I have been shouted at for ringing my lamb's tails, by people who have never seen a sheep's tail been eaten from the inside by maggots, because they have caught these rather heavy deadhanging things on a thorn and the blowflies lay theirs eggs in the wound. We don't chase lambs in a malicious desire to waste hours of our time getting a kick out of cruelty!
Ignorance and sentimentality really does make things worse.

[coco27]

wow the vets I work at have a callout charge of £22+ vat for farms within a 25 mile radius!

[kilmuir]

your other may be a farmer, but would he let an animal suffer. get it sorted one way or another

[coco27]

tiny chick , house brick.job sorted

[StephenFrySaidSo]

wellwobbly one point your most patronisingly smug post incorrectly stated. Rhubarb cannot tell by looking at her chick what is wrong with it. That is the whole point of her post.

[tiggyhop]

Another one saying you are doing the right thing. Watch and wait and don't go near a vet!

[fackinell]

Coco
No!!!

[Madamecastafiore]

Pair of snips and some calpol will solve your problem.

[Spikeytree]

One of the silkies I hatched in my incubator this year had a troublesome leg. I splinted it with vet bandage and after 3 days it was fine.

I know an awful lot of farmers (both sides of the family for a start). I don't know one who would let an animal suffer just because it wasn't expensive.

I'm a veggie, btw.

[sarascompact]

Have you considered the fact that by knowing the chick is unwell and doing nothing you're breaking the law?

As you're unwilling to spend money on having him checked out and treated you would do better to contact a sanctuary or ask your vet to refer you to someone experienced in this sort of thing who will take the chick on and care for it as a pet.

[LegoDragon]

Tbh, young little chicks which I've reared, if they break something, they don't tend to heal well Some do, though, if they weren't in clear pain, then a few days to see if they were a lucky one would be in order, but I would kill it myself (snapped neck probably) if it spared it ongoing pain.

[LegoDragon]

Sorry, didn't mean to sound cold. But a vet can be ferrying and actually painful for a young chick and if after a few days nothing has improved by itself, then it probably won't heal as too small for a splint, and would cause long term pain, compared to death.

[vaticancameo]

Wellwobbly, I agree with you totally that we should be eating British rose veal. A lot of people think all veal is cruel, which isn't true.

I have to say though that I think being shot at birth is more humane than being taken on a live export journey to live in a European veal crate.

[BergholtStuttleyJohnson]

I can't see anything wrong with what you're doing op. I don't have any animals at present but I grew up with many. If it only started limping yesterday and isn't in constant pain then it could be something that will heal on it's own reasonbly quick. Vets probably won't do much. If it doesn't improve after a day or two put the poor thing down.

[Twattybollocks]

Op yanbu. An animal in significant pain doesn't generally eat and drink, if I had the vet out every time my horse was lame I'd be even more bankrupt. What I generally do is give it over night to see if anything obvious develops like a swollen joint or a burst access, if there's nothing obviously falling off I give it a couple of days rest, if its worse in the mean time I get the vet, if its no better after a couple of days I get the vet. 9/10 times it sorts itself without treatment.

[OhDearNigel]

I dont understand why you posted what you must have known would be an inflammatory thread about animal husbandry the most notoriously argumentative board of a parenting forum. Unless, of course, you fancied a bit of a ruck, which is what you got.

If i had lame chicks ii wouldnt be wasting my time on MN. Id be on a chicken-keeping forum

[Chibbs]

disgusting, cruel and nasty..

[NecessaryWeevil]

It's not disgusting to treat the chick at home
How do you think most farmers get by? They certainly don't ring the vet as soon as there's an issue, they treat the animals themselves. Most animal farmers have greater skill treating their animals for common problems than the vet - they know how to handle them sympathetically, how to inject them, help them give birth etc.
The op, whilst being very inflammatory, is doing the right thing.

OhDearNigel, on the chicken keeping forums I've been on, a question like this could go unanswered for days.
I asked a similar question a few years ago, and was advised to kill it straightaway. It seemed heartless at the time, but in the end, that was exactly the best thing to do.
Taking a chick to the vets would be far more distressing than treating it or dispatching it at home.

[Wellwobbly]

"wellwobbly one point your most patronisingly smug post incorrectly stated. Rhubarb cannot tell by looking at her chick what is wrong with it. "

But that ISN'T what I said, is it, incredibly smug Stephen Fry? Don't extrapolate my point into something that is convenient for you.

You can either 1. accept the point (with empirical examples GIVEN) that I was making, otherwise 2. you can pretend, by vilifying me, that the point I was making is therefore not relevant and doesn't exist.

ChoOse. Whatever makes you happy. Just know that 1 however much you scream and shot, the world is run through economic realities and 2. you touch animals through cling wrap in your supermarket, and we handle them.

So you should show a little bit of respect, for experience YOU DON'T HAVE. You cannot intimidate me, Stephen Fry whosis, so don't bother trying.

[StephenFrySaidSo]

wow. just wow!

as I stated upthread- I grew up on a farm so that line about the experience you have that I don't? bollocks.

you said rhubarb (as well as you and her dh) could tell, by looking, what was wrong with the chick. she cant. which is why she posted asking if she should take it to the vet.