6/5/2023 0 Comments Webbed feet human![]() ![]() ![]() If that’s the case, then her toe-nail is going to grow inward instead of outward. I checked on Charlie this morning and although she is doing fine, when I looked at the deformed foot, I could see that it looks like the top knuckle of her middle toe, although released from the neighboring toe, is still fused downward (imagine bending your finger so that the top segment touches the bottom segment). When we did put her in the cage, she was definitely favoring that one foot (the more deformed one) and at times would stand on one leg with the foot tucked under her doing her best flamingo impression.Īlmost immediately, though you could see that she was able to stand more upright and could walk with more balance, the better of the two foot’s difference was remarkable. The right foot almost looks normal, the other one, still not so much.Ĭharlie seemed the most calm when she was near another member of her flock and so Trevor spent hours holding her in his shirt while he studied for his upcoming finals. We thought about doing only one foot at a time but decided instead to do them both at once (based on reading others’ accounts that said their chicks bounced back by the end of the day.) These are the steps we took: Based on instructions that were pointed to me by a good friend (who, is now Charlie’s official God-mother, thanks Lauren!) we decided to go for it. I wasn’t sure that those feet would be able to tolerate the weight of a full grown chicken.Īfter one week of adjusting, I decided it was time to do a little bit of surgical intervention. I had to make a decision, leave it alone and hope that maybe she could build up enough scar tissue to walk on her feet, or try to release the toes. When we moved her to a large plastic tub, because she walked on the knuckles of one foot, it started bleeding. She shits (that was actually a typo but I think for obvious reasons I’m going to keep it in) sits on their shoulders while they watch TV and she likes to cuddle up near a warm neck or under an armpit.Įxcept that Charlie had those horrible feet that were literally hobbling her. Not having other chicks right now, the kids have become Charlie’s flock. Chickens are flock birds, when I teach people about chickens, I always say that you have to have at least 3 birds in your flock. ![]() This of course means that Charlie is getting very socialized. In the winter, wool and polar fleece become our best friends.) (Seriously, our house, which used to be a summer cottage by a water fall, is so poorly insulated that you can see curtains blowing in the breeze. So toasty, in fact, that the other kids are pretty much living there also. Our house is very cold and so in order to keep Charlie warm we heat up the TV room with an electric heater making it toasty warm. She won’t be ready until around the Spring to go outside which means for all intents and purposes we have an indoor chicken. Marans lay dark chocolate colored eggs, hence her name “Charlie” – as in “and the Chocolate Factory.”Ī chick in the winter in New Hampshire is not the best of all times to have one. Webbed feet (toes that are fused together) is a genetic condition making this little guy unsuitable for any kind of breeding, the future didn’t look good for her (for the record we still don’t know if it is male or female but to quote Trevor “If Charlie turns out to be a boy, I’m just gonna cry.”)Īfter convincing (read – pleading) with the seller to let me buy the chick by letting her know that we raise our chickens as pets and only for eggs, and that we seem to specialize in “special” ones, she let me have him. If you are readers of this blog, you know that last weekend I was given a tiny Maran chick that was unable to be sold because both of her feet were webbed and one foot was deformed. There is some blood (but if you can get through that there is a happy ending □ Warning – the following post contains directions with photos of how to surgically release webbed toes in a Maran chick. ![]()
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