FINCHforum

During a hatch, I noticed blood coming from one of the eggs. A chick had pipped through a vein somehow, and was losing a lot of blood. I stopped the bleeding and the chick was able to finish hatching though I had to handfeed it due to the blood loss making it weak and runty.

Now that this baby is a few weeks old I have noticed that her right leg is about 3 mm shorter than her left leg, and is significantly weaker and thinner. Is there a possibility that the pipped vein caused the leg to be stunted via restricted blood flow?

I hope this leg will catch up and won't cause any issues for her.

Before you suggest it, I am not interested in culling the bird.

Sorry if the difference is hardly visible in the photo, she's very wiggly and it was near impossible to take the picture

MisterGribs I have no experience but can she not just stand abit slanted and what does culling mean by the way

Fraza she is to little to stand up yet, but she tries!

Culling means killing a damaged, sick, or undesirable animal in order not to have it in your flock.

MisterGribs

Welcome back!!!

I think you hit the nail on the head.... restricted blood flow to the growth plate of the leg, causing the bone to stop growing, or at least retarding it's growth somewhat.

Now I'm no expert, but I do believe that the blood supply has probably been restored to some degree, or the bone would have died due to necrosis, causing the leg to die as well.

However, I think that when blood flow is restricted at some point of growth, the leg may not experience normal growth, causing it stay a bit shorter and possibly weak and lame to some extent for life.

That said, little birdie can still have a full and normal life, even with a weaker and shorter leg. One thing to watch for however, is the higher chance of this leg becoming caught or entangled in things around the cage, causing further injury.

People would probably undergo surgeries, bone grafts, and extensive therapy, but with birds that's obviously not an option.

Just my opinion .

If anyone can give her a good life, I know you can.

MisterGribs no way I can’t belive anyone would suggest that no animal shud die unless it’s in pain and there’s no resolve but she must be fine if she’s trying to stand up. I hope all goes well anyway

lovezebs Lol, I will. We'll be keeping her, she'll be fine.

She's otherwise really energetic.

Fraza Yep, tons of people do it. It's so common, it's usually what I hear as soon as I post anything about sick or injured birds anywhere. I stopped coming here for a long time because I got sick of the insensitive comments on here.

MisterGribs

Glad to hear that you'll be keeping little Tiny Tim (Timini?). You know me with my opinions on offering a good life to slightly imperfect perfect little creatures .

Regarding the insensetive culling comments, we haven't had any recently.... .

MisterGribs I still can’t believe it I would never do that to a bird

Suggestions to cull a bird truly are insensitive. That is a personal decision, no one should be advising anyone else on making that decision. However, if someone must cull, then they should receive nothing but support from the community. Sometimes it must be done for the sake of the bird, and it is never an easy thing to do.

Welcome back MisterGribs, and good luck with your little one.

lovezebs Good to know!

Yes, lol, it's a hen. We named her Höpö. It means daffy or giddy.

She just learned to beep, and I have never heard a zeeb beep so much!!!!

As far as her leg is going, she's used it to scratch herself, so it's good for something xDD

MisterGribs

She sounds adorable (like all baby Zebras). She doesn't know that there is anything different about her, so she just does her own thing and happily goes about her life.I love the meeping of baby Zebras.

How do you pronounce her name by the way? Is it Hoopoo, Hoppo, Hoppoo, Hooppo, Hippo ???

If she can use the leg (foot) to scratch, then it's obviously functional. The more she uses it, the stronger it will get .

When I had baby Gouldians who were very slightly splay legged, I use to make them run little races on the table top daily, to strengthen their legs. Everyone thought I was nuts, but it worked wonders . None of them showed any signs of splay leg into adulthood.

lovezebs like Edgar Allen Poe, Hoe-Poe. But for the ö, form your lips into the shape to say oo, like spook, but say the I from spit instead and you will get the Finnish ö sound. To hear it, you can paste it into google translate and press the speaker icon.

MisterGribs

By George, I think I got it.... o-oh... now my lips won't go back to their natural postion, eek mouth cramp ....

How is our little darling doing today? I forgot to ask, are you still hand feeding, or is she fledged?