Guinea fowl chick with club foot

[Anonymous]

Any thoughts on what to do? Current thought is leave it as it doesn't seem to affect it but concerned as will affect perching ability/ poss cause trouble walking when older? Any experiences?
I am loathe to cull as otherwise super healthy

 

[Tim]

What exactly do you mean by club foot? Is it walking on the side of its foot? or is it swollen? Sometimes toes can bend 90 degrees and even knee joints but I haven't seen the whole foot like it before.

Defects like this are normally genetic and you shouldn't breed from that bird, however if it isn't in any pain and getting around without difficulty, I would keep it...

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

here are some pics for your pleasure
I shall have to get some of our whole flock but this is 'gandalf'

 

[Tim]

Yes, looks like a genetic deformity. The first photo looks like quite a common toe deformity. Normally called crooked toe where the toe turns 90 degrees to one side - and I would say would hardly be a problem for the bird. Fine for a pet bird.

Are these all the same bird? The reason I ask is the 3rd photo looks pretty severe compared to the 1st. If he / she can walk around reasonably well (the 3rd photo looks like his normal walking postion), personally, I would keep him going - they do adapt well to these sorts of things and normally just get on with things but I certainly wouldn't breed from him / her. I've seen a bird with a 90 degree leg that has bent at the knee and he used to run around quite happily a little lop-sided! He used to struggle a bit with the ladies but was kept as a pet and roamed around with the rest of the flock happily..

I have heard of people taping legs / toes etc into place and they do eventually change enough to be in a more normal postion but I've never tried it myself.

In breeding can show this sort of thing up = I would double check the breeding line if you can. Breeding brother to sister for a couple of years will show up all sorts of nasties for example. If you do plan to breed them in the future, getting some different male birds in would help with vigour and problems like this should be very few and far between.

Tim