I just read about the goose with a broken leg. I don't have any experience with fowls, but I have with a goat. We had a little doeling, about four months old, that I guess got her leg caught in the manger I had made for the cow's hay. The bone was broken right in two, but the skin wasn't punctured. This was my daughter's pet, so we drove the 30 minutes to the vet, only to be told it would cost $200 to set the leg, because he would "have to put a pin in it, and he had never had good success with operations of goat's legs." I said, "Well, I just take her home." He said, "Alive?", and I said, "Yes, I have a book that tells how to do it, and I'll try it myself." He shrugged and said, "Some people take PVC pipe and cut it in half lengthwise to make a splint." So we went home, and I did just that. I found a piece of PVC, cut it in half, gave the goat two aspirins, and waited 20 minutes, and then prayed and pulled the little bone out straight, and turned it, and set it back together. It really was so easy. Then my daughter held her, while I put cotton batting around the leg to pad it, and then put the pvc splint on it, and taped it together with the homesteader's handy helper, duct tape. In three days she was putting her weight on it, and walking stiff-legged, and didn't seem to hurt. After six weeks we took off the splint, and she walked on it, only holding it up when she stood still, like she had learned to do while the splint was on. It took a couple of months for her to forget about it, and the leg grew like normal. She turned out to be a real fiesty thing, and no one could ever tell what had happened.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

-- Lela Picking (Stllwtrs55@aol.com), July 25, 2000

Answers

We had a sheep with a broken leg once. Set it similar to yours only used foam pipe insulation under the PVC pipe. Also had a lamb with a broken leg. We used only the foam pipe insulation on her. Wrapped both with that vetwrap bandage. They both healed well.

-- Kate Henderson (sheeplady@catskill.net), July 25, 2000.

Boy does your vet overcharge you! We had some vandalism here this spring and they broke the legs on 2 goats. We took them to our vet and it was $60 each to set the legs. They healed fine.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), July 26, 2000.

200$ is the going rate for x-rays, surgery to set the pins, more x- rays to make sure it didn't move. We have had only 2 broken legs, and one went to the vet because she was show stock. The second was an excellent milker though couldn't have won herself out of a paper bag :) so I fixed it myself. You can purchase casting material which is really just vet wrap that is inpregnated with plaster, from vet supplies. I loved the pipe insulation idea! Here every one of my animals has little dollar signs in their eyes, I know exactly what I would do if something happened to them. A top producer with my best kids, making me the most money, is driven to the vet post haste, a buck kid or replacable bloodline gets my very best guess. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 26, 2000.

Vicki,

I am glad we have the excellent vet clinic we do. The $60 I quoted included x-rays, but these did not need pins, just plaster casts.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), July 26, 2000.

Lela You did exactly the correct thing. I place of the PVC pipe there a spoon splints that are very inexpensive that you can get from a vet. There are also specially shaped ones for rear legs. When my donkey went off on all my lambs this spring he broke a rear leg right above the foot and I set it that way. Make sure you put a lot of padding under the splint then the splint then stretch gauze then vet wrap tight. Wrap over the joint below the fracture and the joint above. If an animal is very young and growing quickly you may have to change it once over the 6-8 weeks it needs to stay on. BTW I am a Cert Vet Tech at an emergency clinic so I have some experience in this area LOL

-- Dianne (yankeeterrier@hotmail.com), July 29, 2000.

My buck has a broken ankle.What length of PVC do I need to splint his leg? Bettie

-- Bettie Ferguson (jobett@dixie-net.com), April 01, 2002.