Tuesday, October 18, 2011

My Baby needs Corrective Shoes

Ginger is pigeon toed.  I'm not quite sure when or how this happened.  When she was a chick, we used to call her Turbo because she was the only one of the four who would scratch and dig her way through the pine shavings in their brooder all the way down to the tarp.  She loved to motor around that big brooder and kick and scratch anything and everything.

I never thought that she would be the one to grow up and have no interest in scratching in the garden.  But she doesn't.  And I've come to the conclusion that it's because she's pigeon toed.  She walks around just fine but when she stops, she's usually standing with one foot on top of the other.


You can see how her feet are pointed towards each other in this photo.

And since she doesn't scratch, she doesn't wear down her toe nails.  I've trimmed them a few times in the past but she REALLY doesn't like it.  And I feel so bad doing it to her.

So today, I took her to the vets office for a professional toe nail trimming.  They did a lovely job.  And they also gave me the confidence to keep doing this myself.  Hopefully, every other month will be often enough to keep them from getting out of control.  That's six times a year.  I think I can commit to that.  The question is, can I get Ginger to buy into that plan?

While her feet are not crossed in this photo, you can see how they are pointed in towards each other.
Maybe if I bribe her with a big tub of meal worms after each trimming session I can convince her that getting her nails trimmed is a good thing.

6 comments:

  1. How odd, but what a lucky chick that you noticed her problem... Maybe she'll be like most girls and grow to enjoy an occasional pedicure :)

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  2. Pigeon toed or not, she sure is a beauty!

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  3. @Rebecca - I know. She's such a pink polish kind of hen. I don't even get pedicures myself. I can't believe my chicken does.

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  4. @The Cake Chick - Thank you. I just love her to pieces.

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  5. The next time you do it yourself, try wrapping her in a towel with her legs hanging out. Makes it so much easier when you ain't trying to hold those wings down.

    ~~Matt~~

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  6. @Foothills - Yes, I need a bigger towel. I have an old shirt I was using but I think that was part of the problem. I do think if I can wrap her up to not only feel secure but to keep the wings tight, that I can probably do this pretty quickly.

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