We had a foal born this year with an extra little foot. It looked like a claw coming off close to his ankle on one of his front feet. It had a little hoof and everything. Upon x-ray, he had extra leg bones attached to his normal sized bones, and the tiny foot was an exact miniature--all the bones in all the right places. We had it removed (I asked the clinic to keep it for us in a jar of formaldahyde, but they didn't).

Oh wow! My cat has 7 caws on each paw, but an extra foot? I would really love to see that. :)

Hey, maybe you can show him on Jay Leno!!! lOL - Ellen

We live next door to an Abbey. Today they are simply a group of Benedictine priests and monks who run a seminary, but in earlier times, they were also self-sufficient. They had a dairy and hog barns, chickens, etc. They also had the boys' high school -- in fact, the town of Mount Angel didn't get public schools until the mid-1960's! The parochial school in town took kids to the 8th grade, then boys went up to the Abbey, girls went to school across the highway at the convent. If you didn't want a Catholic education, you drove to the next town. But anyway... the monks kept a museum of historical things and farm oddities for many years. I think some of the boys actually learned taxidermy in school. There was a 4-legged chicken and a 2-headed calf that I can remember. There was a tumor that had been removed from some animal that had hair and teeth inside, too. I haven't been up there in years, and I hear that the museum has been cleaned out and modernized with more of a focus on the expected kinds of topics for a monastary, but when my kids were little, it was always fun to make an afternoon of it and walk through the museum.

Please do post pictures of your duckling! Is the foot functional, or just sort of stuck on there? Usually they're not functional because whatever caused the anomaly didn't provide for the right bone and nerve connections.

Susan

rdered chicks once and got a 4 legged chick.Kids called him 4 wheeler.He died a few days later.

Our little guy is still going strong. I hope it survives.

The foot isn't functional, it just kinda hangs there.

I'm working on a couple of other projects right now, so I can't post a photo yet. Won't be long though.

Kitty

You can not post notes on weird stuff without pictures. We need to see these wonders....
BILL

yeah we want pics! hehe what kind of duck is he?

MY CHICK HAD AN EXTRA TINY BUTT ON BACK UNDER THE BIG BUTT HA WITH 2 EXTRA LEGS THAT WERE LIMP .

I think the condition is called Polydactyl. Google it, and you'll be amazed at some of the pictures you'll see!

Okay, sorry it took so long!

He actually has four legs, not three. He didn't like holding still for the pictures.

This address will put you right to the duck page.

Here is a link that might be useful: Quaddie the 4-legged duck

I had a chicken we called half&half once. S/he crowed and laid eggs.
MBG

Okay, it doesn't work, I'm sorry. Let's see if we can get it right this time.

Here is a link that might be useful: quaddie pictures

It would be great if someone could breed 4 legged turkeys! We always fight over the drumstick at Thanksgiving time.

Other than that, is there any heavy pesticide use near your property? Groundwater contamination? Nuclear waste dumps?

Not that I know of, my ducks are all descended from a single female, so they could be pretty badly inbred.

BTW, I sold Quaddie to a Florida Rescue Operation, Lame Duck rescue dot com. Unfortunately, he had a health problem, and was rerouted to a different place, this one in North Carolina.

I haven't heard anything back from them, I hope he got "home" okay. I also sent a traveling companion with him, a female who is normal. They seem to do better in pairs.

Otherwise, all the fuss has died down, and I'm back to working on webpages and getting the backyard measured out for the herb garden beds.

Later!
Kitty

I would call him Tripod!!!

It's not polydactyl, it's the case of incomplete twinning.

Small world, i usually hang out in the Bird Watching forum here. Quaddie arrived here at Carolina Waterfowl Rescue around 3pm today. She and her sister we named KD are resting up from the long drive. Our vets are opening the office tomorrow to see Quaddie and address the immediate issue of the prolaped cloaca. I took a picture of them in the night pen. They are very sweet girls.

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Hey look at that! They made it!

Nice to see the pair of them. Glad they got a good home. 'Sovies get pretty tame when they decide they want to, I've got one that I call Butterball who decided she wanted to get better accuanted, she nips at my freckles for attention.

So they are both female? I was wondering about that. Good luck!

They are both girls, except quaddies fraternal twin is a male. She underwent complete physical exam yesterday. The second legs body is indeed male with a prolapsed phallus and the legs are attached to the spine with one femur. Very interesting xrays! The weight of the legs is pulling her spine out of place and will eventually cause paralysis. She stayed overnight at the vets and will be examined today for digestive issues. We are hoping only one set of functioning digestive track exists. The vet allowed KD to stay with Quaddie at the hospital so they are together. I am so glad you allowed KD to come with Quaddie, they are very sweet and seem insperable.

Miss Kitty,

Fecals came back today they both have a raging case of Giardia so if you had them with other birds you may want to treat them. Clean any remaining fecal material well and wash your hands. If anyone around your house has the stomach flu better make a Dr visit.

Thanks

The humans around here are pretty healthy, but I'll get the coop area cleaned up. A good wash with bleach water should be enough to get the barn cleaned up. We'll change bedding and all that.

I'll also give my vet a call see what will take care of the parasite. I wondered why my chickens seemed a little off weight. The older ducks are really healthy acting, but the babies haven't been thriving. I've lost 5 of the last born batch.

Are you going to try to remove the twin?

Too bad you can't post the xrays, I'm too squeamish to look but other people are pretty curious about the whole thing.

Lots of luck to you.
Kitty

They both look very sweet
I hope they are going to be ok
Thanks for keeping us posted

Yes the twin needs to come off. The weight of the legs on her spine are going to pinch the nerve in her spine soon causing paralysis. We are working on raising the money for the surgery right now. The vet is donating her time but we have to cover cost of supplies. We also have to wait for the giardia to clear up.

Quaddie had surgery yesterday to remove the extra sets of legs. She did very well and is already back to normal today. Although she has been sitting down and getting up alot just because she cant seem to figure out how it suddenly got so easy to get around. We also removed the male "parts" and closed the area up. She should have a completly normal duck life now.

Quaddie post surgery
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