Triage

The Queen has been busy with triaged chickens. The last two flocks were so easy... but this one is making up for it in spades.

The funny thing is, I ordered a bunch of chicken first aid early on so I would be ready in case a chick ever got sick... but life throws curve balls whenever it can. And as prepared as I thought I was... I was not.

Patient #1 - Sunny, the early hatchling... completely my fault.






Probably looked worse than it was because the feathers weren't fluffed out and the belly was swollen with yolk... but I was really worried about this chick.

So what had happened was...

I had 12 chicks in the incubator and the temperature was spiking to 104+ because of the increased body heat. The chicks were starting to pant and I really had no way to cool the incubator down quickly except to slightly crack the viewing windows on top of the incubator. I didn't want them to overheat and die. But... I had one chick left that had pipped.

And that was the problem.

There is a membrane surrounding a chick in the egg, and when the cool air rushes in it causes that membrane to dry out and contract around the chick, making it nearly impossible for the chick to get out of the egg. They call it shrink wrapping, which is pretty accurate.

I decided to remove the 12 hatchlings, and attempt to hatch the other chick because I didn't want to lose 12 chicks to save one... but I didn't want to lose that one either.

I shouldn't have messed with it. I should have thrown a wet paper towel over it while I removed the other chicks.

But I did mess with it, and once you start, you can't really turn back.

The problem was that when I started to peel away the shell and the outer membrane, some of the inner membrane came with it and I drew blood. When you see blood you stop because you can kill the chick. I thought it had absorbed the blood vessels and what I was seeing was residual blood. Apparently not.

So I dabbed it with a wet paper towel and put it back into the incubator.

Unfortunately, the membrane started to dry out anyway and then I really freaked out. After talking to some people in the Barnyard Chickens and More Facebook group I should have wrapped it in a wet rag. Honestly I thought about a paper towel but knew that would dry out since it's one of the ways you can increase humidity in the incubator... I just didn't think outside the box because by this point I was really scared for the chick... and pretty sure I'd killed it.

Luckily little chick had other plans. 

 

It took a couple of days before it started to look better, but soon enough it was energetically toddling around the triage box. Once I placed it into general population it took off like a rocket, zipping from one end of the brooder to the other and at this point I almost can't tell it from the other chicks. But... I've got to put ointment on its navel (because it didn't fully heal) to keep it from getting infected so I have to keep track of it.

Patient #2: Flipper

Flipper is the most adorable little thing. I think it's a Silver Sebright, and thus I have fallen madly in love with it. And because it's so tiny. And because its body is shape like a heart. And because I've handled it so much... And also... because it flips.

Which really isn't funny... but in an "I'll look back on this and laugh" sort of way, it's cute.

It has wry neck, which is caused by a vitamin deficiency. The neck droops and the chicken can't lift its head. The good folks on the BC&M page suggested a drop of Poly vi Sol in the morning and another one at night. I ordered some from the pharmacy down the street and the next day took Flipper with me to pick it up so I could ask for a Flipper-sized syringe.

Yes. I took my chicken to the pharmacy.

I was afraid she wouldn't take the vitamins - I mean, how do you pry such a small chick's beak open??? But she didn't put up a fight, she's fidgety but cooperative. It's day 2 and she's holding her head up more but still flips over sometimes.

It doesn't help that most times she falls asleep standing up so her head starts to hang, then next thing you know... flip!

She also has a slight case of spraddle (and a touch of pasty butt... the girl is a mess) but she's Houdini when it comes to getting out of vetrap, and the bandaid was a disaster. So... I've heard that sometimes walking around can strengthen their legs and it goes away on its own. She has until tomorrow afternoon to remedy the issue or I have to be the meanie and try to vetrap her again.

Flipper has been cooped up in the triage box and hasn't had much opportunity to run so I released her into general population this afternoon to give her that chance. And because I want her to be a part of the flock; it had been a couple of days since she's had contact with most of them and I was afraid they wouldn't accept her if I waited too long.

So far, so good.

Patient #3: Zombie

Newly hatched chicks can go up to three days without eating because they absorb the yolk from the egg just before hatching. And that's why it took a couple of days before I noticed Zombie.

Not to mention that we have over 20 chicks in the brooder and it's hard to keep track of them all until you start to see little differences that make them stand out. So it was that I noticed this little bird just standing in front of the camera, swaying a little, looking like a little zombie.

I don't know if it was dehydrated, if it wasn't getting food... I toyed with the idea that it might even be blind because for two days it didn't open its eyes. Regardless of the cause, into the triage box it went.

Since I already had the Poly vi Sol for Flipper, I decided to give some to Zombie as well. And since I had a feeling it was dehydrated, I gave it water from a syringe and it drank about 1cc each time. But it wasn't eating... 

When I don't know the answer, I Google it, and I found an article that mentioned yolk. So instead of scrambling it, which I knew wouldn't work, I sucked it up into a syringe and fed it raw.

Big improvement. By the next morning Zombie had jumped out of the triage box on its own. Zombie seems to be doing fine even if it wasn't happy about being photographed.

No one likes the paparazzi.

I've been trying to identify the mystery bantams we got. So far I think we have a d'Uccle - which I thought was a Silkie but it's smaller and doesn't have Silkie toes though it does have feathered feet - a Golden Sebright or Golden Lace Wyandotte, I think Flipper is a Silver Sebright but could also be a Silver Wyandotte... and then there's this guy...

He's our hatchling and he is supposed to be an Australorp... but he has feathers on his legs. I call him Penguin because he looks like a penguin... He's adorable.

And then in between feedings and nurse duties and dog servitude and prepping the coops so the ducks didn't freeze, I managed to FINALLY decide on a theme for my shop after only trying 20 of them on for size (conservatively). And I determined my pricing structure... and started loading products. So I am starting to feel a little bit accomplished.

I have miles to go before I sleep... I'm just happy my chickens are better.