- Aug 30, 2014
- 6
- 1
- 7
I have some young pheasants. When I brought them home as chicks, I had them living in our barn in an old oblong horse tank (drained, of course). Today I decided that since I was nice and they were about to outgrow the tank, I'd move them to their larger pen which is a large dog kennel attached to a chicken coop.
We moved several without incident, but at one point I had to get into the tank and hand one off to my mother who was helping me out. Everything seemed to be going fine, I grabbed another for myself and we headed out. Right as we were leaving we noticed that the pheasant she was holding seemed limp, and his neck was hanging downward.
We rushed him to the larger pen and set him on the ground in hopes that he would be fine, but he just laid there looking lifeless. His eyes were still open and blinking and he was breathing through his mouth. I felt him and his neck was for sure not broken. In fact, when I picked him up and gave his neck a bit of support, he was fine.
I held him for awhile supporting his head and he seemed to get a little stronger. We decided to put him back in the horse tank for a little bit to make sure he was okay. He immediately settled in and seemed fine, able to support his head himself. He was rather uncoordinated when he tried to get up and walk around, but I just checked on him and while he's still a bit uncoordinated he's much improved. He's walking and eating and drinking with just the occasional (very slight) stumble.
So my question is: what the hell happened? Is it possible he was in some kind of shock? So far I've only ever had chickens, and while they are major drama queens I have never seen something like this before.
We moved several without incident, but at one point I had to get into the tank and hand one off to my mother who was helping me out. Everything seemed to be going fine, I grabbed another for myself and we headed out. Right as we were leaving we noticed that the pheasant she was holding seemed limp, and his neck was hanging downward.
We rushed him to the larger pen and set him on the ground in hopes that he would be fine, but he just laid there looking lifeless. His eyes were still open and blinking and he was breathing through his mouth. I felt him and his neck was for sure not broken. In fact, when I picked him up and gave his neck a bit of support, he was fine.
I held him for awhile supporting his head and he seemed to get a little stronger. We decided to put him back in the horse tank for a little bit to make sure he was okay. He immediately settled in and seemed fine, able to support his head himself. He was rather uncoordinated when he tried to get up and walk around, but I just checked on him and while he's still a bit uncoordinated he's much improved. He's walking and eating and drinking with just the occasional (very slight) stumble.
So my question is: what the hell happened? Is it possible he was in some kind of shock? So far I've only ever had chickens, and while they are major drama queens I have never seen something like this before.
