I tried the 'shoe' with my curly toed chick yesterday. As you may have read in my previous posts, he/she is blind. I place everything in the brooder in the exact spot for him/her to find. If everything stays the same, there is no problem. The little chick just pecks around until it is close enough and hits what it's aiming for. Now, with the walking...that's a different story. The little thing uses its wings for balance and stumbles through the other chicks. They don't really bother it or cause any problems or hinder this chick in anyway, yet. The problem with the 'shoe' was with the vision impairment. I had to try it but what I didn't think about was that it wasn't a good idea to have both impairments at the same time. It stumbled even worse and would just lay on its side. I couldn't take that. So, we removed them and the little chick is back to its old self. I think one impairment is enough much less two. I'm still not sure if the little chick will make it or not but we are giving it every chance we can. We are making sure that it eats and drinks and that the other chicks aren't picking.
And that is what is the strangest thing...this chick has a couple of little chick buddies that it hangs with that it will touch every now and then. If they aren't close and the little chick goes to chirping really loud, they come running to it. If we try to pick it up, they come running to investigate. They are a Jersey Giant, a Silkie, and a Gold Laced Polish. It's the neatest thing. Their only a week old so, I know they are generally curious, but I'm incline to think they are looking after the other one that we are calling Little Bit.
I'm so glad that Peanut is improving and I hope that she continues to make progress. Thank you for sharing your idea with me. I really hope we don't need it anymore in the future, but it's good to know that we have another option besides culling.
