5-day old chick covered in oil - worse to leave it or wash it off?

[torski]

First-time chicken owner, my chicks are currently 5-6 days old. The BF placed a shallow lid of coconut oil into the brooder, and one of the chicks (an Orpington) tripped into it about an hour ago. Her underside is now drenched in oil, and she won't lay down to nap. I've soaked as much oil off of her as I could using cotton balls and paper towels, but is there anything else I can do? Her down is all plastered to her and she's been putting forth a good, but futile, effort to preen it off.

I've read it's very bad to try and bathe chicks, but at this point I'm wondering if it would be worse NOT to bath her. The brooder is enclosed and warm, so it's unlikely she'll get too cold, but she is very clearly miserable. I'm angry and panicked and can't really come to an objective conclusion right now.

Thank you!

 

[charsbird]

What was the coconut oil for? I would give a quick warm wash under faucet with Dawn dishwashing soap or baby shampoo or any mild soap you have on hand, dry with towel as best you can, and get it back in brooder asap. She can't keep herself warm without fuzzy feathers.

 

[torski]

He'd mixed it with some minced Kale greens, I think hoping to whet their appetite. I'm honestly not entirely clear on it myself. The chicks are getting gravel, so I'm not worried about the Kale, at least!

Thank you for the quick reply! What temp should the water be at? My assumption would be ~100* F.

 

[speckledhen]

Wash her off with warm water and mild soap and dry her gently and place her under the heat lamp in the brooder out of drafts.

In the future, maybe inform the BF not to feed the very young chicks anything except their starter crumbles? Coconut oil is a new one on me. Very odd.

 

[torski]

Alright, I washed her off as best I could, towel-dried her, then held her under the heat lamp for a half-hour and let her rest (she's still unwilling to lay down so I supported her to let her nap). Hopefully I got off enough of the oil that I won't have to repeat the process; the poor thing is so stressed by all of this.

They will absolutely not be getting oil of any sort after this; I'll be staunchly sticking to the starter crumbles until they get older, then will start them on some of the suggestions in the treats thread. This whole situation is so upsetting (And so easily preventable! Ugh.)

Thank you both for your help!