baby chick thrown

[babychick1]

my 4 yr. old got a hold of one of our baby chicks and threw her against the wall. her abdomen is swollen and is breathing heavy and rapidly. is there anything i can do?

 

[coloradochick]

Yikes

I would say just to keep it warm in a dimly lit area and maybe try to get fluids in with a dropper. Hopefully someone will come on and have some good ideas. So sorry.

 

[gritsar]

I'm afraid that the chick would probably be better off being culled. I don't make that statement lightly.

In the future, it's best to keep in mind that chicks and very young children don't mix well.

 

[ranchhand]

I, sadly, have to agree. It sounds like internal injuries, which are unlikely to heal. You'll have to be the final judge of that, though. Culling isn't easy, but it's part of having chickens and other animals.

Children must be taught to be gentle, many on BYC are very careful to let their kids have supervised visits only, while sitting on the floor petting the chick with one finger. No tantrums allowed. No holding either, because kids tend to squeeze.

 

[Happy Chooks]

It certainly doesn't sound good, I too would recommend putting it down as it sounds like it has a lot of trauma. But only you know what you are seeing with the chick.

My kids are required to sit to play with chicks. My kids are older now, so I let them hold them, but when they were smaller, I'd put the chick on their lap and let them pet them with a couple fingers.

 

[babychick1]

thank you all, i have isolated her in a small box and will keep her comfortable. i'm not sure what i'm going to do. i agree kids and chickens don't mix, i don't let him handle the chicks, but he got a hold of her when i was out of the room. he's never done that before. i think i'll give the chick a little time and see if she gets better.

 

[chics in the sun]

I have a four year old, too. Every now and then they just do things you don't expect. I'm sorry you have to deal with the aftermath.

Mine has been taught all along what we feed the chickens. Out of nowhere the other day he tried to feed them silly bands.

So far it doesn't look like any of them actually ate them.

 

[babychick1]

just thought i would update. the baby is fine, i isolated her for awhile hen put her with the others. she laid around for awhile but then got up and is running around with the rest. her abdomen went down to normal size.

 

[ReeseTheChick]

I was just kinda surfing through the older posts and I just wanted to say I am glad she is doing better!

 

[coloradochick]

that's great news