Otayuranidiot
In the Brooder
- Aug 5, 2020
- 3
- 12
- 13
This year has been a crazy year for brooding. I currently have two hens fighting over a clutch they had sort of shared for a while up to hatch day. This is where the story begins I guess.
There had been several eggs left unhatched by the time the ladies were up, which isn't unusual. But when I went in to pull them out, I heard beeping from one, and a brief candling revealed the other was also still good. The one that was peeping already I helped hatch successfully but couldn't return because of the fighting hens. The one that I did return as an egg hatched the next day.
Looking at it now intervening sooner would have prevented a lot of this. These hens fighting over the chicks has killed two already, and I was just in time to pull this late hatcher out. Little thing has several lacerations on its neck that I cleaned up and sterilized, then stopped the bleeding. I suspect that a vitamin deficiency is what caused this one to be the underdog of the others, and why the hens started attacking, because it won't sit right. Its legs aren't splayed, it just rolls back and sits on its butt, flops its head around wildly which is common with dehydration and vitamin deficiencies.
When I pulled the little thing from the dirt it was also covered in ants, which had to been removed as well.
I've been hydrating and lamping the poor thing, and when this whole ordeal began it had one eye open and the other shut. But now I'm concerned, both eyes *look* open, when in fact the eye that had been shut looks deadened and is unresponsive now, as is the other eye now too. None of the symptoms I have googled come up with anything useful, and I can't bring this chick to the avian hospital since they aren't taking new appointments now (posting during covid crisis.) This chick doesnt seem sick, just incredibly lethargic as is usual for day old chicks (it's also very responsive and will beep when moved or interacted with.) I'm just hoping this isn't blindness or an infection already, or something that will be hopefully curable. I hate having to cull birds, and I don't normally intervene in nature's course to begin with. But something about this ordeal with having a successful rescue just days ago made my heart soft I guess. If it's blindness and can't be helped though, it'd be less cruel to stop trying. Any help or identification as to what this may be would be greatly helpful, I can attach more images if needed.
Day old turken half silkie,
There had been several eggs left unhatched by the time the ladies were up, which isn't unusual. But when I went in to pull them out, I heard beeping from one, and a brief candling revealed the other was also still good. The one that was peeping already I helped hatch successfully but couldn't return because of the fighting hens. The one that I did return as an egg hatched the next day.
Looking at it now intervening sooner would have prevented a lot of this. These hens fighting over the chicks has killed two already, and I was just in time to pull this late hatcher out. Little thing has several lacerations on its neck that I cleaned up and sterilized, then stopped the bleeding. I suspect that a vitamin deficiency is what caused this one to be the underdog of the others, and why the hens started attacking, because it won't sit right. Its legs aren't splayed, it just rolls back and sits on its butt, flops its head around wildly which is common with dehydration and vitamin deficiencies.
When I pulled the little thing from the dirt it was also covered in ants, which had to been removed as well.
I've been hydrating and lamping the poor thing, and when this whole ordeal began it had one eye open and the other shut. But now I'm concerned, both eyes *look* open, when in fact the eye that had been shut looks deadened and is unresponsive now, as is the other eye now too. None of the symptoms I have googled come up with anything useful, and I can't bring this chick to the avian hospital since they aren't taking new appointments now (posting during covid crisis.) This chick doesnt seem sick, just incredibly lethargic as is usual for day old chicks (it's also very responsive and will beep when moved or interacted with.) I'm just hoping this isn't blindness or an infection already, or something that will be hopefully curable. I hate having to cull birds, and I don't normally intervene in nature's course to begin with. But something about this ordeal with having a successful rescue just days ago made my heart soft I guess. If it's blindness and can't be helped though, it'd be less cruel to stop trying. Any help or identification as to what this may be would be greatly helpful, I can attach more images if needed.
Day old turken half silkie,
