Blind Chick

[ms riss]

Wow thanks. Will try wiping the eyes with warm water. Gonna cross my fingers and hope that I have a similar experience as yourself. Really appreciate your response.

 

[Jacqdiva]

I have a little blind gold laced Wyandotte. It is a week old ( I don't know how). I just feel like its torturer. I try to feed it, but don't think it's enough. Don't see improvement really. Sometime I see it try to peck, poor baby. It is so stunted, so tiny compared to the others. I don't have the heart to kill it. All it ever wants to do is snuggle under my hand (me trying to teach it to peck by tapping in the food tray. It cries when ever I let go of it and leave. Am I nuts???

 

[ms riss]

Apparently the chick I had with the closed eyes is blind in at least one eye. She managed to survive to 12 weeks. With forty meat chicks, I lost track of which chick had had the problem. However as we neared processing we realized that one of the runts was actually blind in at least one eye. She can eat if we put the food right in front of her (and she still misses 2 out of 5 times) but I don't have the heart to process her. Tried putting her in with the laying hens but the rooster was a little rough on her spo we put her in a chicken tractor that's not being used right now. If she doesn't learn to climb the ramp to get out of the cold, I'm not sure she'll survive even our mild winters here in NC. I want to do the right thing but not sure what that is--Do I leave her alone in the tractor and hope she figures things out? Should I put in another hen that would be a companion? Do I put her back with the laying hens and let them all sort things out? Or last but not least, should I just bite the bullet and process her too?

Any and all responses are welcome.

ms riss