Hello, first time poster. I have some 6wk old polish tophat chicks, and one of them already has a crazy crest. She was seeming overly sleepy, but otherwise eating/drinking ok. Basically she would seem fine, but once she stopped moving, her head would slowly droop like she was sleepy. Thanks to this forum I ruled out wry neck, and someone else said thier one polish seemed sluggish and realized it was because her vision was so bad, and was better after a haircut. So I investigated her more, and prepared to trim feathers, and I think what is going on is that some of the feathers are growing curled towards her eyes. So as soon as she doesn't neeeed to see, to find the food or whatever, she closes her eyes to protect them, then just might as well go to sleep out of boredom, I suppose. Problem is, she's still growing and most of those feathers are new and a lot of pin feathers, so i can't trim the ones that really need it. I don't want to tie it back out of concerns the rubber band will come off and it gets ingested. So...my question is this, is there anything i can use to slick her feathers back to at least get them out of her eyes, that is safe and won't draw the attention of other chicks? Basically hair gel for chickens lol? Coconut oil? Vegetable glycerin? Etc.
I have a chlorhexidine spray for my dog that is clear and somewhat tacky (could maybe act like hairspray) if that's safe for use around chickens.
Ps, I'm thinking once the feathers completely grow as she gets older, they will shift some and not be as much of a problem actually poking her in the eyes
I have a chlorhexidine spray for my dog that is clear and somewhat tacky (could maybe act like hairspray) if that's safe for use around chickens.
Ps, I'm thinking once the feathers completely grow as she gets older, they will shift some and not be as much of a problem actually poking her in the eyes