Chick smothered by waterer

[swiggity_swarren]

A member of my family tried to help give water to my chicks while I was napping. Unfortunately, one of the chicks got totally caught under my water dispenser, and the person was unaware. I didn't realize it until I went to go clean out the brooder a few hours later. I'm devastated, but am doing what I can to care for said chick. It seemed cold and wet, but other than that just really shaken. I've been keeping it in a soft blanket around my neck, and gently rubbing it to get the down dry to try and trap warm air. I've also put softened food into a dropper and fed it a bit.

While feeding/checking for injury, I noticed a bump on its neck. Is this a full crop, or a breastbone that is particularly noticeable since the chick is wet?


Thanks for your help

 

[nuthatched]

Poor thing
Put it back under the heat lamp, it can't stay warm in a towel. It's likely just really cold, but will bounce back.

 

[Anon112]

Poor thing
Put it back under the heat lamp, it can't stay warm in a towel. It's likely just really cold, but will bounce back.

Or an incubator.

I had a chick who was about 2 weeks old and got its foot trapped in a treadle feeder. It was then in a torrential downpour. I'm not sure how long she was there, but she was totally saturated and barely moving when I found her. I turned on the incubator and put her in after a bit of a towel dry with a little dish of mash. After about 20 minutes, I was shocked at how recovered she was.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Could you also use a hair dryer and get it warm and dry a little more quickly?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sorry, typos!

 

[swiggity_swarren]

Hello everyone!!

This tale has a happy ending.

I did end up using a blow dryer (above the chick and across the blanket, not directly on it to make sure it didn't get chilled), fed it some soft mash from a syringe, and stuck it back in the brooder last night.

Chick is all fluffy again, hasn't shown, any sign of stress, and is playing with it's broodmates like it didn't almost die yesterday. Yay!!! The Lord was gracious.

Thanks for all of the chicken wisdom!