Chicken in motor oil

[Chhstiger2007]

One of our baby chicks got out of her brooder she is about 3 weeks old. I found her in oil. She has been washed. But she hasn’t pooped and I’ve tried using a syringe of water to help her vomit. Her crop feels full but I can’t get her to vomit.

 

[Eggcessive]

How is she acting? Making a chick vomit can cause choking. Is she eating and drinking anything? Do you feel like she ingested some of the oil? I am going to tag @azygous, since she knows more about automotive spills and poisoning.

 

[Chhstiger2007]

How is she acting? Making a chick vomit can cause choking. Is she eating and drinking anything? Do you feel like she ingested some of the oil? I am going to tag @azygous, since she knows more about automotive spills and poisoning.

She doesn’t really open her eyes. She is chirping. I think she invested some of the oil. She hadn’t eaten or drank anything. I gave her some water with a syringe. She isn’t walking around like she use to. She just sits awkwardly.

 

[azygous]

Motor oil is a petroleum distillate, and extremely toxic to chickens. Even a single drop will cause neurological damage that can manifest as lameness. Enough will cause brain damage and nervous system damage severe enough to kill. As far as I know, there is no antidote and no treatment when a chicken has this exposure. The best you can do is to give vitamin E and hope it might heal some of the damage to the nervous system.

There's really no going back and getting a do-over. But you can police the area well and remove all soil that has been contaminated and take steps to remove all sources of these distillates to prevent future poisoning.

 

[azygous]

Don't try to make your chick vomit. If you want to try to remove the contents of the crop by inserting a very narrow syringe into the esophagus and then down into the crop to suck out the crop fluids, you can give it a try. But probably the oil has already been absorbed.

 

[Chhstiger2007]

Motor oil is a petroleum distillate, and extremely toxic to chickens. Even a single drop will cause neurological damage that can manifest as lameness. Enough will cause brain damage and nervous system damage severe enough to kill. As far as I know, there is no antidote and no treatment when a chicken has this exposure. The best you can do is to give vitamin E and hope it might heal some of the damage to the nervous system.

There's really no going back and getting a do-over. But you can police the area well and remove all soil that has been contaminated and take steps to remove all sources of these distillates to prevent future poisoning.

Should we put her down or see what happens?

 

[azygous]

I would wait and watch. You should know inside of a few hours which way this is going to go. The first signs are lameness, trouble with the legs. When this happened to a chick of mine that was a similar age as yours, the damage progressed very quickly.

The chick tried to come to me and collapsed at my feet, unable to stand. It quickly progressed to overall motor system malfunction, trouble breathing, and couldn't stand or even move. I euthanized as soon as I saw the chick had irreversible neurological damage. To say it was heart breaking doesn't even begin to describe the grief when such a thing happens.

 

[Chhstiger2007]

I would wait and watch. You should know inside of a few hours which way this is going to go. The first signs are lameness, trouble with the legs. When this happened to a chick of mine that was a similar age as yours, the damage progressed very quickly.

The chick tried to come to me and collapsed at my feet, unable to stand. It quickly progressed to overall motor system malfunction, trouble breathing, and couldn't stand or even move. I euthanized as soon as I saw the chick had irreversible neurological damage. To say it was heart breaking doesn't even begin to describe the grief when such a thing happens.

She was sitting up earlier. But she hasn’t pooped yet and it’s been almost 3 hours.

 

[Chhstiger2007]

She was sitting up earlier. But she hasn’t pooped yet and it’s been almost 3 hours.

She also crawled up my back and laid down

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Fingers crossed