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update,Soooo Where was I all day? IT was NOT a fun day!
After bathing clipping and washing 3 of the 5 dogs I
I went out to check on Black Betty , chicks and unhatched eggs.
FOUND an ICE COLD egg in the middle of the floor and the other like soooo...... abandoned on the nest, she was laying in the middle of the floor with her 2 chicks!
BAD BLACK BETTY! BAD BAD BAD!!! LESSON LEARNED, STEAL your broody's good eggs, leave some fakes and then REPLACE WHEN YOU HAVE ENOUGH ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
DO NOT LET MOTHER NATURE TAKE ITS COURSE! MOTHER nature can be cruel for sure! So if you can help mother nature just a tad DO IT!
I grabbed them both after snapping that pic and RAN into the house and quickly ripped that sucker out of the shell while holding her under the warm work lamp.
SO cold in my hands, I have turned/candled enough eggs to know these chicks were in BAD shape. The other egg had no external pip, no noise, so let it under the lamp while
I stimulated the other chick and rubbed her with a towel and tried to get her warm again through heat and stimunlation. she was BLUE and I am not talking blue cochin blue.
poor thing : ( I felt so bad for not taking them from black betty last night! I second guessed myself again! ugggggg
I opened the egg and saw it had internally pipped, but there was absolutely NO movement.
I assumed it was gone. so I kept it under the lamp while I worked on getting the other warm and stimulated.
I let it sit for almost 45 minutes and finally I said, you know what, you may have a chick that has a tad more yolk to absorb,
But you also have a hypothermic chick in there, best way to warm her up is to get her to open from that ball position.
So thinking in the back of my head she is already dead, I took off the membrane with only a tad of blood, I thought because she was dead,
THANK GOD no blood, and helped her head out to open her body up for heat.
I kept her like that for 30. minutes and rubbed her also gently and she started to breath faintly!
I SCREAMED at the top of my lungs for DH to come and tell me I wasn't loosing it!
SHE WAS moving! very little but she was alive! She would move her head occationally!
I WAS AMAZED, so this was not a case of sitting on hands and waiting for me.
This was get them warm and keep them stimulated. so for HOURS I sat with them and rubbed them and talked to them.
This was while I was rubbing the first one......
This is how she looked when I realized she didn't have any yolk yet.
I think the cold stopped the process.....
a few hrs later........
a few more hrs later.....
and she finally is trying to walk around with the other one! she seems to have curled toes and spraddle legs from weakness....
But we can work with that!
and a few moments ago........ certainly not out of the woods yet.
see umbilical now.......
The first one has a case of droopy neck?????? she is very active but see how she hangs her head? she does pick it up but not stand tall with it..... suggestions?
So this is where my day lead me........ ugggggg
frozen chick A -
Head is up higher running around, not too friendly for some reason
frozen chick B-
spraddle leg is better, perky but not walking right, tried to fix curl toe but makes him walk worse so I will worry about that after the walking issues.
I still cant believe they are alive to be honest, and in half decent shape to boot. I now wont worry about getting them too cold while I assist that's for sure! I know they can experience fairly cold temps! Mind you it was aprox 45 degrees in the shed yesterday morning.
