ChuSayBok
Songster
I could spend the rest of my life on this part of the forum (reading or writing,) which is the reason I've avoided it. But I have one I showed some of my coworkers that I'm hoping helps some of you hardcore rescuers to have hope. I was about to post in the emergency section, but I figured in order to add to the story properly, I should post here instead.
A little over a month ago, I broke trust with my larger half by ordering not 1, but 2 dozen eggs off ebay. My rationale was that I had lost so many in the past (almost always my favorite ones) because they free-range during the day, then we got hit with the stink eye disease; plus fall is our busiest time of year and I'm not going to allow myself nor my girls to hatch any more chicks until next spring.
So I had half Ayam Cemani with some mixed ancestry and half black ameraucana. I ended up getting 9 of each to hatch, as I was out of town the last 4 days and left the care of my hatcher to my neighbor, who loves me, but not my chu, and I'm certain she did nothing wrong; my hatcher fan probably needs some TLC; anyhoo…
One of the ameraucana chicks had so air sac. It managed to pip anyway, but the hatch had to be assisted. Great article on assisted hatching: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...atching-for-all-poultry.72886/#comment-501221 complete with all the arguments in favor of assisting hatches (especially in the case of using incubators rather than hens.) I have never had a genetically compromised chick come from an assisted hatch. If anything, they are the smartest, best natured, and most resilient, strangely enough. This one was different. It had all the classic signs of cerebral palsy.
Now I'm not an expert on CP, but I know several humans who have had to live with it and adapt and overcome, as well as several medical professionals who have worked with children in this condition, with much success, especially with early intervention. For those unfamiliar with the terms, hemiplegia means paralysis on either the left or right half of the body (usually if not always without sensation), hemiparesis is a partial paralysis, but with sensation usually present. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain/nerves ability to reconnect the pathways from the muscles to the brain, and this is what allows stroke/trauma victims to regain the use of their motor skills after the insult. Since CP is primarily caused by stroke, and I've worked with lots of stroke patients (mostly human, a few chicken) and seen huge recoveries, I had to know if this baby could rehabilitate. For those concerned about genetic defects being passed on, there may be genetic predispositions to stroke, but most often environmental factors seem to be the cause.. in this instance probably due to lack of oxygen. The resulting presentation here was an acute hemiparesis.
Day 1: So back to the baby, first day out, baby fortunately doesn't have to eat or drink, so I didn't worry about it too much. My first thought was to let nature take its course. I didn't have time for any more major projects, and I didn't want my heart wrapped around this one only to watch it die. At this point I didn't have much hope, and I figured if it was strong and destined to be, it would make it; possibly without my help. So I went about my business, checking in every now and then, talking to the babies (this was the next to last hatch over 2 days) and cleaning and so on.
Day 2: The second day I get concerned if anyone is not eating or drinking. The baby, as I called it then, was getting trampled by its 17 other brood mates who were all eating and drinking and pooping quite well, while the baby was obviously not going to do any of these on its own. I would chastise the others for picking at it while it lay on its back with one leg sticking out as far as it would go and the other limply bent in the air. So I would come in every hour or so and put it on its belly, fold the tonic straight leg underneath it as best I could, and help it drink. It seemed to be very glad of the help and took to drinking quite well. Since it couldn't sit or stand or even keep a belly-side-down posture, I had to hold it during the process. We would do these sitting exercises and I would take my hand off. The chick would immediately flip over on its back and stretch and contract and shake it's already extended left leg with great passion, as if that leg could move it's whole body by itself. When I sat it up, that leg would push with all its might against the unresponsive right side, and immediately flip over. This earned the hapless hatchling the handle of "Flip."
So Flip flipped and I would put her (let's hope) back upright. Over the course of the day, that right side started to respond. First it was nothing more than the bent leg holding like a kickstand for a second or two. That turned into being able to hold an upright position long enough for Flip to drink without my help. I was unable to be there all the time, so I would be in and out of the house (having so many other chu and yard work to tend to, plus house cleaning, etc) and Flip would scream to be righted. Sometimes I just let her flail and shake that left leg until she got tired and we would go through it all over again. She figured out how to eat the crumbles the other chicks scattered while lying on her back/side by contorting her neck around (this was also a constant anytime we were up; that neck would snake back every time she strained, trying to make her body do what it was supposed to do, but instead throwing her off balance.) Eventually she became convinced she could right herself this way, but it never worked. So we did exercises rolling in the other direction; to the passive side. I don't know if she caught on or was just getting stronger, but each time I worked with her, she seemed to improve a little. By the end of the second day she could sit on her own until another chick came along and knocked her over, which was never long. But at least she wasn't flipping herself. She struggled defiantly and with much heart until the big hand came to save her.
Day 3: By this time, I was invested. Seeing this kind of progress makes me high, and it was empowering my baby, so we kept at it. Knowing my tendency to help too much, I would limit myself to about once an hour, so she didn't get too dependent on me rescuing her. I made sure she could get up to drink; scold the other chicks for knocking her around, and I would still right her and help her with the sitting exercises. By this time that right side was strong enough to hold her all the way up for just a moment before she toppled. Over the course of the day it would hold long enough for her to run short distances before she tumbled headfirst and onto her back. By nightfall, she managed to flop back on her right side with no assistance from me. That's when I knew she was going to make it, Hallelujah.
Day 4: Starting tentatively at first, Flip would stay out of the way of the other chicks, because it's hard work being knocked down and having to struggle to get back up again, especially since by now they were twice her size. Her progress came in the form of increased courage to run into the fray to fight over the food bowl (a necessary exercise in survival for chickens) and even jumping over other chicks and into the center of the feast. By the end of this day, she could hold her own in the group, and aside from her size, I wouldn't even be able to tell her apart from the other fuzzy faces. It was the fastest and one of the most remarkable recoveries I've had the honor of witnessing. The bottom photo shows Flip on right (yours, not hers.) 18 chicks make a lot of poop on the floor and I didn't take the time to photoshop it. Please don't judge me.
A little over a month ago, I broke trust with my larger half by ordering not 1, but 2 dozen eggs off ebay. My rationale was that I had lost so many in the past (almost always my favorite ones) because they free-range during the day, then we got hit with the stink eye disease; plus fall is our busiest time of year and I'm not going to allow myself nor my girls to hatch any more chicks until next spring.
So I had half Ayam Cemani with some mixed ancestry and half black ameraucana. I ended up getting 9 of each to hatch, as I was out of town the last 4 days and left the care of my hatcher to my neighbor, who loves me, but not my chu, and I'm certain she did nothing wrong; my hatcher fan probably needs some TLC; anyhoo…
One of the ameraucana chicks had so air sac. It managed to pip anyway, but the hatch had to be assisted. Great article on assisted hatching: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...atching-for-all-poultry.72886/#comment-501221 complete with all the arguments in favor of assisting hatches (especially in the case of using incubators rather than hens.) I have never had a genetically compromised chick come from an assisted hatch. If anything, they are the smartest, best natured, and most resilient, strangely enough. This one was different. It had all the classic signs of cerebral palsy.
Now I'm not an expert on CP, but I know several humans who have had to live with it and adapt and overcome, as well as several medical professionals who have worked with children in this condition, with much success, especially with early intervention. For those unfamiliar with the terms, hemiplegia means paralysis on either the left or right half of the body (usually if not always without sensation), hemiparesis is a partial paralysis, but with sensation usually present. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain/nerves ability to reconnect the pathways from the muscles to the brain, and this is what allows stroke/trauma victims to regain the use of their motor skills after the insult. Since CP is primarily caused by stroke, and I've worked with lots of stroke patients (mostly human, a few chicken) and seen huge recoveries, I had to know if this baby could rehabilitate. For those concerned about genetic defects being passed on, there may be genetic predispositions to stroke, but most often environmental factors seem to be the cause.. in this instance probably due to lack of oxygen. The resulting presentation here was an acute hemiparesis.
Day 1: So back to the baby, first day out, baby fortunately doesn't have to eat or drink, so I didn't worry about it too much. My first thought was to let nature take its course. I didn't have time for any more major projects, and I didn't want my heart wrapped around this one only to watch it die. At this point I didn't have much hope, and I figured if it was strong and destined to be, it would make it; possibly without my help. So I went about my business, checking in every now and then, talking to the babies (this was the next to last hatch over 2 days) and cleaning and so on.
Day 2: The second day I get concerned if anyone is not eating or drinking. The baby, as I called it then, was getting trampled by its 17 other brood mates who were all eating and drinking and pooping quite well, while the baby was obviously not going to do any of these on its own. I would chastise the others for picking at it while it lay on its back with one leg sticking out as far as it would go and the other limply bent in the air. So I would come in every hour or so and put it on its belly, fold the tonic straight leg underneath it as best I could, and help it drink. It seemed to be very glad of the help and took to drinking quite well. Since it couldn't sit or stand or even keep a belly-side-down posture, I had to hold it during the process. We would do these sitting exercises and I would take my hand off. The chick would immediately flip over on its back and stretch and contract and shake it's already extended left leg with great passion, as if that leg could move it's whole body by itself. When I sat it up, that leg would push with all its might against the unresponsive right side, and immediately flip over. This earned the hapless hatchling the handle of "Flip."
So Flip flipped and I would put her (let's hope) back upright. Over the course of the day, that right side started to respond. First it was nothing more than the bent leg holding like a kickstand for a second or two. That turned into being able to hold an upright position long enough for Flip to drink without my help. I was unable to be there all the time, so I would be in and out of the house (having so many other chu and yard work to tend to, plus house cleaning, etc) and Flip would scream to be righted. Sometimes I just let her flail and shake that left leg until she got tired and we would go through it all over again. She figured out how to eat the crumbles the other chicks scattered while lying on her back/side by contorting her neck around (this was also a constant anytime we were up; that neck would snake back every time she strained, trying to make her body do what it was supposed to do, but instead throwing her off balance.) Eventually she became convinced she could right herself this way, but it never worked. So we did exercises rolling in the other direction; to the passive side. I don't know if she caught on or was just getting stronger, but each time I worked with her, she seemed to improve a little. By the end of the second day she could sit on her own until another chick came along and knocked her over, which was never long. But at least she wasn't flipping herself. She struggled defiantly and with much heart until the big hand came to save her.
Day 3: By this time, I was invested. Seeing this kind of progress makes me high, and it was empowering my baby, so we kept at it. Knowing my tendency to help too much, I would limit myself to about once an hour, so she didn't get too dependent on me rescuing her. I made sure she could get up to drink; scold the other chicks for knocking her around, and I would still right her and help her with the sitting exercises. By this time that right side was strong enough to hold her all the way up for just a moment before she toppled. Over the course of the day it would hold long enough for her to run short distances before she tumbled headfirst and onto her back. By nightfall, she managed to flop back on her right side with no assistance from me. That's when I knew she was going to make it, Hallelujah.
Day 4: Starting tentatively at first, Flip would stay out of the way of the other chicks, because it's hard work being knocked down and having to struggle to get back up again, especially since by now they were twice her size. Her progress came in the form of increased courage to run into the fray to fight over the food bowl (a necessary exercise in survival for chickens) and even jumping over other chicks and into the center of the feast. By the end of this day, she could hold her own in the group, and aside from her size, I wouldn't even be able to tell her apart from the other fuzzy faces. It was the fastest and one of the most remarkable recoveries I've had the honor of witnessing. The bottom photo shows Flip on right (yours, not hers.) 18 chicks make a lot of poop on the floor and I didn't take the time to photoshop it. Please don't judge me.
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