Help!!! Chick with no eyes???

[mlove]

That is great news. I'm glad the chick is catching on.

 

[ZooMummzy]

That is excellent news! I am trying that same technique right now with a little blind 4 day old that I have. It's a lot of work but so rewarding!

 

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

I hatched a chick that was mostly blind. It was hard at first teaching her how to eat and drink and I had to mostly syringe feed her a mash to get nutrients into her. Her name is Bink and she is now 8 weeks old. She can barely see and still lives in a large inside brooder (in the laundry room) with 4 half-bantams. The standard chicks picked on her too much and I separated them early on. Now I'm in the dillema of having separate coops. My plan is to put her outside in a flat tractor with lower roosts, but she will never ever free-range.

She develops a lot slower I think because she's not eating as much even though she knows where the food and water is and there has been minimal changes in brooder layout. I feel bad for her and am now wondering if it wouldnt have been better if I had culled her.


Here's a link to my original post when she was 3 days old.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=428560

 

[al6517]

Quote:
I hope more folks read your post, learn a lesson and do the right thing !!!!!!!!!!!!! it appears too many folks are avocating a living death for these terribly affected chicks. Think of it like this, putting someone on permanant life support regardless of their quality of life and common sense.

AL

 

[zazouse]

Al,
my hen is very happy and she can eat,drink,walk,hop up on her roost,dust bath,talk chicken with the flocks around her,she lays eggs and is a good momma she is just blind thats all.

It's no different than having any chicken in a cage, just she is in there by herself or with babies.

This is nothing like life support, i would have no problem culling her if i though she was suffering.

 

[NewToFarming]

I just came across your post and thought I would share my experience with you. I have a blind silkie pullet that is now 4 ½ months. “Honey” arrived to me at 8 weeks old. I had her about 5 days and discovered her one morning covered in poop and weak. It was only then I discovered that she was blind. She aparently adapted very well at her prior home because her previous owner had no idea she was blind. From that point on, I had her in the house and she has been raised with chicks. I do still offer her moistened chick feed with vitamins. This is more for my own peace of mind I believe to ensure she is getting adequate nutrition and I figure also a little additional fluid as well. All the chicks growing up knew her and love her. I only recently set her up in the coop with everyone else. I decided to give this a try because she just seemed to be depressed I guess you could say. She wasn’t very active. Boy, does she love it out there!!! She runs around, stretches her wings and really perked up. She is able to find food and water but does seem to “get lost” and I have to direct her back to the feed. It seems like she takes a step or two away and loses where the feed is. I do have a lot of different feed stations set up in the coop. I use a large area in the barn as their coop. Where I had set her up, she is basically surrounded with these feed stations so really no matter which way she goes, she should run into food and water. Then at night I put her in with the youngsters that are in the coop. I was a nervous wreck at first to have her out there but it really is working out for the best. She seems so much happier and is able to mingle with chickens her own age. Since all the different age chicks grew up with her, they know her and no one has picked on her at all and there are a few that really stick close to her and kind of “help” her. She really seems to be so much happier allowing her to be a chicken. The only difference is, I have to check on her more, and make sure she is eating and drinking enough. Other than that, she is doing a lot on her own.

 

[CallyB57]

Quote:
I have a blind boy - Phoenix MashLazarus...was dead by all accounts-cold-not breathing and I rubbed him and held him under a lamp - saw his foot move - took him an hour to start moving and standing, but I kept at it. He gets along great with all my large-fowl flock - bumps into stuff a lot, and once he finds the water and food, don't move it. He's totally useless - but I love him, so he stays, living the life of a chicken. He romances the hens when he can find one. I would say - give the chick a chance and let him try to have a life.

 

[carladababe]

My heart goes out to you and your most adorable little chick. Keep a level head, and have faith.

 

[Chihuahuamom444]

Quote:
What an awful person you sound like......what makes you think this is cruel? As long as this chick is in a very secure coop and the food and water is always in the same spot it will be fine ! Its blind, it wont know anything diff. I would pair it up with another chick or two and let them grow up together.
Oh and it is ADORABLE, Yes something Can be cute even with no eyes !!!

 

[CallyB57]

Quote:
I am go glad you chose to give the little chick a chance. And...Chance might be a good name for it. I have a new chick that has a stiff leg - like it does not bend at the joint, but it hops on one leg and does fine. He or she, not sure which, will have a happy life in the henyard with all my other girls. Blind or crippled chickens can live a normal life with other chickens and my blind chicken, Phoenix MashLazarus, just jumps up in the air if another rooster picks on him. If he could see perfectly, he would sometimes get picked on - that's part of chicken life. And, although he is at a disadvantage, I have not seen my other roosters CONTINUE to pick on him once they realize he can't fight back. I don't pity him at all because I can see that he is a happy and functioning chicken just as he is.