So I am really bummed out. I am a school nurse in an elementary school where the kindergarten teachers always have some spring eggs in the incubator and the kids learn about chick development and candle them and watch them hatch etc before they go back to the farm.
So one little one hatched out with splayed legs, and after reading about how to make leg hobbles on the poultry podiatry site, I felt really good about helping the poor little thing. The kids were so interested in my making "a cast" for the chick - they got me bandaids, etc. to help.
But . . .within 2 hours, even though there was an adult present in the little room looking at the chicks, the poor thing tipped head first into the waterer and drowned. The adult saw him tip over and pulled him right out, but he was already dead. He must have taken a big inhale of water when he went in.
And I had just looked at the section on preventing drowning, but got busy and didn't have a chance to get back to the kindergarten wing to change the water situation.
sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry
So one little one hatched out with splayed legs, and after reading about how to make leg hobbles on the poultry podiatry site, I felt really good about helping the poor little thing. The kids were so interested in my making "a cast" for the chick - they got me bandaids, etc. to help.
But . . .within 2 hours, even though there was an adult present in the little room looking at the chicks, the poor thing tipped head first into the waterer and drowned. The adult saw him tip over and pulled him right out, but he was already dead. He must have taken a big inhale of water when he went in.
And I had just looked at the section on preventing drowning, but got busy and didn't have a chance to get back to the kindergarten wing to change the water situation.
sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry
Don't beat yourself up - you did the best you could; you can't be responsible for the chick every minute.
