I'm such a bad chick mommy...

[gumpsgirl]

While I was feeding my 1 1/2 week old chicks and changing their water this morning, my son's little leghorn must have flown out of the box at one point and I didn't know. After I put their water back in, I covered the brooder with the netting I use to keep them from flying out and gave it a shove back to the wall. At that point I started hearing a really loud, "PEEP! PEEP! PEEP!" I couldn't figure out where in the world the "PEEP!" was coming from. I looked all over! Then I decided I should look behind that box and there that poor little chick was on her back with one foot up in the air and the other sort of bent over to the side. She just looked up at me and gave me one more loud, "PEEP! and layed her little head to the side and closed her eyes. I completely freaked out!!! I thought that I had killed this poor little chick and just started shaking and crying.

I ran to get my DH (who thought that our little dachshund had died with how hysterical I was) and we picked her up. She opened her eyes and was shaking, but alert so I put her back into the box with the other chicks to try and assess her. She started eating and drank some water, but she was limping the whole time. I have checked on her all day and she is now doing just fine, but let me tell you! I have never felt so bad about anything in my whole life.

My DH has teased me all day that I squished the poo right out of her, because there was poo all over the place. (Not very nice to tease about!)

Sheesh! What a morning I had! I'm glad these little chicks are tough, or I probably would have never forgiven myself.

Thanks everyone! I needed to get that off of my chest.

 

[Cats Critters]

Don't worry everyone misses up some time

 

[Jolyn]

Oh you poor thing!!!!

I worry about doing something like that. I worry that when i put the water and food down into the brooder it will slip and fall on their heads. Thankfully it hasn't happened but i do worry.

I'm glad she is doing ok now.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Dont worry, I think that that probably happens to everyone.

 

[BettyR]

Really sorry about your scare but I’m really happy that everything turned out OK.

 

[normajean]

I know exactly how you feel....I have done similar things to the family cat, Snippers though it was the door catching his tail.
It does make you feel horrible, but they are so small and even though we are as careful as we can be, things happen.
<hugs>

 

[yotetrapper]

I know that PEEP you described well LOL. In fact, I woke up to it the last week. Was wayyyyyy down the hall in bed, and through my sleep hazy mind, I could hear this "PEEP, PEEP, PEEP" just like you described. Stumbled out of bed and into the kitchen where the chicks are... trying to figure out where the PEEP was coming from.

Looked in the box, didn't see no peeper there... then heard the PEEP PEEP again. Somehow, one of them had jumped out of it's TALL box (these guys were less than 2 weeks old!!!) and was clear down on the floor!! The box was on the table!! It was just laying there (Thank God the dog was outside!!) and I thought at first it must have a broken leg or something because it wasn't moving! But it was okay. All is well.

Your story just reminded me of this. That PEEP almost sounds like the back-up warning on a truck, lol.