Injured 2 day old baby chick.

Steb

Hatching
5 Years
Dec 28, 2014
1
0
7
Hi,

I'm new to this site. I keep chickens as pets in an enclosed orchard in South Australia. As I'm a vegetarian the chickens don't ever end up in the pot and I'm happy for them to live out their natural lifespan once they stop laying.

My current issue is that I've recently had two hens sitting on their eggs and yesterday I found a day-old baby chick crouched in the main chicken run with an injury to it's neck. I had thought the red hen had abandoned her eggs as I hadn't seen her on them for a while, so I thought it must be the Silky hen's chick who had strayed from the nest in the adjacent enclosure. This hen looked askance at the chick but allowed her to cuddle up. I later noticed the red hen back on her eggs with a broken eggshell next to her. I then checked the Silky Hen's eggs - no eggshells. So today I moved the red hen into the hutch with the Silky hen where I protect expectant hens and their chicks, so her chicks wouldn't be attacked by the other hens when they hatched.

Later today the Red Hen hatched another chick but unfortunately the little injured chick got into strife twice: first I found it out in the run wandering around with its eyes closed and returned it to the Red Hen, then this afternoon I found the Silky Hen's chicks (4 and 3 day olds) pecking at the injured chick's wound.

I've brought the chick inside but I don't have a breeding box and light. The chick takes drinks of water but only at tiny bit of chick mix. It's opened its eyes since coming inside. As it didn't want to stay in a basket with hay and kept climbing onto my hand I've now popped it in a little drawstring bag and tucked it inside my cleavage, which is seems to like as it's settling and has stopped its constant cheeping.

Can anyone tell me what to do from here? The chick doesn't have any broken bones and is steady on its feet. It seems like a little toughie, so I'm hoping it will survive.

Steb
 
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Give it plenty of water and food (you may need to show it water and food, depending on what it's been getting) and keep it warm (it should have somewhere which is at 35°C to go when its cold for the first week, then -2.5°C per week thereafter).
 
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Welcome to BYC!!! The members here are great and so are their chickens;)!!! This is the BEST CHICKEN KEEPING FORUM ON EARTH!!!!

Hope you have fun and if you need anything we are here to help!!

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You should put a little blukote on the chick's neck wound. This will mask the redness and blood and stop the others pecking it. In the meantime, keep it warm, 30-35*C is ideal. Something soft to cuddle with, like a toy would comfort it and if you have a feather duster it can snuggle under, even better.
 
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Sounds like this little one is going to need your help (maybe you've been adopted?) since the 2 hens aren't taking a very active interest in her. As KittyKat3756 said, show her where the food and water are and keep her warm. Once she's steady on her feet and her injury is healed, give her some supervised time with the other chicks so they will all get to know each other.

Good luck and keep us posted on how she's doing.
 

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