Injured chick

[Wyorp Rock]

Poor sweet little guy!

I honestly don't know what else you can do. You're giving vitamin therapy, sling and physical therapy, he's being fed/watered and is sooo much obviously loved and well cared for.

Oh dear I'm wishing you can him all the best - I do hope he improves.

 

[Buffy Brahma Mama]

This is a difficult case. He shows movement of wings, neck and legs, which is a very good sign. He is actively eating and obviously wants to survive.

Intuitively, I am thinking of the opposite and instead of an aggressive approach, I think a more passive, restful approach for him might be helpful, as well as a larger, round cage with some changes to feeding and watering equipment.

For the cage: Something 6 to 8 times the size of the current cage and round. I use Elitefield hexagonal/octagon soft dog crates, but you may find something similar. They have lots on Chewy website with fast shipping. A larger round cage will enable him to maneuver more easily and also encourage exercise.

For nutrition and hydration: Multiple stations of both food and water.

For the food, several piles of crumble in a few locations on the floor. Keep these piles free choice at all times. Then provide a flat container top for his special food (offer 2 to 3 times/day). A large container top from a big yogurt bin is what you want and is nice and flat. The special food should always have lots of moisture in it. It can be crumble soaked in water, and mixed with plain whole milk greek yogurt for example. Some cut up kale on top and the watermelon you mentioned is a great vitamin boost. Have some Emeraid IC omnivore on hand if you can. You can have the vet order it for you. This is great for emergencies and to supplement.

For the water, he is going to need to learn to drink on his own and it will require a waterer he can reach and one where he cannot drown. Here is a perfect example http://duncanspoultry.com/2-pack-baby-chick-1-liter-nipple-drinker-waterer/
Two of these placed up on a slightly elevated surface is ideal. A brick may be too high, and you may need to experiment with different heights. You will have to show him how to use these and then he will learn to drink again on his own.

Socialization: I do believe interaction with the other chick will be highly beneficial and will encourage recovery. Even if the other chick was kept next to this one in a similar soft dog crate and then allowed supervised interaction, even the noise of the other chick nearby for longer periods will be helpful.

Recovery time: You have gone this far and I know it can be difficult when you are doing all you can and it doesn't seem to be working fast enough. I suspect this type of injury will take longer than a week to heal and I suspect it may take several months. I would suggest making the changes to the above if you can, to make it easier for him to eat and drink on his own (and also easier on you) and then assess how he is doing each week. A reasonable goal might be to get him to an appropriate age and weight where if a future surgery is needed, it can be preformed safely to correct the issue. Hopefully of course, he can recover without more invasive procedures.

Assessments: Proper weight is important. A small digital kitchen scale works wonders for this. Taking the weight every few days is useful, but can be done weekly. Also assess movement and mobility of each limb by observation.

I hope this helps and I hope he can recover. He is a beauty!

 

[Trampmom]

This is a difficult case. He shows movement of wings, neck and legs, which is a very good sign. He is actively eating and obviously wants to survive.

Intuitively, I am thinking of the opposite and instead of an aggressive approach, I think a more passive, restful approach for him might be helpful, as well as a larger, round cage with some changes to feeding and watering equipment.

For the cage: Something 6 to 8 times the size of the current cage and round. I use Elitefield hexagonal/octagon soft dog crates, but you may find something similar. They have lots on Chewy website with fast shipping. A larger round cage will enable him to maneuver more easily and also encourage exercise.

For nutrition and hydration: Multiple stations of both food and water.

For the food, several piles of crumble in a few locations on the floor. Keep these piles free choice at all times. Then provide a flat container top for his special food (offer 2 to 3 times/day). A large container top from a big yogurt bin is what you want and is nice and flat. The special food should always have lots of moisture in it. It can be crumble soaked in water, and mixed with plain whole milk greek yogurt for example. Some cut up kale on top and the watermelon you mentioned is a great vitamin boost. Have some Emeraid IC omnivore on hand if you can. You can have the vet order it for you. This is great for emergencies and to supplement.

For the water, he is going to need to learn to drink on his own and it will require a waterer he can reach and one where he cannot drown. Here is a perfect example http://duncanspoultry.com/2-pack-baby-chick-1-liter-nipple-drinker-waterer/
Two of these placed up on a slightly elevated surface is ideal. A brick may be too high, and you may need to experiment with different heights. You will have to show him how to use these and then he will learn to drink again on his own.

Socialization: I do believe interaction with the other chick will be highly beneficial and will encourage recovery. Even if the other chick was kept next to this one in a similar soft dog crate and then allowed supervised interaction, even the noise of the other chick nearby for longer periods will be helpful.

Recovery time: You have gone this far and I know it can be difficult when you are doing all you can and it doesn't seem to be working fast enough. I suspect this type of injury will take longer than a week to heal and I suspect it may take several months. I would suggest making the changes to the above if you can, to make it easier for him to eat and drink on his own (and also easier on you) and then assess how he is doing each week. A reasonable goal might be to get him to an appropriate age and weight where if a future surgery is needed, it can be preformed safely to correct the issue. Hopefully of course, he can recover without more invasive procedures.

Assessments: Proper weight is important. A small digital kitchen scale works wonders for this. Taking the weight every few days is useful, but can be done weekly. Also assess movement and mobility of each limb by observation.

I hope this helps and I hope he can recover. He is a beauty!

I've implemented as many of your ideas as I could. I appreciate your help.

His area is much bigger now, but he never goes into the middle. He just has a bigger "race track". I've experimented with moving one of the food and water closer, and into, his path. I saw him eat food out of one of the containers one time, but I think it was only because he accidentally ran into it.

A few times I've seen him eat crumbles from the various piles I've left, which are now spread all over, of course.

I put 3 very low containers of water in with him, but I've yet to see him use them. I love the little waterers you suggested, but with the way he lays, I'm sure he can't lift his head high enough to use it.

I will weigh him again today and keep track of how he's doing with that. That was an excellent idea!

We're nearing the end of week 3. I'm going to keep trying, but I have yet to see any change in him.

 

[Trampmom]

I read so many threads that never have a post on what happened in the end, so here is "the rest of the story".

I continued feeding "Moira" by hand. I also changed his food and water bowls to yogurt lids glued to a thin piece of wood (to keep them from tipping), and put piles of crumble around his pen, as was suggested. Both of these changes helped a lot and he was able to get some on his own.

I got down to feeding him 4 times a day. I would do two feedings on my lap, and 2 where I would put him in the sling and he could feed himself from the food and water I'd place right in front of him.

I continued to take him outside daily to see mom and sister. Eventually, mom started to be mean to him, so we changed to just going out with sister. They were adorable together. They would share scratch, cuddle, and quite often when she would start screaming for mom, he would sing to her. It was SO cute!

For 4 weeks the only bit of improvement that I saw was that he stopped the head/body lurching. That was all. No attempt to stand at all.

He was very bright-eyed and would sing a lot in the house. I weighed him every 2 days and he continued to gain weight. I had a crumpled up towel in his pen that he would go under to sleep. There was also a small, stuffed cat that he would constantly snuggle up to. He didn't seem "unhappy", but I knew that we could not go on like this forever. It was not fair to either one of us.

So on Friday of Labor Day weekend I decided that when the vet office opened up again on Tuesday, I would make the appointment to have him put down.

Well, lo and behold, Saturday night while I was eating dinner, he decided he was done just lying around! For 3 hours he basically just raced around his pen. He kept trying to get up, move a little bit, and then crash down face first. Four weeks of NOTHING, and then, BAM!, he goes crazy!

The next 2 days he didn't try to walk again, but he was actually sitting upright with his legs underneath him. I thought maybe he was just tired or sore from his big night, so I decided to just be patient.

On Tuesday he started getting up again, and now he wasn't being crazy about it. His toes on both feet were curled, so after doing some research on BYC, I thought it couldn't hurt to try using medical tape to try to flatten them out. Well, after only 24 hours, it worked!

Day by day he continued to improve. He moved slowly and stumbled and fell quite a bit, but he never gave up. There was one day that the improvement just from morning to night was astounding.

Last week was a big week! I started leaving him with his sister in a fully secure area of the outside run, increasing the time every day. He was doing great! And he crowed!

Then mom decided she was done with her daughter and was being mean to her. I wanted to keep Moira in the house for a few more nights so my daughter could hear him crow. As I did not want the little girl to have to sleep alone in the brooder, she joined her brother in the house for 3 nights. So much fun! They both roosted for the first time.

They have now been moved out to the coop full time. He is smaller than his sister, and she flies and jumps more easily than he does, but all in all, he is doing great. My family and I are all amazed at how this turned out.

I am so appreciative for the support from Wyorp Rock and Buffy Brahma Mama. Your responses gave me the encouragement to give it time and keep trying, but also made me feel that even with all the effort, if he didn't recover, I could put him down without having regrets for not doing everything I could.

I'm attempting to attach a link to a video of him from this morning. Six and a half weeks after the injury occurred.

https://i9.ytimg.com/vi_webp/knVjHT...KihrYoG&rs=AOn4CLDY8zLrRek6__NeNT3zck08GvKvXg

 

[Trampmom]

Trying again. Hope this one works.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Wow! Look at him, he's beautiful AND Walking!
This is wonderful news. I'm so glad to see this

I agree! @Buffy Brahma Mama gave you great suggestions and support!

Thank you so much for the update.

 

[Trampmom]

Wow! Look at him, he's beautiful AND Walking!
This is wonderful news. I'm so glad to see this

I agree! @Buffy Brahma Mama gave you great suggestions and support!

Thank you so much for the update.

 

[Buffy Brahma Mama]

Trying again. Hope this one works.

This is so wonderful! I'm so glad we were able to help you!