Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[azygous]

Getting back to the "crime" of going off-thread, I didn't really when you see how having a sick chick spawned a new use for MHP. It would have been a lot harder coming up with a brooder and a heat lamp for one sick chick. Look how easy it is to integrate MHP with a cat or dog crate, which is what many of us usually use for an infirmary.

You all discussing ways to protect the towel and heating pad from chick poop makes me chuckle to see I'm not the only neat freak.

 

[kimismurf]

So the y o u get the chick the higher the temp or the lower? Also the MHP needs to be low enough to almost touch their back?

 

[Blooie]

Using the heating pad for a "hospital" was the first time I ever used it. It was after we brought Scout in with his frostbitten little feet. First I put him in the tote with a heat lamp. We went to Walmart where I bought the first SB Heating pad, planning to use it outside when he got better and if Agatha didn't take him back. He got way too hot while we were gone so I set it up in the house. I did it a little differently - I set it up like a pup tent. He loved it.

 

[monkcat]

Here is "azygous" with her babies in their grow-out pen. They have all this space and are utilizing every inch. I really can't imagine how they would handle being stuffed into a brooder again. All thanks to the MHP system.

This is the sick chick, now five-days old, in her infirmary with her own version of MHP. It's a small 15 year old fashioned stay-on-all-the-time pad. Can you tell she's feeling better?

She's making a run for the door. She's busting out! She actually drank water all on her own a minute ago! Maybe the Corid is taking effect, and that means she has a case of cocci. I'm grateful to you guys for the great advice.

Here is "azygous" with her babies in their grow-out pen. They have all this space and are utilizing every inch. I really can't imagine how they would handle being stuffed into a brooder again. All thanks to the MHP system.

This is the sick chick, now five-days old, in her infirmary with her own version of MHP. It's a small 15 year old fashioned stay-on-all-the-time pad. Can you tell she's feeling better?

She's making a run for the door. She's busting out! She actually drank water all on her own a minute ago! Maybe the Corid is taking effect, and that means she has a case of cocci. I'm grateful to you guys for the great advice.

Oh, she looks awesome! You did it! Congratulations! Continuing to send healing energy to her!

 

[monkcat]

azygous - so glad she is better!



Thanks monkcat and Blooie, I was hoping they were OK. They do seem to kick up a fuss when it gets dusk, all of them huddle in the corner by the MHP and chirp like crazy. I have to flip the towel up where they are and gently guide them under. They quickly quiet down.

So glad they are good! Mine were in two different piles while ago. Need to go check and see if any are "lost". But so far, I haven't had a problem. Some will lay under it, beside it, on top of it. All over the place.

 

[azygous]

I tried making a sort of tent out of the pad, but the chick was having problems getting into it since the crate is so small, being for a cat. So I made a shelf out of hardware cloth and placed one half of the pad on top and let the rest hang off the shelf by the rear wall. So the chick squeezes herself all the way toward the back of the crate and is in direct contact with the part hanging off at the rear.

I was going to mention I have it on high. I tried it on a lower setting and she was complaining of being too cold.

Blooie, did Scout order you around when you had him indoors? This chick naps, wakes up, has something to eat, then hollers for me. Then she only dials it back a few decibels when I'm holding her. She even chirps as she eats. She's only quiet when she's sleeping. I wonder if all that chirping is due to loneliness or pain.

 

[Blooie]

I tried making a sort of tent out of the pad, but the chick was having problems getting into it since the crate is so small, being for a cat. So I made a shelf out of hardware cloth and placed one half of the pad on top and let the rest hang off the shelf by the rear wall. So the chick squeezes herself all the way toward the back of the crate and is in direct contact with the part hanging off at the rear.

I was going to mention I have it on high. I tried it on a lower setting and she was complaining of being too cold.

Blooie, did Scout order you around when you had him indoors? This chick naps, wakes up, has something to eat, then hollers for me. Then she only dials it back a few decibels when I'm holding her. She even chirps as she eats. She's only quiet when she's sleeping. I wonder if all that chirping is due to loneliness or pain.

Boy, did he ever! But then I knew he was in pain, so I overlooked some of it. He seemed fine if we were in the same room, but let one of us leave and he started in! I tried a mirror - that worked for about 10 minutes. I tried a combination of a mirror and a stuffed toy. Yeah, right! He even seemed to know when it was time for his hot tub treatment and had no qualms about letting me know. <sigh> What was worse was he had a powdered iced tea container that I'd made into a waterer with a horizontal nipple. He'd been using the big one just fine out in the coop, but after he froze his feet he was standing on his hocks and couldn't lean forward enough to maintain his balance and trip the trigger in the nipple. So he'd stand next to the waterer and let out these ear piercing, shrill peeps, demanding a drink. We had to open the cage and trip the thing, let the little cup under it fill with water so he could drink, and then repeat, repeat, repeat, until he'd had his fill and went back into his cave. I finally went out and got the intermediate waterer - an ice cream bucket with vertical nipples in it - for him and that helped. But I couldn't wait to get his little hiney back out in the coop! He'd also peep like crazy when we went to bed, but you could almost set your watch by it - about 5 minutes of non-stop, loud peeping when the lights went out and then blessed silence until morning.

I think what you set up for your little one is working perfectly. I always start the pad on 6, which is as high as the Sunbeam goes. That's probably the equivalent of "high" on your pad. She looks like she's perked up considerably. Maybe she is lonely....you could try a mirror but I don't have much faith in it anymore. Or you could bring one of the others in to sit with her, but since you aren't sure what made her sick you might be hesitant to do that. I think I would, but then I'm a risk taker.

That would leave two out in their pen and two in the house. If she was indeed suffering from coccidia, then bringing the other one in still shouldn't be that much of an issue since she'd be getting the Corid water too, which is what they usually recommend anyway. I dunno, the way your luck has run, though, you'd just have two of them peeping constantly. Your call. Your instincts have been right on the money so far.

 

[Blooie]

Decision made, and Oh my, Oh me! I hope I'm not making a terrible mistake. Agatha is broody again. Not just thinking about it - she's Attilla the Hen, I'm not getting off this nest for any reason broody. I was going to break her - I have more than enough chicks running around, thank you very much. But the I got to thinking, she's a good mom and it would be kinda neat to see some of Scout's chicks running around after all we did to save him. I figure the Tinys are going to be evicted this week anyway, so she'd have a perfect place already set up to incubate, hatch, and raise her babies. So I think I'll give her three or four eggs. <gulp> somebody help me......

 

[azygous]

Your description of Scout gave me a flashback to when I had a screaming infant in the house, and we would marvel at the control such a tiny being could exert over her/his much older/larger parents. I believe chicks are the tiniest beings capable of such control, I think you'd agree.

Blooie! Get a grip!

Oh well.

Maybe the eggs won't all hatch.

 

[COChix]

Ok so I had typed a response and hit submit and the editor cleared instead!

Anyway, I too decided to go without the towel or fabric in the peel and stick. I need to get just an old towel and toss that over the heating pad. Anyway it doesn't seem to matter to the chicks.

I am not sure who said it but our two and a half week old chicks often pile on the Side of their brooder like they forget or something. Each night they have been doing this, so I have been going out around 9 when it is dark and moving them all into the cave for the night. We have 15 and our heating pad is set on 2. I was thinking it would take a few times of this routine before they got it but this keeps happening. I have kept this routine up since we have been having nights in the 40's in Colorado.

Oh and on the press and stick subject, could you vac seal a towel? My BF suggested this to me before but our towels were too wide fothe bags. Just a thought.

@azygous on the chick, she is a cutie and is looking better.

@Blooie we gave seven eggs to one of our dark Cornish this week. Do you leave your broody in with the flock? I ask because every time our broody comes out for food she is getting into fights with her flock mates. So I was just curious.