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

[10AcreChick]

Any advice for ME, Mama Blooie?

 

[Blooie]

Any advice for ME, Mama Blooie?

Oh for pity sakes. I just typed out a whole answer, then POOF - it got eaten up by the cyber monsters! I'm sorry I missed your question earlier...I had to go back a page just to find it.

If hubby is home with the Save-a-Chick, it's worth a try. You can even try a little sugar water - sometimes that perks them up. But the absolute best thing to keep on hand is Nutri-Drench. It goes directly into their bloodstreams without having to go through their digestive systems first. But that does you no good at the moment - just throwing it out there so you can get some and keep it handy for situations like this in the future - and if you are like most of us there will be "next times." Keep the little one warm, keep her/him hydrated, and just remember that sometimes no matter what we try, we lose some. It's the one part of keeping chickens that I hate the most.

As for the eggs, there is no accounting for what they'll eat and what they'll turn their beaks up at. None of my chicks - not a single one - ever would eat them. Now that they are grown up, when I take hardboiled eggs out there, they mob me to get them. So if they won't eat them that boiled, you can try scrambling a couple up really soft...like just barely done. And if they won't take them today, they might tomorrow. Little boogers!

 

[Blooie]

I should also add: I'm not sure why you want them to eat the eggs, but I have another suggestion. You can try moistening some of their food with water until it's like a mush. Sometimes a reluctant eater will scarf on that almost immediately. Good luck!

 

[10AcreChick]

Thanks, Blooie, I'll try that. Unfortunately, I don't think she is going to eat even mush; the only reason she drank water is because I put her beak in it and she didn't have any choice but to swallow! I used the electrolytes, she's resting under the MHP. We'll see how she fares.

 

[Brookliner]

Well, of my 24 remaining three-day old chicks (my friend took her five home), I've got 2 PBs and 1 very weak little one. The pasty butts are recovering well from mama man-handling them and smearing them with olive oil (one of them is my lone rooster, I think), but the third not so well. She just lays there and won't open her eyes. I got her to drink some water but there is no way she is going to eat. DH is bringing SaveAChick home in a bit. She may just not make it, but we shall try.

I thought they were supposed to love boiled eggs? They are barely showing any interest! Wait a sec, maybe their crops are full since it's the end of the day?

Try a few drops of childrens liquid polyvisol (vitamins) without iron on the tip of the beak. Some will go in. I have had great success doing this with chicks that are not progressing.

 

[ShanandGem]

Just wanted to add that some chicks from the same hatch seem to like more (or less) heat than others. Eleven of mine will be happily tucked up in the MHP and there is always one (I think he's a cockerel) lounging about 6 inches away. Today he was doing the yoga pigeon pose while chilling, which seemed appropriate. He sleeps apart from everyone else too. He's a one chicken wolf pack!

 

[Coop de Grass]

Well, after my earlier post today, I found another chick with PB! It is my little Bielefelder roo that I hatched in my incubator. Not sure why that happened, but I did the warm water and dried him off. My first PB chick has been ok for several days.

I am wondering if it is contagious

Time to do some research!

 

[COChix]

A little warm honey water, dipping their beaks, it is an immediate restorative.

 

[10AcreChick]

A little warm honey water, dipping their beaks, it is an immediate restorative.

Well, she made it thru the night, but not really doing any better. I gave her the Save A Chick (and also added some to the other chicks' water, too) last night and this morning. This morning she looks like she's having some issues breathing, I put her under her own heating pad away from the others, just in case its contagious. I don't imagine she'll make it thru the day, but I'll bring some Nutri-Drench home with me anyway, as Blooie suggested. Unfortunately, I had no honey in the house (just ran out the other day!), so I couldn't try that last night.

The pasty butts are better, in both cases I think some droppings stuck to what was left of their umbilical cord, along with some longer down right by their vent covering over their vent. I very carefully used some scissors to cut it back a little, and got all the poop off. It was definitely poop and not the umbilicus, too, so don't worry.

Everyone else is doing great!

 

[Blooie]

That's great to hear. I hate losing a chick, but it happens under a broody from time to time too and sometimes there just isn't much we can do about it. And the cold, hard fact is that sometimes we employ super-human efforts to save one and have it survive, only to be weak and have issues throughout the rest of its life. Sort of like Scout, you know? Would I do anything differently in trying to save him? Yeah, I hate to admit that as special as he was, I would have probably culled him from the start. Living with two deformed feet, even though they weren't painful for him, wasn't the kindest way for him to live. <sigh>