My Hazardous Hair

[Hypnochick]

I thought I would tell you about my hazardous hair incident and my poor baby chick.

Yesterday I noticed that one of my 3 week old black silkies had a limp so I took it in my house to have a good look. Straight away i noticed that it had one of my hairs tangled all around one foot. I could see it was particularly tight around its back toe and its extra toe almost strangulating them. Quickly i grabbed a pin, a lighter, a scalpul blade and a tea towel. I wrapped the chick in the tea towel lightly covering its head. I turned it slowly on its back and it went to sleep so i quickly grabbed the pin, sterilized it with the lighter and cooled it, then managed to carefully get the pin under the hair and cut it with the scalpul blade. It took a few minutes to untangle it all. One toe in particular was very constricted and has a dull tinge compared to the others and it had me worried that the blood supply had been cut off long enough for the toe to die. Today I looked in and the chick is doing well the toe looks a better colour and its not limping at all. Hopefully i got it in time...

I have since checked carefully for any more hairs and now tie my hair up really well when i am dealing with my chickens... Lesson learned!

 

[katdam]

mine are 9 weeks old and when i forget to pull my hair back before entering the run, they go nuts trying to get a piece of hair flying in wind. i like to sit in there sometimes with them and that's the first thing they go for! i'm afraid that if they eat one they may choke on it. i'm a newbe with chickens so i couldn't even begin to tell you if your chicks toe is going to be ok, but it sound like you got it in time.

i'm glad you shared this, now i know what i need to do in case my hair become deadly!

 

[suzyq53511]

My chicks always go for my long hair also....it drives me mad. they think its a play thing. i wish they would stop it!

 

[Aymitelli]

WOW - Who would have thought a strand of hair could be so dangerous for a chicken! Good to know!

Thank you - Hair will be tied back when I work with the chicks!

~Amy

 

[ranchhand]

Always tie your hair back - not only can it get wrapped around their feet but also their tongues, which is really difficult to undo. Watch out for strings and cords as well, baling wire, etc. All can be deadly.

Glad you got that foot untangled!

 

[noodleroo]

I had no idea! Thanks for posting this, I never would have though of such a thing!

 

[Whispering Winds]

When my GDD, who is now 12, was an infant, her mom had long hair and Erin fussed and fussed and fussed one day and neither her mom or dad could figure out what was wrong with her. So, they did the old trick of completely undressing her and checking her from head to foot to see if they had missed anything, and one of DD's long hairs had gotten wrapped around her toe and was cutting off the circulation. Soon as they got it off, and it was quite a chore, she was fine. Amazing how tough a human hair really is.

 

[KKatknap]

Great info...would never have thought of it. Thanks for posting!

 

[dumb_cluck]

OMG ! I have to get my hair cut! Well, actually, I'm starting to looking like a Viking........

 

[shellybean40]

what happened to the little girl happened to my daughter when she was 6 months old. I found more hair in the toes of her little sleepers. After that, I checked her sleepers before I dressed her. Also, one of my chicks was walking around with a hair hanging out of her mouth-my daughter pulled on it and it was soo long-it must have been all tangled up in her crop. Whew!