Non-Emergency Chick Nursing Question -- How Long Do You Go?

[heatherbeast]

Hi all, this is a general, non-emergency illness question.

I am wondering how long you nurse baby (less than a week old) chicks if they are ill? I occasionally take on surrendered youngsters, and have had mixed results. Some of them have had severe wry neck, others have curled toe, or have had bad hatches. In my experience, if the chick is eating on its own about 24 hours after I start nursing it, it recovers pretty quickly and goes about a reasonably normal life. There have been others where they never seem to come around and usually die after about 4 heartbreaking days.

Assuming the nursing uses the right medications, feed, and watering on a 2-3 hour schedule, with no aspiration, what would be the longest you have nursed a chick and had recovery? How long did it take your survivors to start eating and drinking on their own? What's the longest you've nursed a chick before it died on its own? What signs did your babes give you that it was time to cull? What were they ill with? I am hoping to learn from your experiences, and look forward to your shared knowledge.

 

[HappyClucker7]

Bump

 

[RosemaryDuck]

As long as an animal is eating, drinking, and in no pain, and has quality of life, I will continue to care for it indefinitely. I know most people won't as they don't have the time/don't want too.

If the animal is just not making progress, looks very poorly and can't really function without you being there constantly, there's no point to dragging out it's suffering. That's when it's the best option to humanely euthanize/cull.

Just my 2 cents. I hope this helps!