Oil Soaked Chick

[MrsMopar]

Warning: I'm a brand new first time chicken mom. What an adventure!

I have 23 chicks (started with 26) from McMurray. Today is Thursday. My chicks arrived last Wednesday. So I am assuming that they are approx 10 days old. I had NO IDEA that they would be flying so quickly!

Today one of them escaped and got caught in the middle of a sticky trap - like you use for mice! Holy cow, that was a mess. After a quick google search and a lot of patience, we managed to get all the glue off using cooking oil.

Advice please:
She's now covered in food grade oil. I dabbed as much oil as I could from her, and I've isolated her from the other chicks so she can rest while I'm at work. I'm hoping for the best when I get home. Assuming she's okay, though likely still an oily thing ... are the other chicks likely to peck her like she's a treat?!! Does the oil present any other danger?

 

[eggbert420]

Dawn dish soap. Its what they use on ducks after oil spills..

 

[MrsMopar]

Am I better to wash her, or leave her? I called McMurray before leaving her while I'm at work - they told me that she'll be fine. They told me she's too young to use dawn on. But I wanted to ask the experts. I'm concerned about how the other chicks will react -- because I know they love their treats!

 

[eggbert420]

I really don't know.

 

[amaugans]

I would definitely bathe in dawn dish soap! If her feathers are oily then she will have a hard time staying warm/ cooling down. It's super easy, just give a bubble bath. I've used peanut butter in the past to get glue traps off of feathers then bathed in dawn dish soap to get peanut butter/oil off.

 

[allosaurusrock]

Or at least just try giving her a little bath and rinsing it off, then blow drying the chick.

 

[MrsMopar]

Headed home now to give a warm dawn bath followed by a blow dry. This makes more sense to me than leaving her oily until new feathers come in. Thanks so much!!

 

[amaugans]

Aw yay! She will be fine and happy to have the oil off

 

[eggbert420]

Be sure to get her warm after she is dry.

 

[MrsMopar]

All done. She's eating warm egg and then I'll put her in with her crew. Poor girl.