UPDATE ON TINY

[Southern28Chick]

I had myself a good cry today. Tiny looked so pitiful when I got home from work that instead of praying that my lil blind chick would live...I actually prayed that God would bring his baby home to him.

She is half the size of the other 23 chicks and blind as a bat. She's a barred rock and she looks like the black in her baby fluff is turning gray!!!

Well, as I prayed I looked over to find Tiny pecking at the feed the other chicks have so gracefully scratched all over the brooder floor.

I hope she lives. I have been so stressed about this whole thing. She's just so little and so beautiful that it breaks my heart to even look at her.

The good thing is she knows now that she has been standing in food and is starting to eat. I just hope she keeps it up.

Thank you all that have responded to past posts...you've really helped me with the emotional side of this.

Has anyone out there had a positive experience with a blind chick?

 

[birdlover]

You go, Tiny!!!! That is sooo wonderful to hear about Tiny starting to peck at the food!! If she gets to eating, you can sprinkle hard boiled egg yolk on the floor of the brooder too. The others will eat it but that won't hurt. The idea is to get her to eat some too! Are the others picking on her? Are you keeping the waterer in the same spot and have you noticed if she has started drinking on her own? She definitely needs water one way or the other. If I were you, I'd keep giving her extra food/water with the syringe and maybe she'll pull through! Be careful not to aspirate her though...tiny bits at a time! Oh, I sure do hope she pulls through!

 

[Southern28Chick]

The only way she drinks is when i put her beak in the water. Then she goes down for more on her own but if she gets turned away from the waterer she can't find it on her own. Yeah some of the chicks pick on her but it seems that a couple will go up the her and peck at the feed on the ground until she strts to do it too. I think some of them are trying to help her!

 

[iopele]

Poor little Tiny! All you can do is your best, and nature will take over after that. It sounds like Tiny's giving a good effort to live, though, starting to eat by him/herself and everything. I wonder, if you put a couple of little "walls" right against the waterer and put Tiny between them so s/he couldn't turn away, would that help? I'm just wracking my brains trying to think of anything. Keep the faith--know that we're all thinking of you and Tiny and hoping for the best!

:aww

 

[aran]

how bout putting a tiny bell ( like off a cats collar) on the waterer so that when the other chicks drink it makes a sound. Tiny can probably hear just fine. Do the whole conditioning thing--> put tiny by the water, dip her nose, ring the bell...do it EVERY time you give her/him a drink. Eventually tiny will associate the noise with water and when he/she hears the others drink and hence the bell he/she will head for the sound and thus the water.

these kind of little conditioning experiments work with every lab animal ive come across im sure chickens are not different.

 

[ChickMomma]

Tiny seems to have a will to make it. I have a cat that is blind from birth but she makes it around the house and even goes on trips outside with the other cats. She always stays near the house and only gets "lost" under the porch on rare occasion! Keep showing tiny where her food and water are and she will get it. The bell on the water sounds like a good idea too or maybe put her in a separate brooder with just a few other chicks so she does not get turned around by the other chicks running about when she is trying to find food and water.
Susie