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Posts Tagged ‘health’

Baby Farm

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How to cure an injured baby chicken?

I got a 3 baby chickens from a farm I work on. I already posted a question like this. I have been giving it sugarwater. My boss says that all other chickens out at the farm with foot problems with the same symptoms we have given them unpasturized milk a couple of days old so it is lumpy , he says it cures them right up. When I found the chicks they were on top of chicken wire and were falling through it so that they was only held up by their wings. Could that have caused the bad foot? Will the mother protect and take care of it? What should I do?
The chicken has a foot problem so that it hops. It looks like it is holding on to a little tiny pole that isn't there and it is sad to watch it hop while the others play.

I don’t believe this problem is because of your chick falling. If anything would be hurt it would be its wings. Also you said that there were other chicks at the bosses that had the same problem. So what I concluded is that this problem is not your chick just being a diseased specimen. If there is more then one chick with this problem it is either because they were incubated incorrectly or the mother were not on a proper diet or there is a genetic problem. It seems to me that the mother hens had a calcium deficiency. You can give the birds milk but keep in mind that they are not mammal’s milk is not a natural thing for their body. Some chicken are lactose intolerant also. My personal suggestion would be to make sure that these chickens are getting plenty of greens. Grass and plants have so much more calcium then milk and it is natural for them.

Another problem could be that they were incubated improperly. How old were the eggs when they were put in the incubator? Was the humidity correct? Was the temperature correct? Was the humidity and temperature constant? If your boss can say no to any one of these questions the problem was that he incubated the eggs improperly.

If the hens that are producing these chicks are on a well balanced diet and the eggs were incubated correctly then the problem is genetic. If it is genetic these birds should not be bred any longer and if the hens go broody fertile eggs from healthy chickens can go under them.

Now what to do with the chick

Make sure that it is on a healthy diet. If it can keep up with mommy it should be fine. Will she protect it? That depends on if she knows that it is there and it also depends on her. Some hens are very protective others see something scary and disappear in a wink of an eye. So whither your hen protects your chick depends on her and if the chick is in sight when something goes wrong with it.

If you think that it can’t keep up or that the mother isn’t going to take care of it then you have a choice. You can leave it too tough it out and most likely die. Or you can try to help it out. If you feel it is necessary to take it in do so. Keep it in a small cage so it doesn’t walk around. Keep it at the proper temp. Make sure that it has food and water. And see if it gets better or not.

If the chick doesn’t seem to notice that it’s foot isn’t working properly and is acting like the other chicks leave him with his mother.

Besides that there isn’t much that you can do. Good luck