Monday, April 12, 2010

Nothing Stops

With all of us laid up with the sickies, life doesn't slow down. The kids are mostly better by now, though Peter still has a bit of a runny nose. Andrew and I are still rough but slowly getting there. My ears are all stuffed and I can't hear a thing, and I already have it hard enough with lipreading children that like to talk with fingers or toys in their mouths.

Things still have to get done around here, tummies still need to be filled, diapers changed, clothes washed... Soup was on the menu for several meals straight and I hoped we'd all feel better by Saturday for that triple birthday/ easter get together. We mostly were, so we went and had a good time, then afterwards on the way home, we stopped at our old haunts and shopped at the used bookstore and international food store.


Miss Evelyn lost her 8th tooth and 2 nights in a row the tooth fairy forgot to take it and leave money under her pillow. Blame the sickies, but luckily, while Evelyn was getting dressed, the tooth fairy must have flown in and did a quick exchange before we left on Saturday morning. Tooth Fairy must have been running late and was lucky not to get caught or he would have turned to fairy dust!

We are taking care of a injured chick... I'm not too sure how it happened and the who, what, where or why it happened, but a couple of days ago, checking on the chicks in their box, one of them was laying on its side with the others walking over it. I picked it up and while it was still alive and breathing, it was in a weird position and couldn't stand up. I separated it from the others and keep it in a warm box and I admit, I didn't have much hope for it. I searched and searched online for how to help an injured chick and there isn't much out there.. mostly for injured wild birds or a chick with a bad leg and one of the three comments to that one was "eat it!"

I have been giving her (I'm not sure of the sex, but we refer to it as a 'she') warm water with sugar mixed in, as it seems to be the standard for sickly birds, and she is still drinking, so that's hopeful right there. I thought maybe it was a broken neck because the position of her head is bent back to the side and upside down and she tries to stand but falls and kind of scoots herself around and around.

I wake each morning holding my breath as I check her, fearing the worse and am relieved that I find her alive, yet wondering what am I going to do if she doesn't improve? This morning was the best of all, she seems to be better somewhat, she is able to stand and walk and has had her first bit of food in a couple of days. I think maybe she has a broken wing, but I am no expert, so I can't really say. Her head still twists around in that funny position, but when she walks it looks almost normal again. She is so little though, compared to the others.

She's the little one in front, I brought up the other one for comparison. They are the same age.

She can't seem to hold her head straight and sort of angles it downwards to see where she is going. But she can feed herself now and drink water on her own, so that's a good thing!

This is her resting, you are looking at the top of her but her head is turned upside down. I don't know what to think or do. Time will tell. I keep her separated from the others and she is warm and the upside down bowl you see is to keep her from falling into the water.. I don't have an extra waterer and need to get one, I didn't expect her to live past the first night when I found her like that several days ago.
If any of you have any advice on what to do, I'd be glad to hear it.






3 comments:

Gringa-n-Mexico said...

THAT is strange. :) We had a lot of weird stuff happen with baby chicks over the years but that's a new one! :) Aww but Jenny you're doing all you can - you really are - the only thing I could think of more is to maybe let her visit the others once in a while when she's feeling up to it and supervise her the whole time so they don't pick at her - that way it'll keep her spirit and will to live on the up and up :)

You're so wonderful.

sheila said...

I had a duckling last year that had the same symptoms as your chick. Several people told me it was most likely a genetic condition. The sickly duckling lived about 5 days before it died. The other 4 ducklings raised from the same batch were fine and grew up to be fantastic egg producers. I have been getting 4 duck eggs a day for months now.

jenny said...

Gringa-- I wish I could've done more. I've always had a soft sopt for animals, and I think it's also good for my kids to see me show compassion and hopefully, they'll pick it up and won't grow to be mean to animals. It's one thing to butcher or hunt animals for food, something else entirely to be mean to them. Anyway, she's in chicken heaven now. Bless her little chicken soul.

Sheila-- did your duckling show symptoms from the very beginning?? All of my chicks seemed normal when I got them, and the only thing I can think of was when we moved them from the outside pen back into the carrier to bring them into the house box. One of the chicks (the same one?) hopped out of the box and fell to the ground-- it was sitting on a chair, so it wasn't a far drop, just 2 feet or so. Was that enough to injure it, or was it a different chick and something else popped up? I'll never know.

I'm sorry about your duckling, it's never easy to see an animal in your care not do well or die.

I'm curious, do duck eggs taste the same as chicken eggs? We saw cute ducklings at the same place we got the chicks and we were VERY tempted to get a couple.