Now I wish I had taken pictures just to be able to fully set the scene for you guys.
We had a hen who "went to settin'" which simply means she laid a couple eggs and then SAT on them to hatch them out. In the country the only appropriate response is to find more eggs to stick under her so you can hatch out MULTIPLE baby chickens. 7 eggs. We hatched out 6 baby chicks. Actually she is still sitting on the last eggs but if it doesn't hatch today when I go out to feed everything we'll pull her off of it.
ONE baby chick looked like it had a broken something or couldn't walk or was very sick or something. It couldn't move very well - looked very weak - it would try to stand and instead flop over onto it's back with legs kicking pathetically in the air. Honestly - if it had still been daylight when we brought the babies into the house my husband would have "taken care" of it.
In the morning it was still alive! Fiesty little thing. In a rush for work he said "If it's still bad tonight I'll take it outside." Baby Chick has such an appetite for life though we simply couldn't bring ourselves to do it.
I've been holding it into the water dish several times a day so it can get water and five days later he is STILL alive.
THE MASSAGE PART:
Yesterday I was watering it/hand feeding it (I know - I'm a softy - what can I say?) and I starting palpating his neck, ribs, chest abd back looking for the source of it's injury. Oh My!!
There was an almost 90 degree bend in the poor things neck in one place and another place with a "crink". If you've never palpated a baby chicks neck it is VERY thin - like those little tiny coffee stirrer straws. SO fragile. I told DH I was afraid to try anything. He said, "Honey - honestly, you cannot make the bird worse. And if the chicken can't walk it won't survive. You might as well do what you do."
OK then - his logical reasoning bouyed my confidence to attempt bodywork on a 4-day old baby chick. I did some myoskeletal type releases along the neck and then light traction - probably didn't feel light to the chick BUT I knew that even though there was obvious impairment that the spinal cord wasn't severed because he could move both legs and both wings. So I thought "pinched nerve" and if I could release the pressure on the nerves that were being impaired maybe he would start getting better.
About ten minutes of counter pressure, myoskeletal release and traction. Another two minutes of acupressure type work on the points at the very base of the spine and crown of the head for full-body intergration (Are acupressure points located in similar spots in a chicken?? I figured the crown meridian would be similar in most animals). One more drink and then to bed for all.
This morning he can walk! I mean - it's sort of a shuffling, lurching type of walk BUT - he is opening both eyes with very alert expressions, he can maintain his own balance (A MIRACLE!), he can even feed himself from the crumbs that have been scattered by the other baby chicks. My husband was amazed and suitably impressed.
And I have to say - I'm pretty impressed as well. I can honestly say I never anticipated using my massage knowledge on a tiny baby chick - and I was scared to death the entire time of making him worse. BUT - like my husband said....if he didn't get better he really truly WOULD have had to be "put out of his misery" because a chicken simply cannot survive on it's back or side for it's entire life.
He's not out of the woods yet - he still has trouble with the water dish so I am still going to take him out and hand feed him water every so often. BUT he is MUCH improved and for the first time DH and I are hopeful he will make a full recovery. Or enough of a recovery to learn to ably compensate for whatever lingering effects there may be.
Angela <
P.S. We wonder now if the mother hen accidentally stepped on him. Often a mother hen will raise all her baby chicks herself. In this case we took the babies away because she was rejecting the three yellow ones and would rush at them and chase them out of the nest. The two older black ones were able to get out of the way - they were about two days older. I believe this black baby simply didn't get out of the way and got injured.
We had a hen who "went to settin'" which simply means she laid a couple eggs and then SAT on them to hatch them out. In the country the only appropriate response is to find more eggs to stick under her so you can hatch out MULTIPLE baby chickens. 7 eggs. We hatched out 6 baby chicks. Actually she is still sitting on the last eggs but if it doesn't hatch today when I go out to feed everything we'll pull her off of it.
ONE baby chick looked like it had a broken something or couldn't walk or was very sick or something. It couldn't move very well - looked very weak - it would try to stand and instead flop over onto it's back with legs kicking pathetically in the air. Honestly - if it had still been daylight when we brought the babies into the house my husband would have "taken care" of it.
In the morning it was still alive! Fiesty little thing. In a rush for work he said "If it's still bad tonight I'll take it outside." Baby Chick has such an appetite for life though we simply couldn't bring ourselves to do it.
I've been holding it into the water dish several times a day so it can get water and five days later he is STILL alive.
THE MASSAGE PART:
Yesterday I was watering it/hand feeding it (I know - I'm a softy - what can I say?) and I starting palpating his neck, ribs, chest abd back looking for the source of it's injury. Oh My!!
There was an almost 90 degree bend in the poor things neck in one place and another place with a "crink". If you've never palpated a baby chicks neck it is VERY thin - like those little tiny coffee stirrer straws. SO fragile. I told DH I was afraid to try anything. He said, "Honey - honestly, you cannot make the bird worse. And if the chicken can't walk it won't survive. You might as well do what you do."
OK then - his logical reasoning bouyed my confidence to attempt bodywork on a 4-day old baby chick. I did some myoskeletal type releases along the neck and then light traction - probably didn't feel light to the chick BUT I knew that even though there was obvious impairment that the spinal cord wasn't severed because he could move both legs and both wings. So I thought "pinched nerve" and if I could release the pressure on the nerves that were being impaired maybe he would start getting better.
About ten minutes of counter pressure, myoskeletal release and traction. Another two minutes of acupressure type work on the points at the very base of the spine and crown of the head for full-body intergration (Are acupressure points located in similar spots in a chicken?? I figured the crown meridian would be similar in most animals). One more drink and then to bed for all.
This morning he can walk! I mean - it's sort of a shuffling, lurching type of walk BUT - he is opening both eyes with very alert expressions, he can maintain his own balance (A MIRACLE!), he can even feed himself from the crumbs that have been scattered by the other baby chicks. My husband was amazed and suitably impressed.
And I have to say - I'm pretty impressed as well. I can honestly say I never anticipated using my massage knowledge on a tiny baby chick - and I was scared to death the entire time of making him worse. BUT - like my husband said....if he didn't get better he really truly WOULD have had to be "put out of his misery" because a chicken simply cannot survive on it's back or side for it's entire life.
He's not out of the woods yet - he still has trouble with the water dish so I am still going to take him out and hand feed him water every so often. BUT he is MUCH improved and for the first time DH and I are hopeful he will make a full recovery. Or enough of a recovery to learn to ably compensate for whatever lingering effects there may be.
Angela <
P.S. We wonder now if the mother hen accidentally stepped on him. Often a mother hen will raise all her baby chicks herself. In this case we took the babies away because she was rejecting the three yellow ones and would rush at them and chase them out of the nest. The two older black ones were able to get out of the way - they were about two days older. I believe this black baby simply didn't get out of the way and got injured.
To see him wobbling about the chick cage made MY day as well. My husband kissed my forehead and said, "Honey - You're my hero. I was really NOT looking forward to disposing of something with so much PLUCK." hehehehe
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