We had a Silkie hen that had a little Silkie baby that was about 2 weeks old. At night we would put momma and baby in a nest in the Silkie pen and put wire in front so they couldn't get out till we let them out and the other Silkies couldn't get to her. During the day we put them in a little day pen we have. The baby and momma got out of the nest this morning and the other Silkies must have attacked the baby. They pecked its head and we arn't sure if they pecked its eyes because it won't open them. Both sides, one worse than the other, of its head was bloody. I took a cotton ball and warm water and cleaned best I could and then we put neosporin on it. It sits and doesn't open its eyes at all. It peeps and talks to us. We give it water every few hours and tried to feed it some yogurt. I feel so bad, we don't know if it can see or not, hard to tell what damage those nasty girls did. And the momma must not have defended it or stayed with it. I'm mad, sad, irritated and feel awful for the baby.
UGH! I;m so mad!
I hate that!! But really, you can only do so much, and sometimes we are not perfect. Nature is cruel sometimes. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this... I know it's hard.
Smedge, don't give up hope...often times when traumatized a chicken will seal it's eyes closed. It could take up to several days for the chicken to feel secure enough to open them back up. I dealt with this with a mature rooster about a year ago. It took my wife and I working together almost a week of warm compresses and reassurance to get the rooster to open his eyes again...I would isolate the baby and spend lots of time holding and petting and talking calmly with soft warm towels...the kids are great for this...then lets hope there is no eye damage and the baby comes out of it...Hay
I'm worried about it not eating, it's so young, just two weeks and so tiny. We have tried yogurt and chick starter that we got very moist. We only get very little in it, I mean very very little. It does drink some water and we gave it a little sugar water to keep its strength up. Poor baby will sing to us. Right now my son is holding it and its justs tweeting and tweeting, not a frightened tweet, more of a singing tweet. We will keep trying.
By the way, my husband found it this morning. He said the mom was still in the nest, but the baby was out of the house and under it (the hen house sits up off the ground) We think either the rooster or another hen that isn't Silkie may have attacked it. The Sikies generally don't mind babies.
Your son is such a great caretaker for the babies. He must be a real animal person.
Smedge the food is not as critical as the water is. I think your doing all the right things. Sugar water for strength, I'd bet the eyes are fine. The eyes are like our own, automatic reflex for protection...I would bet just some time and personal attention is the most critical. Water, lots of it and I bet it will come around. Like I said our bird was a mature bird and it still took a week to get it's eyes open and even then it was just one at a time...Hay
If it were me, I'd be making a paste of boiled egg yolk and water to get some nutrition down it, rather than the sugar.
Yesterday it was doing better and it opened one eye partially! It can see!!!!! I could tell it would turn its head and look at the food. It was also doing much better in the eating department. We made it a paste of yogurt and chick starter it loved. We put it in a box under a light and made it a fake momma in the corner (piece of fur placed in a corner so that it could crawl up under it).
We kept it in all yesterday and last night and this morning I cleaned its box and fed it and it still only had one eye opened. I decided to take it out to the SIlkie pen and see if the momma would come for it. She did, she clucked and came, so I let her out of the pen and put the baby down to see what it would do. She clucked and called and picked up stuff and dropped it for it and called, but it ignored her. I was worried momma wouldn't want baby, didn't think baby wouldn't want momma. She kept calling and clucking and I noticed it strain to get the other eye open, and it did, just a slit, but it opened the other eye and it looks good!! It still didn't go to momma, so I finally took it and picked her up and tucked baby close and took them over to the day pen we had been putting them in and put them down. Momma kept calling and clucking a scratching and baby just stood there and went about its own business. Momma didn't give up, she called it again and all of a sudden it went running to her, it was a happy reunion. So now momma and baby are back in their pen, baby is a little cautious, but momma just goes on about her motherly business and calls it for food and it comes to her now. So glad, I think baby will be mush better off with her momma. It took probably 10 minutes for the baby to accept the momma and in all that time the momma never gave up.
Poor baby still has a messy looking face, matted or no fluff around the eyes/ears and a bit bruised looking, but I think it will be okay and be able to see with both eyes. What a relief!
This picture is of it when we had it in its box, you can see the beat up head. It was a nice fluffy white chick all over before it got attacked.
Here it is uner its fake momma.
And here is the momma and baby back together again.
Oh Smedge I just love happy endings thanks so much for the pics and update.Love the one of the fake mama and only babies legs showing,so cute.
This message was edited Jul 3, 2011 5:13 PM
What good news! Mama hens are wonderful; the baby should be fine with your emergency care and the hen's continuing attention.
That is just too cute! I'm so glad it's back with mom.. that is the best place in the whole world now.. :) You did good.. really good.
Thanks Z, we tried. It is REALLY nice to see it out there scratching with the mom. I checked its eyes a bit ago and it has one all the way open, and the other still has a small slit open. It keeps shaking its head and rubbing its eyes on itself. I'm hoping that by tomorrow the other eye will be all the way open too.
Congratulations on a job well done. Tough little birds aren't they...Your Son is a prince...Hay