Please don't judge me! I am a very conscientious person and we do take very good care of all of our animals I promise! This post is to share info and to ask for you pros input please! I am pretty brand new to the world of peafowl but we have chickens, dicks, guinea fowl, pigeons, lovebirds and parakeets as well that we have had for decades.
Anyways, I have recently gotten 4 peachicks. 2 are about to be 15 weeks and are doing great. 2 are almost 5 weeks old. The 2 youngest developed spraddle leg but only 1 needed the leg braces. We took him to the vet on Wednesday and have a follow-up on this coming Wednesday. The 1 with leg braces suddenly seemed to have puffy cheeks the past day or two. I don't have the best eyesight and I broke my bifocals so I'm really not seeing very well!
Tonight, 1 of my daughters was helping me change the chicks leg braces and I was getting a good look at his beak. I had my other daughter come take a look because I was worried he had some sort of malformation starting. She examined him while I held him and she discovered a very long, very light blonde human hair had gotten wound around his lower break which was then cutting into his skin as he grew! She was able to remove it from the outside but it very clearly goes down his throat and could not be pulled out. Trying to remove something like a string or a hair from a cat or a parrot can do some damage so she just got as much as she could and snipped it off. I feel absolutely terrible about this. I can't believe this is something none of us saw until just now! I can't believe we didn't notice it before.
My question is will the poor thing pass this on his own or should I take him in to the emergency vet? I have no problem doing that. I would prefer not to since it is a 2 hour drive each way to an emergency exotic vet and it's 10pm but I absolutely will if this is an emergency. I do know that he is still eating and pooping all the time. His droppings are soft but they are normal size, smell and color otherwise. Activity level is about the same as his hatch mate is other than the walking with the leg braces on. Or should I give him something to help him pass the rest of the hair and if so what?
The picture is to show what I meant about his puffy cheeks. We have silky chickens and they just have fluffy feathers that makes it look like they have fat cheeks so this is why I didn't automatically notice something was wrong. It is red because of the heat light in their broody box.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Anyways, I have recently gotten 4 peachicks. 2 are about to be 15 weeks and are doing great. 2 are almost 5 weeks old. The 2 youngest developed spraddle leg but only 1 needed the leg braces. We took him to the vet on Wednesday and have a follow-up on this coming Wednesday. The 1 with leg braces suddenly seemed to have puffy cheeks the past day or two. I don't have the best eyesight and I broke my bifocals so I'm really not seeing very well!
Tonight, 1 of my daughters was helping me change the chicks leg braces and I was getting a good look at his beak. I had my other daughter come take a look because I was worried he had some sort of malformation starting. She examined him while I held him and she discovered a very long, very light blonde human hair had gotten wound around his lower break which was then cutting into his skin as he grew! She was able to remove it from the outside but it very clearly goes down his throat and could not be pulled out. Trying to remove something like a string or a hair from a cat or a parrot can do some damage so she just got as much as she could and snipped it off. I feel absolutely terrible about this. I can't believe this is something none of us saw until just now! I can't believe we didn't notice it before.
My question is will the poor thing pass this on his own or should I take him in to the emergency vet? I have no problem doing that. I would prefer not to since it is a 2 hour drive each way to an emergency exotic vet and it's 10pm but I absolutely will if this is an emergency. I do know that he is still eating and pooping all the time. His droppings are soft but they are normal size, smell and color otherwise. Activity level is about the same as his hatch mate is other than the walking with the leg braces on. Or should I give him something to help him pass the rest of the hair and if so what?
The picture is to show what I meant about his puffy cheeks. We have silky chickens and they just have fluffy feathers that makes it look like they have fat cheeks so this is why I didn't automatically notice something was wrong. It is red because of the heat light in their broody box.
Thanks in advance for any advice!