dropped my favorite two day old chick!

[Mulemom]

Help! I was holding my favorite two day old chick while she was sleeping. I answered to phone and she woke up and started flapping around an fell. She seemed fine when I picked her up. She just calmed down and went back to sleep. I put her back in the brooder and noticed that she wasn't waking up when the others climbed on her. I picked her back up and she will wake up just a little and peep at me , but she won't stand up and I don't know what to do now! She's here on my lap right know, but she just wants to sleep. I'm afraid she'll get to cold here, but if I put her back the others will trample her. What should I do? Is there anything I can do? I learned my lesson, I won't ever try to hold one with just hand again! Everybody pleas pray for her!

 

[Chicken Keith]

How far did she drop? What did she drop on? Carpet? Concrete?

Pls remember (before you beat yourself up) baby chicks take huge falls all the time, with natural mothers, because I've seen large hens jump down 3-4 ft off their nests onto wooden flors after a hatch and the chicks follow her because they know otherwise, mom is gone! which equals freezing cold. So they figure they better keep up to survive.

If your chick seemed ok immediately after she fell then I'm inclined to say she's ok from a big picture standpoint. Chicks don't weigh a lot to sustain the kind internal injuries from the kind of fall your baby took, and mother nature has made 'em pretty hardy over millions of years of evolution and natural selection. In contrast 20 feet onto concrete is doom.

I wouldn't panic at her perceived lethargic-ness. Many chicks get that way when they're warmed in a brooder. Your 2 day old baby is still very very tired from her hatching. She'll sleep alot, and chicks vary. Some don't sleep as much as others. If she continues very lethargic it could be a sign of a bigger problem, ie. she's not getting enough nutrition, because she can't compete with the others.

Can you segregate her? May not be worth doing this yet, but Do you have another brooder (cardboard box with desk lamp will do) where you can seperate her from the others?

 

[Mulemom]

She's gone. I put her in a basket and put her back in the brooder under the light, but she wasn't moving and I knew it wasn't good. I went out for a little while and had a good cry and when I came back she was dead.

It wasn't a huge fall. I was sitting in a chair and she just flopped out onto the carpet, but she land well. I'm just glad it was me and not my eight year old. She comes home on Wed, and the chicks are a suprise.

Thank you for your concern.

 

[Chicken Keith]

I'm so so sorry. These things hurt a LOT. I still cry when I lose mine too (yep I do), and I take it VERY personally. I gotta say, I hurt with you. It was all an unfortunate accident which happens everyday.

What breed was it, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Poison Ivy]

Oh I'm sorry for your loss

 

[dlhunicorn]

:aww may I ask what breed this bird was???

 

[Mulemom]

She was a RIR. I ordered 10, but only got 9 and she was my favorite. She was the one that always came running when I put my hand in the brooder. These are my first chickens ever and I had prepared my self for some mortality, but I didn't expect it to be my fault! I just got them yesterday and I was so excited! Now I am just sad. I guess I need to go back in make friends with the others, but a lot more carefully!

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

Mulemom, I'm so sorry for your loss! It could've happened to anyone. And I know what you mean, we ordered 10 figuring a few wouldn't make it, but I still will be heartbroken if any of them dies.

I am surprised that your baby didn't make it, and agree to a certain extent that maybe it wasn't just the fall. Goodness knows my babies have flapped/jumped out of our hands often enough, and seem none the worse for the wear.

I'm sure your baby is happily chirping through fields of grass, loaded with worms and bugs!

-Meghan

 

[homesteader34]

I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[equine chick]

I'm sorry, they can be very fragile at first. I know you feel bad but don't beat yourself up over it, these things happen.