Cross Beaked Blind Chick Update

Bird is still with us!  

He's (she's) about six or seven weeks old now

but barely larger than the new hatchlings 

which are about three weeks old now.

For those that are not familiar with Bird,

I found him at a farm supply store and took him home

since he was unable to compete with the normally formed birds.

He is missing an eye- maybe it never formed,

his skull is deformed, bill crossed and 

feathers are developing strangely and

sparse or completely missing in places.  

He has frequent seizures where it hurls itself backwards

almost collapsing into himself and shakes his head

until he comes out of it. Sometimes it helps to hold

him tightly and call out to him.

The one eye that he has is blind so he needs a lot of help.

He eats in a small tub, pecking until he has his fill

(actually we don't know if it's a he or she) .

I have to give him water with an eye dropper

because even though he is able to drink a bit

out of the regular water container he has 

trouble finding it due to being blind plus

whatever is affecting his brain makes things difficult

for him.  I know he may look somewhat gruesome

but he is just adorable as I hold him and he

reaches up his head for water drops.

Since he can hear, I am trying to train him 

to know that when I say "Drink" that means to

expect water to drip into his beak. I know 

he still wants more if he sticks out his little tongue

and he's finished when he shakes his head.

While I was on vacation I stopped at the vet and

he showed me how to trim the beak when it gets too long

plus how to stop the bleeding if we accidentally nick the

blood vessel. A coating of flour will work or

anything to clot the blood.  He was the hit 

of the office, everyone stopped what they were 

doing to see why a chicken was a patient

and when they laid eyes on him, they got even

more interested.  The most interested ones were

the patients- the feline variety.  Boy did their eyes get 

big watching my chicken chirping and hopping in 

his clear plastic tubby!

You can see he is missing the other eye completely.

The vet said the chick could live for quite some time

since it's been getting good care.  He may become a house chicken

which would be OK since we have no other inside animals

and if he remains small I can easily keep him contained.

He needs company though. I will need to hatch a couple more

eggs so he has some.  The last batch must have imprinted

on him since they think he is their mother.  It's funny how

they run to him and hide beneath what little wings he has.

I'm sure he'd be lonely in a tub all day long without anyone else.  

Well there's the update.

 I've been a little under the weather so posting is minimal 

but I hope everything is going well for you all.