Our Dead Chick Came Back to Life
“You’re not dead until you are warm and dead.”
I was excited. Our hen had been sitting on eggs for about 3 weeks so I started checking up on her twice a day waiting for little fluffy chicks to appear.
That morning I saw something fluffy. Without investigating, I ran back to the house to fetch my phone to take a photo and I called Thandi to also come look at the new chicks.
But when we got to the nest, two chicks were lying next to the hen, lifeless. We moved them to a different spot a bit further from the nest but they didn’t move, there was no breathing, we couldn’t feel any of their hearts beating. I told Thandi we should throw the bodies of the chicks away.
Luckily, Thandi didn’t throw them away! When I got back from work that afternoon, the chicks were still lying without any signs of life. I googled a bit to try to determine the cause of death. Did the rooster step on them? Was the hen a “bad mother” as they say is possible? It was colder than what the weather is supposed to be at the end of October. Was it too cold? Did they, for some reason, get too cold?
At med school we learnt that in a case of hypothermia (where someone is too cold), you need to warm them up and prolong your resuscitation attempt… I haven’t thought about this concept in a while…
I took the two chicks and held them close to me. It was loadshedding so I couldn’t heat a beanbag or warm an oven. I held them for about half an hour until both started showing small movements.
I made “chick medicine”(the kids called it this) by mixing lukewarm water, a little bit of sugar, less than a pinch of salt and some egg yolk. I drew some up in a syringe and put tiny drops next to their beaks… And they actually looked like they swallowed this medicine! (I was cautious not to cause further harm by drowning them!)
I held them for a few hours and gave chick medicine every 20 to 30 minutes or so. They both opened their eyes! They were still weak but they were alive. There was a yellow one and a black one. The yellow one responded better than her black sibling.
Leo named the yellow one Little Lie because it was little and all it seemed to be able to do was lie down. He named the black one Deady… He could see Deady was not doing very well. (He actually explained to me: Deady like dead. Not daddy.) I understood.
After chatting to Venessa who has raised chicks before, I put both chicks under a warm light on soft material. Little survived the night. Deady was unfortunately warm and dead.
When my dad heard the story, he said the chick should be called Lazarus! Because he/she rose from the dead. Leo liked the name Little Lie Lazarus.
Within 2 days Little Lie Lazarus could wobble and walk. On day 3 Little could drink, eat and walk by herself!
Leo looked after Little so well. He is so gentle. Little loved running after Leo.
After 5 days I fetched the remaining eggs one by one and checked under a torch if I saw any signs of life. None of the other 11 eggs had viable chicks in them.
On day 7 we put Little back with her mother. We separated them from the other chickens. I was nervous that she wouldn’t accept Little but when I went to look for Little that evening he was snuggled under his mom, Chikka-Brown-Brown.
