I have to share a story of success with you, although I do not have any pictures to accompany it.
If you have been following along on our Facebook page, you know that two pheasant chicks had difficult hatches. The first chick to hatch in the entire bunch was very weak and couldn't stand for at least 24 hours, which is rather unusual. I brought him inside under a heat lamp with the hopes that, perhaps, he may pull through. I didn't expect him to make it, but he did!
The second weak chick had a difficult hatch due to the membrane of his shell drying out before he had pipped through it. I assisted as much as I felt comfortable by dampening his membrane and breaking it loose around the area he would have done so himself. I did not take it completely off, however, because kicking off their shell is how they build strength. I was really expecting this chick to die as well, because he took almost 24 hours just to get out of his shell. But I was surprised again - he made it! He was able to go back to the mother hen not long after he finally made it out of his tough shell, and he was comparable to his hatch mates. Once I put him back with the others, I couldn't even tell which one he was.
The first chick, however, was not comparable to his hatch mates. I tried reintroducing him right after he started standing up and fluffing out, but when I checked on him he was upside down outside of the nest. Well, I thought, I guess you aren't ready after all. So I brought him back under the heat lamp and waited. Soon it became clear that he wasn't just weak...he was suffering from a deformity. His toes were curled under.
This happens sometimes with chicks, and my first thought was that we were going to have to cull him. However, he just has such spunk. We didn't want to cull him, so I researched curled toes to see if there was any way to fix them. I found instructions for straightening the toes by using band-aids and giving the chick "duck feet." The advice I found said that the method was most effective within 24 hours of hatching when the bones were most malleable, and it was after that 24 hour period that I finally realized the problem. I decided to give it a go regardless, because it never hurts to try, right?
It's surprisingly difficult to give a pheasant chick duck feet. They do not like to hold still. Somehow we managed to get his toes positioned properly on one side of the sticky part of a band-aid, and then layered the other sticky part over it to secure them. The excess -- including the pad -- was then cut off and discarded, leaving the pheasant chick with two duck feet. Then we waited 24 hours. I will admit that I didn't have much hope; he had trouble walking before and the duck feet didn't appear to make it easier. However, when I removed the band-aids 24 hours later, there was some improvement. The feet were not completely fixed yet, though. The instructions I read said that treatment usually worked after the first 24 hours, but sometimes required a second 24 hours...and that if two treatments didn't work, it was likely past the point of being fixable. So back in the duck feet he went for another 24 hours.
Removing the duck feet was not easy either time. In fact, it was harder than getting them on. I know it had to be uncomfortable, if not a little painful, having the band-aids peeled off his feet. If I ever have to do this again, I will try to find some slightly less sticky band-aids. But, despite the difficulty removing them, the second treatment worked! The chick can now walk freely without falling upside down constantly as he was doing before treatment.
The bad news is that he still cannot be returned to the mother, and I'm not sure when or if he will be able to. Despite being the first born, he is developmentally behind his siblings. I tried reintroducing him after the successful second treatment, but it became obvious that, despite the success, he has not caught up yet. The hen that set the eggs also seemed to realize this and began pecking at him. So, until further notice, we have a house pheasant. That wasn't in my plans, but plans so frequently change when working with livestock -- even poultry!
Either way, I'm glad that treatment was a success. The chick is obviously a fighter to have made it this far after all his struggles. If I should find a weak chick in the future, however, I will be sure to check the feet earlier. I should have known to do that this time. I've been around chicks -- some my own, some that my grandparents hatch for their gamebird farm -- long enough to know that sometimes they are hatched with feet and leg deformities. Sometimes those deformities require culling, but it seems that sometimes in a small homestead setting they can be fixed.
Someone asked me a thought provoking question I would like to share my thoughts on as well before ending this post. "Why work to save something now that you plan to kill later anyway?" As you know if you read my last blog post, these pheasants are being raised solely for the freezer. Pheasants, despite the fact that you won't often find them in a grocery store, are good eats. So yes, this chick that I worked to save from being culled will eventually end up in the pot anyway. So why not cull him? Well, practically speaking, it would be a waste. And on another practical note, I also learned something that I can (and probably will) use in the future on other chicks who may be hatched with curled toes.
Beyond that, it simply comes down to the fact that I don't want to see something die before its time. I would not be sad, as I know that sometimes chicks die and therefore do not get attached to chicks (this is a lesson learned quickly when you've been through a few hatches). I would, however, be disappointed. I hope for these pheasants to grow to maturity enjoying doing pheasant-things such as eating bugs and grass and making their distinctive "honk honk" noise. Then, when it is time, I want them to go quickly and use their meat for our table. So maybe it seems silly to save something that you will eventually eat, but it just seems right to me. I would do the same thing for a future pork chop, hamburger, or anything else. I never want something to suffer, and I never want something to die before its time. And to me, that's all a part of homesteading.
Cheers.
UPDATE:
This little one passed away. It was not a huge surprise given that he was up and down from the beginning. He just stopped progressing, was not developing or growing, and then went downhill very quickly. Still, it was a valuable lesson to learn how to cure curled toes.
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