I never knew I could love a chicken, but these past five days with a baby chick that Kamren called Diego, I will cherish my whole life through.
It’s funny because at first, I wasn’t thrilled to have baby chicks in the house. It was never in the plan for our family. But Saturday afternoon, Eve Face-timed me when she, her older brothers, and Jad were at our friends’ house helping install a playground. She was holding a baby chick and asked if she could keep it. Our friends were giving it away because it had a hurt eye from being bullied by its family.
I was hesitant because I didn’t know anything about chicks or how to take care of them. My friend and Eve both encouraged me and wanted me to think about it. I never actually said yes, by the way, but when everyone came home, we had not one, but two chicks. Kamren had also chosen one.
I wasn’t that excited about it, but I was glad the kids were. Our friends had provided some things for the chicks too, which made it a little easier.
We all enjoyed looking at the chicks and playing with them. Eve and Kamren even put them on the ground and let our dog, Charlotte, sniff them. Charlotte licked one of them like she was its mother and everyone thought that was so cute. I did tell the kids to be careful, though, since Charlotte was so much bigger and could easily hurt them.
Well, Jad and I left to go on a date to see Hadestown in the theater not long after that and asked the kids to stay away from the chicks until we got back. But when the movie was over, I checked my text messages, and I had texts from Rigel from about an hour before saying that Charlotte had bitten one of the chicks and it was bleeding.
One of the chicks is hurt
Charlotte hurt it
I put a bandaid on it
I don’t know what to do to keep it alive
Jad and I were shocked at this, and upset at the kids for not listening to us. Rigel said they were keeping it alive and asked about taking it to the fire department. We said no and got home as soon as we could. We were impressed that Rigel had been researching how to take care of a wounded chick. He had cleaned the wound, given the chick sugar water, and had it all cozy in a soft towel.
Diego (the name Kamren had given his chick) didn’t seem too badly hurt. It seemed to be just a flesh wound, but we were worried because he couldn’t stand anymore. He would fall forward or backward when put upright.
The kids were all understandably concerned (I was too), but I tried to stay calm and contacted a few wildlife preservation people to ask what to do. Neither of the women that responded to me were vets, but both told me the same thing: make sure the chick stays warm and make sure it is eating and drinking. We also separated Diego from our other chick, Buck, so he wouldn’t get hurt further.
We got a warming lamp from the shed to keep the chicks warm that night, and had Diego’s box lined with the towel, propping him up the best we could. We hoped and prayed for the best. We all prayed for Diego individually and collectively and even started fasting for him.
The next day, Diego seemed happier and more alert, and we couldn’t see the wound, so we thought he would be okay. We felt so happy that our prayers had been answered and kept praying each day after that.
I tried to find out what was wrong with Diego that second day, and I felt it was probably wry neck based on him falling forward so much. But, I also found out about something called splay leg, which he may have also had. That night I put little splints on his legs (made with vet wrap) and kept them on for a couple days. That didn’t seem to help, so I ended up taking them off.
I was committed to helping Diego heal, and for several days, I took care of him. You might say I took him under my wing, and I fell completely in love with him. He was small, a little ugly with a lot of his head feathers slicked down, very noisy with his constant cheeping, and super clumsy, but I loved him.
Here is a video of me taking care of him on that second night, Sunday night.
Diego was a happy chick, and a fighter, who was squirmy and hilarious. One night I got up, and he was sleeping upside down with his legs straight up in the air. He was fine, but that was when I realized wrapping him in a little washcloth to keep him still wasn’t going to work anymore because he didn’t like to be still. Eventually, I found the idea to roll a washcloth into a doughnut shape and set him inside it. We had tried other things too, but that seemed to work the best, though not perfectly. He sure loved to move.
I noticed a few days ago he was a bit lonely, so I had the idea to get a mirror to put in his box. He loved it, but kept barreling towards it, falling over, and struggling to get up. Once he got behind the mirror somehow. That was funny but still a little sad.
During all this time, eating was not easy for Diego. He couldn’t eat his chicken feed like Buck. I would hold him up and dip his beak into water (mixed with a little sugar and electrolyte powder). For food, mostly we gave him pureed eggs mixed with water so he could drink better. We tried different things, and sometimes he would eat better than other times, but he seemed to be getting stronger.
Being a squirmy little guy, he would sometimes push himself out of my hand while eating or drinking. More than once he fell into his water or his eggs. If he fell into the eggs, I had to bathe him. Either way, he needed to dry, so I would take a soft tissue, paper towel, or baby washcloth, and wrap him gently in it. Then I would lay him down in his box to rest and dry. I loved doing that. It was so sweet.
His feathers left something to be desired, so I decided one day to get out one of Asher’s baby brushes and start brushing his feathers. The feathers on his head were still matted down, but I was able to give him a little mohawk. Each day, a few more feathers fluffed up on his head, and his feathers seemed to fill in better.’
Other than not walking yet (which if he did have wry neck, it can take quite some time to overcome), Diego seemed to be doing great.
But, we did have a couple instances of digestion issues. A couple nights ago, his chest was ballooning up. Upon researching it, we realized that his crop ( a pouch inside his body that is a temporary storage for swallowed food before moving into the stomach for digestion) was impacted. It’s best to just leave the chick be and not feed or water him anymore until it goes down. This happened a couple times, but we handled it and it got better each time.
Wednesday night, he was completely fine when he went to bed, but then yesterday, he slept for hours. I thought maybe he was just finally starting to heal, or he was just catching up on sleep because he didn’t sleep much the night before. But in my heart, I was also worried we might lose him soon.
Diego had some issues with his crop again yesterday, and he didn’t want to eat or drink much. He wasn’t cheeping as much, and he stayed pretty tired. I cuddled him, massaged him gently in an upwards motion a lot (massaging the crop helps break up the food and liquid), and made him feel as loved and comfy as possible. He did have a little bit of issue with bubbles coming out of his mouth, as if some liquid was coming back up. I patted his back, made sure his airway was clear, and massaged the crop. He never smelled bad and never gasped, and he did cheep at times, so it didn’t seem like an emergency. He did have one case of diarrhea after I did all that massaging. But, he never seemed to be in pain, and he was calm.
Asher took this video of me massaging Diego yesterday:
We put Diego to bed last night with a prayer in our hearts, hoping for the best.
This morning at about 4am, I woke up and went to check on the little chicks. Diego was resting his head gently on the rolled-up baby washcloth I kept in his box. My heart dropped instantly as I realized he wasn’t moving at all. I moved his box up and down a little, but it was no use. The tears came, and I spent the next two hours until Jad woke up crying but trying to rest.
When Jad woke up, I told him I thought Diego was dead. He checked and confirmed it. I couldn’t stop the tears. I saw Rigel downstairs getting ready for band camp and asked him to bring Kamren down. I told them what happened, and they were both so sad. Rigel rested his head in his hand and Kamren lay on my lap crying. I couldn’t stop crying myself. We had Eve come down and told her too. She was also very sad. Asher got up a little after, but he didn’t (and still doesn’t) really understand death.
Jad was so loving as to offer to bury Diego before going to work. Kamren wanted to bury him by the cherry tree. Kamren carried him gently in a tissue. It was so sad to see him go underground. Jad put him in a seashell with another shell on top to keep his body safer. Gosh, it was so hard to leave him there.
I have had thoughts more than once today to the effect of, “Oh no, what if he was still alive and we buried him alive?” Without knowing my thoughts, Eve actually said she wanted to un-bury him. I think it must be normal to feel this way after experiencing the death of a loved one, even an animal.
I never knew I could love a chicken, but oh do I feel like I lost a member of my family this morning. He was truly like family to me, one of my own babies.
It’s so hard not to blame oneself for what happened. I probably should have taken him to the vet yesterday but didn’t. Kamren and Eve are upset at themselves for letting him get bitten in the first place. They are mad at Charlotte for biting him. It is hard to feel peace, and we probably all made mistakes with him.
What I can say is that I’m so grateful for the short amount of time I had with Diego. Looking into his eyes, stroking his feathers, letting him wrap his talons around my finger, brushing him, feeding him, gently placing him and replacing him on his washcloth, brought me so much joy.
I’m still crying and may cry for a long time. He was the best little chick. Goodbye, little Diego.
