Peeps

SAINTS took in a baby chicken yesterday afternoon. A family had thought it would be cool to take home some eggs from a local farmer and care for them until they hatched, then return them. Peeps took a day longer than his siblings to break through the egg, in fact he took so long the family assumed he (or she) had died. Peeps is a fighter though! The family couldn't return a malformed baby chick to the farmer but neither could they afford vet care. Honestly we did not have very high hopes for this babe.

Peeps update!
Peeps saw Dr. Borgmann at Coastal Rivers. Carol was totally right, Peeps difficulties have to do with the mother hen not being very healthy herself, so she couldn't pass along the right nutrients to her babies. This is not rare to happen to birds kept in large flocks without regular care and less than quality feed. Basically your average chicken farm. Vitamin deficiencies were a huge part of why Peeps developed this way. Peeps is actually not as bad off as we all thought. His (or her, too soon to tell) legs have been shunted together in the proper position. For the next two weeks we are going to try to train his legs to be underneath him, like normal. He has to be kept immobile with his legs held properly in place. We fashioned a make shift baby chicken bed for lil Peeps, we will feed him and bring him water in a syringe and keep him under the heat lamp for the next few weeks. At the recheck appointment we should have a better idea of how Peeps will grow and how much mobility he (or she ;)) will have. She/he will probably never be "normal" but hey, we are a special needs shelter after all ❤️