Sad Update on Haley :( 3 wk old chick sneezing turned worse

One of my New Hampshire Red pullets started sneezing a week ago. I noticed that she was eating fine, drinking, running around, basically seemed just fine. Until now. Just yesterday I realized that she is half the size of her sister. I thought in the beginning that it was simply that she was smaller. No big deal. Her poopies was fine in the beginning, same as the others, soft, but solid. She hasn't, and doesn't, have any wetness around her eyes, nose, or anything. It simply started with sneezing. My parakeet helps me out in the morning while he's still in my room by eliciting a loud call everytime that she, Haley, was sneezing. Now, it's when it gets bad, even when he's in the living room, I'll know when she sneezes by him letting me know which has been helpful

So, now I noticed that, as stated, she has become pretty emaciated. I thought she had an impacted crop so I looked around online for ideas and decided just to give her a tiny bit of veggie oil with egg yolk to give her that loosening, plus the nutrients in the egg yolk for her body and she seemed to eat it up well. I massaged the crop and everything passed down okay last night. However, she seems pretty weak and also wants sleep all the time. Though, I think that's from not having the energy from eating too much. She still eats her chick starter just fine. I've given them bits of grass and dandelion leaves (from my pots on the backporch so I knew they didn't have any bad stuff on them),as well as some egg yolk and whites, and some grit to help process and everything seemed fine. I'd only introduce some extra treats when I made sure they were all still eating their starter, as well as it didn't affect their poopies.

Well, in the past few days I noticed that her poopies has basically turned to water, not diarrhea, but literally, water, or a thin clear slime type poop. Yesterday she seemed to start having actual poop, but it turned to diarrhea. I'm thinking that this may be progress at least? Since it's no longer the clear liquid it was. So I decided to make her some soft rice and mash it up, which I give her, then if she isn't still eating, I'll bring her sis over to help spur on her eating, which works. I'm just not sure what's going on. She's still sneezing, thin and weak. I make sure to get her to eat every few hours, trying to make sure she's eating enough. Though, I do still see her eat and drink fine, but just is very weak. Her crop is fine now too. And she seems (other than the physical) to be still happy and strong.
Temp is about 85 degrees for them right now. I only have them on cloth's because I was afraid it was the pine shavings that were making her sick. I'm changing the pillowcase on the floor every day because of the diarrhea and the fact that they all love splashing water around from their bowl so that way it will stay dry and clean for them, and more specifically for her.

What can I do to get her strength back up? What could be wrong with her? And what 'cheap' home remedies can I do? I'm lacking money right now, but I will instantly tap into my emergency money to get some meds from McMurray if that's all I can do. As I said, I am trying to make sure to give her soft food every couple hours, just to make sure that I know for sure, she is getting nutrients and food in her - I was thinking maybe she just wasn't liking the hard starter also. I've been giving her mashed up green beans, white rice, egg. Keeping it warm, clean, and quite for her. The others have been snuggling her when she sleeps so I think they are trying to help her get better Even the one that usually doesn't like napping has been snuggling her. So cute.

Any other question I can answer that would help?
Anyone know what's going on?
I hate this since she's the one that is so quiet and so sweet tempered.

It sounds as if she may not be absorbing nutrients. You may or may not be able to save her, it is hard to say. The best I can give you now is to go get some poly-vi-sol baby vitamin drops and give her 3-4 drops a day into her beak(one drop at a time, different times of the day). You should do this for a few days and then taper back to 1-2 drops daily. This will hopefully help with absorbing the nutrients better. Just make sure she continues to eat and drink enough. How old are they? Are you feeding medicated chick starter?

Thank you for the reply.

She is 3 weeks today. And yes, she's on medicated starter.

I did just note, as I went in there to check on her, and get her to eat more, she seemed a teensy tiny bit better, only in the strength part. So far, this was the 4th time I've purposely gone in there to feed her something. This time was mashed rice, with mashed oatmeal. What you said is what I was thinking. It only seems like she's not getting the nutrients, that's also why I wanted try and get the beans, egg, rice, and oatmeal into her. That's also why her poopies turned into liquid, because not too much food is in her system. But now, making sure she gets the food in her, she seems to be pooping brown diarrhea. Still bad, but better than the clear I think. Though, I still don't get where the sneezing is coming from.

I will look up those drops. Thanks for the clear directions.

I hope I can save her.

you can get those vitamins at the grocery store in the baby section. You can also give her some drops of cod liver oil if you can get it in your area. sometimes they have the liquid in the pharmacy section, other times you have to cut open a capsule. I find cod liver oil works well for weak chicks. I have one as well, that is about 2 weeks old. He didnt look good this am, and seems to not be putting on weight and I gave him a few drops as well this am and he seems better.

Thanks for the reply.

I found the drops just now. Walgreens has them for $10.

Hmm, cod liver oil. I'll check around and see. Thanks again.

The diarrhea is most likely from the variety of foods that she is eating. The vitamins should help her get through this. The sneezing could be from anything in her surroundings. Unless she exhibits any other symptoms, I would not worry too much about the sneezing. Chickens sneeze. I use the poly-vi-sol with any chick I have that seems weaker than the rest. I would give her a drop now and then again in the morning. Just put it on the tip of her beak until you see her drinking some of it. You may waste a drop or two because she wont open her mouth for you but her instincts will eventually make her open it a little bit. Enough for it to drip in anyway. Just dont squirt it down her throat, you dont want her to drown. If she gets a little more than a drop, dont worry about it, no big deal.
Sprinkle some starter crumbles on the floor of the cage for her and scratch at it with your finger to entice her to start eating it. She really needs the high protein of the crumbles now. You should notice that about a minute after giving her the vitamins, she will seem to perk up a little bit and maybe eat something. Good luck, keep us posted.

Thanks for the reply.

Well, the diarrhea started before I gave her the variety. I only started giving her the rice, egg, bean and oatmeal last night, then today to get her to eat something else with nutrients since she doesn't seem to be eating much of the starter. She does eat and does eat the starter, it's just that it isn't very much. The others eat a lot and often. She barely eats it and doesn't fill herself up on it. But that is also why I make sure that she still eats it, because I know that the starter has what she needs in it. So for that, it is a good thing that she keeps eating it. I've kept track of her crop, as with the others and it does fill up, not as much as the others' do, but enough so that I think it is a nutrient problem. Since she seems fine all the rest of the time. Though, she did another poopie and it looked the same way that it was looking before all this - clear slime/liquid.

With the sneezing though, it seems like it is nearly all the time. Changing her enviroment around and she still does it. Enough so that it weakens her and makes her want sleep. It's not a once in a while thing. That is why I wasn't worried about it when I first started seeing it happen. I was worried, but I saw on this site, many people saying that the sneezes are just what happens (though I don't think I've ever seen my hen outside sneeze) so that made me feel better. But now it seems like it's quite a bit. I don't see anything else that is the same in their home that could cause it. I think I'm more worried about it since she's having this other problem. We'll see with the sneezing I guess though.

I hope she'll make it. She seems to be getting quite weak.

I would try some sugar in her water...the baby vitamins and plain yogurt (active) with her starter feed mixed in it. This will help with her digestion. Make sure her oatmeal is fully cooked. Cut out all other greens and treats for the time being.

Remeber also that she gets no nutritional value from the rice...as a treat it is fine.

Good luck with her.

ditto on the yogurt...try sprinkling a few crumbles on top (mine wont eat it when you mix it in with their feed so just try different things on top to get her to get used to the taste)
If malabsorption is occuring, the in the long run polyvisol will be insufficient. It is a short term (two week max) solution as an overdose of vit A or D can also cause troubles....
After two weeks (three drops in beak once a day the first week then taper off the second) I would suggest you switch over to aviacharge 2000 > it is a complete vitamin nutritional supplement formulated at non-therapeutic dosages and all in the correct ratio to each other.
It is not cheap but it is what I recommend for malabsorption as this can take a few months to truly resolve. You can buy this online from McMurray or Strombergs./

Cetawin -

Thanks for the reply.

Yeh, I read about cooking the oatmeal first so I've got that covered. But thanks for making sure

What equation for sugar to water?

And thanks. I'm watching her very closely and she seems to be fighting. I told her not to give up on me, and even though I can tell it's work for her to stand and walk around (she falls over from the weakness), she seems to still get herself up and eats her starter and drinks water, which is so good to see. She's a strong little girl that doesn't want give up. I think she does get the help from the others too. She wants walk around with them so they keep her fghting too I think. But, I'm also watching them closely to make sure that in her weakened state, they don't harm her, prevent her from eating, etc. So far they seem to know and more take care of her. Right now I'm looking at them and the two bantams are snuggling her when normally they prefer to sleep independently.

But oh boy am I just spent! This is reminding me of when my mom used to breed Shih Tzus and I'd be up and down all night making sure the weakest survived! So I'm definitely used to this kind of nursing, which is part of my nature - always taking care of the sick - but still! Lots of coffee and feeling like this

dlhunicorn -

Thanks for the reply. And thanks for the long term info. I was gonna ask that exact question next! I was thinking, what about long-term and if she still wasn't getting the nutrients that she needs. So thank you so much for that information. I'm just wondering too, if she isn't getting her nutrients, will her body finally start accepting nutrients later? Or, could this become something permanent? It'd be worth it to continue making sure she survives to do this her entire life, but still, I'm curious if her body will finally start absorbing what she needs to get the weight on her that she's lacking.

Aviacharge 2000 okay. I just was looking at the McMurray site yesterday and couldn't figure out what she'd need since I wasn't sure what was going on with her. So I'll get that right away. My brother told me that he would stop in Walgreens after work and get those vitamins for me. So she'll be started on those later today when he gets home. Let's hope that gets her going some more. Seems like you all know it will so I trust that since you all have raised chicks and dealt with this. Which I'm so thankful for!

So far, making sure that she got that extra food into her belly - which was what more I was looking for, getting more food into her - she seems to be hanging on. I pretty much was experimenting to see what she'd eat more and it seems she liked the cooked oatmeal and the mashed egg yolk more so that's what I've stuck with. But, as I said, I only give it to make sure she gets a little boost in her system - she didn't really eat too much of it, and still doesn't. Maybe a 1/8 of a teaspoon or less. She's still eating more of her starter. This morning, it was still liquidy, but she had a pretty good poopies. Half liquid, half solid. Yay. That was progress. But, I know the vitamins will get her stronger than the human food so I won't have to worry about giving her any of the other things later.

Thanks again both of you