Chick won't eat on her own

The Golden Girl

Chirping
8 Years
Jan 25, 2015
14
13
92
Hi there! Need some help:

We picked up four new chicks on Friday. All had vaccinations. Three are doing well and eating and drinking. The Black Australorp, however just won't eat or drink. The other chicks are already getting bigger than she is. She was very sleepy in the first 24 hours and though she is more energetic now, just won't eat or drink. She just runs around peeping loudly and almost seems like she's frantically searching for something. We have a heat lamp at 95 degrees in a large box brooder plus a heat plate at the other end for them to go under. I started syringe feeding her today a puréed mixture of medicated feed, yogurt and water with electrolytes and a bit of sugar. Her excrement is watery but I don't know if this is diarrhea or just because she's only getting a liquid diet?

Any advice? They were a gift for our daughter's 10th birthday and I'd really hate to lose one! This is our second batch of chick so we've only done this once before.

Help?!!
 
I had it lower but the only time she would quiet down was when she was warmer. She fell asleep today under my chin with a buckwheat heating pad
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The box is about 4-5 feet long and the opposite end is definitely cooler. I'll try it cooler and see if that helps!
 
Sounds like she just wanted to be held. I've used the heating pad in our bathtub the last two times with baby chicks. I took some hardware cloth and just bent it down on two sides and then put a towel over it in the bathtub. Under that I put the heating pad with puppy pee pads covering it so that I could just remove one when it got dirty. Their water and food was at the other end (cool end) of the tub. They're out in our first coop now and tonight it's suppose to be really cold so I have a heating lamp hanging for them but I worry so about that heating lamp.
 
So interesting turn of events:

Those of you who are parents probably know that your child can have a problem for days but as soon as you take them to the doctor, It will suddenly stop?!

A couple hours after I posted it was like she suddenly found the mash she has been walking through for three days and just now realized she could eat it!! She sang and ate (voraciously) for about an hour!! Yay, right?

But I'm noticing her crop doesn't feel full and hard like it should but instead is full of air and even "burped" a little when I pressed on it.

Any ideas what this could be??
 
She's back to sleeping all the time and not eating on her own
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Keep syringe feeding? I've tried wet mash, dry feed processed very small, yogurt, scrambled eggs cut up very fine, tapping finger to mimic hen...

She seems more lethargic today.

Worried!!!
 
Try crumbles instead of mash.

I had a chick recently that wouldn't eat on her own. She would peck at the food, but not actually eat it. I syringe fed the crumbles as a "soup" with just warm water to soften it. I would squeeze out just a little tiny bit from the syringe (still on the tip of the syringe; it can be difficult to get it to come out, so be careful), hold the beak open, and scrape it off just inside the tip of the beak so the chick could either eat it, or spit it out (no chance of the chick aspirating). After a few days of this, I placed a small dish of wet crumbles on the counter, placed the chick next to it, and poked at the food with the tip of the syringe (at this point the chick associates the tip of the syringe with food). She then started pecking at and eating the food (mainly off the tip of the syringe, but eventually out of the dish itself). For a while after she would ONLY eat the wet crumbles, but now she eats dry crumbles just fine.

This chick acted the same as yours. Runs around with the other chicks, but hung out under the heat often and would yell often. With this method she will also get water, if she really isn't drinking. You can also add Sav-a-Chick electrolyte and vitamin supplement to the wet crumbles.
 

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