Chick keeps opening mouth.

I have a one week old chick who I checked on this morning and found her laying on the floor of this brooder. She is weak and doesn't stand, she kept openig and closing her mouth so I gave her some sugar water and a minute later she threw it up. Ever since then she's been chirping when she opens her mouth, so I guess she had a dry throat. It's about 30 minutes later and she is still doing it, the opening and closing is constant, everytime she does she stretches out her neck.

Can you post photos of your chicks and your brooder set up?
What type of food/treats are you feeding?
Do they have access to grit?
She could be dehydrated or possibly have eaten some bedding or has a little food stuck in her throat.
Try to get some water into her you can use an eye dropper to carefully drop a little water at the side of the beak and let her take it in.
It's a slow process, but it will help keep her from choking.

Wyorp Rock said:

Can you post photos of your chicks and your brooder set up?
What type of food/treats are you feeding?
Do they have access to grit?
She could be dehydrated or possibly have eaten some bedding or has a little food stuck in her throat.
Try to get some water into her you can use an eye dropper to carefully drop a little water at the side of the beak and let her take it in.
It's a slow process, but it will help keep her from choking.

Click to expand...

Thanks Wyorp Rock that's what I did. She seemed to be on the brink of death the whole day so I was expecting her to die, but I woke up this morning and she is fine running around. Yesterday she couldn't even stand up I guess she ate the bedding, and we gave them grit the day the chick got sick (I've never had to use it before with chick starter). For the brooder it's a standard plastic bin with pine shavings, the dollar chick feeder and waterers and a light. For snacks they were eating plenty of moths that were attracted to the light. I just basically forced fed it grit water and chick starter all day and when we did she would swallow it if we put some food or grit in her mouth and washed it down with water and she would swallow it sometimes on her own but then go back to opening her mouth and making a weird almost chipring/chortling noise, and separated her in to a carboard box and this morning she had jumped out while we were sleeping and was running around with the others and now she's fine.

Rozz said:

Thanks Wyorp Rock that's what I did. She seemed to be on the brink of death the whole day so I was expecting her to die, but I woke up this morning and she is fine running around. Yesterday she couldn't even stand up I guess she ate the bedding, and we gave them grit the day the chick got sick (I've never had to use it before with chick starter). For the brooder it's a standard plastic bin with pine shavings, the dollar chick feeder and waterers and a light. For snacks they were eating plenty of moths that were attracted to the light. I just basically forced fed it grit water and chick starter all day and when we did she would swallow it if we put some food or grit in her mouth and washed it down with water and she would swallow it sometimes on her own but then go back to opening her mouth and making a weird almost chipring/chortling noise, and separated her in to a carboard box and this morning she had jumped out while we were sleeping and was running around with the others and now she's fine.

Click to expand...

They sure are cute.
I'm glad to hear she is doing better!

I would just leave the grit for them free choice since they are finding moths and bugs attracted by the light. IMO if they eat anything other than chick starter they need grit. The moths are good for them so no worries there

She may have gotten a little too hot as well. You may want to keep an eye on how they all act. Ideally they should have only one area of the brooder that is warm (hot) and let the rest be cool (having plenty of room to get away from the light). When they start getting a little bigger you may need to move them to a larger area or move your lamp to one end so they have a cooler space to get to.