- Sep 7, 2013
- 20
- 1
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Hello, this is my first post, so I hope I do this right. I have a 3 week old baby chick that was perfectly fine around 5:00 this evening, but around 6:30 or so, I noticed it suddenly stopped being active and kept falling asleep standing up. Within 30 min. or so it started sticking its head up , stretching its neck and doing some kind of sneeze hiccupy thing, which occasionally seemed to shake it's whole body. I thought it might start having seizures, but it never did. I've brought it inside and have been monitoring it. It's no longer having such violent shakes with these neck thrusts, but does seem to be struggling for air, or attempting to clear its throat, or something? I had a fellow chicken lover look over the chick for me and she doesn't think it has anything stuck in it's throat or crop. It does swallow minimal amounts of water, but that seems to make the problem worsen (causes the more violent form or gasping with shakes and "sneezing" sound). I've just gone to check on the chick one last time before bed and it is still doing mild neck thrusts, opening its mouth in the process. It also peeped at me when the bright light came on and opened its eyes real wide (hoping those are good signs). Anyway, I guess my questions are....of course: what in the world is wrong with this poor baby, and what, if anything can I do? I don't want it to suffer; should I put it out of its misery or wait it out until morning? So far I have checked it for a lodged object - nothing there, given it a small dose of olive oil - just incase something was lodged (saw that idea in another post), given it water (drop by drop; but not much), and tried to make it warm and comfortable. Thank you for any insight you may have and for your time; I really appreciate this resource!