Please help! New chick mom☺️

Hello everyone! First let me say what an amazing and wonderful experience this has been. This is our first time with baby chicks. NEVER in a million years did I think I could love these little girls as much as I do. I sit and watch "chick TV" for several hours a day because they are so funny and entertaining

My girls are 6 days old. I got two Easter Eggers, two buff orpingtons, a cinnamon queen, a RIR, 2 barred rocks and 3 black australorps (by accident). I was supposed to have ordered 5 barred rocks but came to realize the store boxed three of those as australorps which is exciting at least because I love their temperament.

Anyway I have one EE that has always been "different" she walks with her but in the air and head down kind of like a dog sniffing the ground. Her wings are not like the other chicks in the fact that they hang down. She has a very calm temperament and she just adores being held. Comes to us when she sees us. Anyway, she doesn't seem to be getting as big as the others. To me she doesn't look like she has grown at all and she sleeps ALOT. She is eating and drinking. Yesterday I noticed she keeps doing this thing where she keeps jerking her head to the right in kind of a rolling action. I have looked everywhere and can't find anything on the Internet. None of my other chicks have done this at all. I am at a loss as what it is or what could be wrong with her. I am so worried about her. Does anyone know what this could be? She was also my only chick with pasty butt but I make sure to keep her vent clean. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!
Back to chicken TV

Hi

i live in south Africa and have just got into chicken keeping. My family think I am completely mad as I am out there evryday hour checking on them.I have four bantams, two beautiful babies and s stupid cock. He will not get in his house when in rains just stands outside and gets soaked.

It sounds to me like your chicken is sick with a neuro problem, I have exactly the same and she is living in my guest room at the moment ! and is on doxycycline. She has had it before when she was small and got better but with winter coming on I think the others pushed her out at night and she caught cold. She also loves to be held I have just decided that she is a house chicken but with seven cats and two Black Russian Terriers it is a bit difficult to keep her safe.

The question is how much do you want to spend to get her fixed, my chicken is probably the most expensive on the planet with vet bills coming out my ears but have had some expert help on how to force feed vitamins and special feed it i not easy and I have to get my daughter to do it as I am scared it will go down the windpipe.

Anyway good luck it is not easy especially when they become part of your faimly. I could use some help re when they girls get broody they don't eat and sit for days on nothing.

whoop whoop

The motion you describe also occurs when a chicken is having crop problems. If this happens in a chicks that's just a few days old, it could affect how much the chick is able to consume to get enough nutrients to grow. They double in size the first month, so growth is incredibly fast.

Check the crop on your tiny one. Does it feels small and hard? Or large and squishy? If it's the first, then it's impacted. It makes it feel full to the chick so it won't feel like eating. To treat it, you need to get some olive oil into her. The easiest is to soak some bread crumbs and try to get it down her. The other way is to syringe it into her beak, but it's risky since she could aspirate the oil. Sometimes it's worth the risk because she may die anyway from this.

More unlikely is a yeast infection in the crop called sour crop. The crop doesn't empty no matter how little is eaten. The chick usually drinks lots of water. The cure for this is to administer Monistat twice a day for a week.

I would also get some Poultry Nutri-drench, and sprinkle it on tofu. Tofu is easily digested and is high in protein. Under-sized chicks will eat it when they have trouble eating regular chick feed.

Ok. Thank you both so much for the replies! After about 10 minutes of checking everyone's crops hers feels soft and squishy and it is to the right. What does that mean??

Whoop whoop. I am praying for your little one. This is such a hard thing and while I knew that some could be lost I truly was not prepared for how much love I would have for them

CarneyChicks said:

Ok. Thank you both so much for the replies! After about 10 minutes of checking everyone's crops hers feels soft and squishy and it is to the right. What does that mean??

Whoop whoop. I am praying for your little one. This is such a hard thing and while I knew that some could be lost I truly was not prepared for how much love I would have for them

Click to expand...

That sounds good. Azgous really seems to know his/her stuff, hopefully they'll respond. Anyway, that's the proper place and feel for the crop. Obviously, its easiest to feel that just after they've eaten. It should be nice and round feeling, with a little "give" to it.

Are you using medicated starter feed? The pasty butt is a possible sign of coccidiosis:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/coccidiosis-how-to-treat-it

This was common when I was a kid, but with the medicated starter feed I have seen a chick with it in years.

She stopped doing the head rolling thing for a while and now she ate and is doing it again. I can feel the food in her crop now. I guess I will wait till morning to see how empty it is. I am treat with Corrid for 21 days just to make sure they don't get it thank you so very much for responding.

You might want to give her some poultry Nutri-Drench.

I have to find out where I get that from. Thank you so much!

TOFU absoultely brilliant idea going out to get now.
thanks
whoop whoop

If this chick doing the neck roll is still doing it, and the crop doesn't seem to be emptying, (it should be empty first thing in the morning and full at night before dark) very gently with the tip of your finger, massage the tiny crop in a downward motion. You should be able to actually feel the crop emptying.

When the crop isn't emptying on its own, a chicken will do the neck roll trying to dislodge the contents so they start to move. You can help her do this by massaging the crop.

This happens from time to time with older chickens, too, so now you know what it means when they do it.

It's not always a sign of a serious problem. Sometimes, the contents of the crop are just of the texture that they get stuck. If you notice this soon enough simple massage can help, but after they've been allowed to solidify, you then have impacted crop and olive oil is the best treatment for this. Again, with crop massage to help the contents break up and go down.

Very rarely a chick will eat shavings and they'll get the crop in this "stuck" condition. Usually lots of water will resolve it on its own, but you may need to intervene with your chick if doing the massage alone doesn't solve the problem.