1 of 3 chicks not growing and distressed peeping....eating fine....smallest crop out of the bunch!

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StarSpun

StarSpun

Chirping
5 Years
Feb 3, 2014
140
15
91
Toronto Canada in the summer, Merritt Island FL in
Hi everyone!

So I have three chicks, Audrey the Black Australorp, Ellie the EE, and Buffy the Buff Orpington. Buffy is a week older than the other two but has been having some very strange behaviours and symptoms lately.

Of course when I picked them up, she was noticeably larger than the other two. I picked them all up on Sunday (just a few days ago). She was constantly needy, trying to get herself under the others for warmth I assume, when out and about. She is fine under the brooder.
I am feeding them the good kind of medicated feed.

I find that she eats more than the other two chicks....she tries to get into the same feeding holes as them, always seeming desperate to eat. Her crop feels fine, it's just always MUCH smaller than the others. No pasty butt on any of them and she is pooping fine or so I can tell.

Just today, after two days of CONSTANT desperate peeping, my husband and I notice she is now much smaller than the other two! I have no idea how or when this happened, but she is a WEEK older!?

Between the behavioural issues, small crop with eating a LOT yet not growing, does anyone know what it could be? If she were just a runt, ok, fine, but this peeping is just insane! She follows Audrey around (Audrey is the protector of the bunch) and no one is picking on her. If anything, Audrey seems to take care of her....grooms her, leads her to the brooder when she starts REALLY peeping, sleeps with her, etc. It's really quite amazing....

Any ideas?
I don't want to lose this little lady. I can hear her distressed on the baby monitor now and I am starting to panic!

Thanks so much in advance!
 
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She may be lacking electrolytes. You can buy "save-a-chick" at your local feed store. It's a powder that you mix with water and it hypes them up. Mine are so hyper right now. I am currently giving mine electrolytes until they'll be 6 weeks old. Because that way I'll know they'll be ok without any constant attention at 6 weeks. I'm just paranoid lol. Anyway back to subject. She may be needing electrolytes or vitamins. I had a chick doing the same thing as yours and she almost died and I had to force her to drink the electrolytes. Now she's doing fine.
 
chickenlver2013 said:
She may be lacking electrolytes. You can buy "save-a-chick" at your local feed store. It's a powder that you mix with water and it hypes them up. Mine are so hyper right now. I am currently giving mine electrolytes until they'll be 6 weeks old. Because that way I'll know they'll be ok without any constant attention at 6 weeks. I'm just paranoid lol. Anyway back to subject. She may be needing electrolytes or vitamins. I had a chick doing the same thing as yours and she almost died and I had to force her to drink the electrolytes. Now she's doing fine.
Click to expand...


Interesting, ok....I actually added that yesterday, so I guess I'll wait and see what happens. I'll try and encourage her to drink. Since I got her, I had a feeling something was 'off' so hopefully I am wrong:-(

Thanks!!
 
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Ok so I just put them to bed and made sure she drank the water. The other two have settled down for the night, but she is just standing under the EcoGlow doing this terrible chirping, it's very distressing. It's not really the loud PEEP PEEP PEEP, but rather a serious of little ones, in a pattern. Almost sounds like a seagull (the tone) SO STRANGE. The others keep waking up because of her....Ellie just went back to snuggle with her which seems to have quieted her down a bit. Ok NM, there she goes again, in the pitch black.... (I am watching this all on a night vision monitor;-)

Another thing I've noticed, since the start. She falls asleep differently than the others. Standing up with her head hunched over until her heads hits the ground. She never looks quite right....
 
Well, Buffy seems to be sleeping ok. She ate a bit and drank water before going to bed and seems to be pooping fine. How perplexing! I'll see how it goes tomorrow. If anyone has any other ideas of what could be wrong, please let me know! Hopefully drinking more water and the electrolytes added will help the poor girl....

On the night vision monitor, she stays so close to Audrey. Always putting her head on top of her to sleep. It is just too adorable for words. I guess she's imprinted on her buddy and not me!
 
Buffy passed away in the night in her sleep. I had a feeling it would happen. We are pretty sad, although had a feeling it would happen. Her little eyes were closed tight. *sigh*
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