1 week old chick sick!!

[Sydni Crawford]

She just “gagged” and looked like she regurgitated a clear slimy liquid @azygous

 

[azygous]

What was going on when she gagged and hocked up the slime?

What does her crop feel like?

Is it large and swollen?

Can you post a photo of her so I can see her crop and eyes? Eyes are a good indicator of how a chick feels.

Sounds like she's unblocked. She needs to rest where it's warm. Make a burrito for her out of a warm towel. Direct contack heat is best for a chick that needs to warm up fast.

 

[Sydni Crawford]

She was just walking around. It was after she ate some wet food.

I separated her and gave her some warm sugar water and a small amount of wet food (after she pooped twice)
First poop was dark, stinky, loose
Second was more solid just wet
Crop is squishy. Not completely full
Every time I open her mouth to give her coconut oil, she regurgitates. I haven’t successfully gotten any down her today
@azygous

 

[Sydni Crawford]

@azygous
Her crop is now empty and she just had a massive BM.
very stinky and loose

 

[azygous]

You did it! Or rather, your chick and you did it. She was stopped up.

If she acts like this again, give a little coconut oil, and don't wait to see what else develops. Waiting makes it worse. But she may be fine now.

However, she needs to catch up with her growth. Feed her special foods with Nutri-drench sprinkled over it for a few days. Boiled egg, crumbled tofu, wet feed, etc. Keep her with the others and let them all share the special foods. She'll eat better with the others.

 

[Sydni Crawford]

@azygous

How do you know when to cull vs keep trying?
My tiny girl has really given it a valiant effort, but she is back to open mouth breathing, head shaking, sneezing, and when I pick her her she rattles.
She still eats, drinks, and poops.
She isn’t putting on any weight and the sneeze is getting more prominent.

She has been like this she I got her 3 weeks ago, I have kept her with the other chicks because she seems to be more alert with them, but I don’t want this to end up being a spreadable illness that can kill my entire brood.

I bring her out often and give her “special food” so she can eat until she is full and has no competition. (Wet food/nutridrench/boiled egg yolk)
She still isn’t putting on any weight.

There are moments when I feel horrible for her and that she has to be suffering, and then there are moments where she looks likes she’s not giving up so why should I?

I’m new to all of this, so I just want to make sure that I am doing right by her and the rest of my flock.

 

[azygous]

My heart goes out to you. This is one of the most difficult things about keeping chickens. Deciding when to euthanize. (Culling to me is what people do when they keep a breeding flock and weed out the poor genes.)

Here's how I make the decision. In fact, I thought I'd be making the same decision this week that you're facing. I have a five-year old Cream Legbar hen that came down sick a few days ago. She wasn't eating or drinking and she was very lethargic. I wasn't sure what was wrong so I treated her for egg binding and bacterial infection and, just recently, decided she might have coccidiosis, so I added Corid to her treatment along with an antibiotic.

I gave the antibiotic and Corid treatments time to work, after ruling out egg binding. There was no real improvement for the first few days, but she wasn't getting worse. It wasn't yet time to make a decision. I would give her more time, watching to see if she took a turn for the worse. She held on, and today for the first time, she is eating and drinking. She's improving. As long as I see progress and that she's choosing to fight to survive, I'm happy to keep caring for her.

So, this is how I make the decision. If a sick chicken is not improving after a reasonable length of treatment, And if a chicken gets worse, and keeps getting worse, I don't let them continue to suffer. I euthanize.

Under my criteria, if it were my baby chick, I would decide to euthanize at this point. I hope I've helped you make a very difficult decision.

 

[Sydni Crawford]

@azygous
Thank you so much for your guidance. I keep going back and forth.
My husband keeps picking at me because he thinks that she is “playing” me because she gets special attention. lol.

I’m currently sitting on the couch with her and she is perfectly fine. Just snuggling. She has sneezed twice since I’ve taken her out of the brooder and let her snuggle.

This is hard. I expected it to be hard, but lord have mercy.

 

[azygous]

No, it's never easy. Even after thirteen years of keeping chickens, the decision never gets any easier. For what it's worth, it's the decision that's the most difficult part. Then I just shut down my emotions after the last cuddle, and I just do it. Once that's behind me, it's actually a relief because I no longer have to witness the struggle and the suffering.