1 week old chick sick!!

[Sydni Crawford]

She is gaping at random. It’s not constant. I can’t feel anything in her crop. Im at the farm supply store now getting a couple of the things, I will recheck her crop more closely when I get home

 

[Sydni Crawford]

@azygous
Checking my chick again her crop is very full and mushy

 

[azygous]

Okay, I was suspecting something like that because it would account for the breathing thing and excess fluid coming from the chick's beak.

Did you get that coconut oil? It would be good to give the chick half a teaspoon now. Measure out half a teaspoon, and chill it slightly to make the oil solid. Then break off small slivers and slip them into her beak. She'll swallow them. Go slowly so she can swallow before you give her the next sliver, until all one-half teaspoon is in the chick. Very gently, massage the crop to mix the oil with the contents. Don't touch the upper part of the crop. If fluid comes out of her beak, stop. Just do this for a few seconds.

Let her rest. She should produce a good size poop in an hour. If not, give her another half teaspoon of oil. Keep up the warm sugar water every few hours with the Nutri-drench today.

 

[Sydni Crawford]

she Is fighting me so hard with the coconut oil. How do I safely open her beak without hurting her?
As soon as I touch her beak with anything she is rubbing her face on the bedding and shaking her head until she falls over. Little girl is pissed right now

 

[azygous]

Maybe I should have suggested you offer the oil to her first to see if she'd eat it on her own. It may not be too late for that. Try it.

If she won't eat it, hold her with your weak hand around the back of her head. Slip a finger nail into the side of her beak, and pry open her beak. This usually gets a chick to open wide so you can slip a finger from your weak hand into the open beak to hold it open while you slip her whatever you need to get into her. You won't hurt her.

It's good she's showing some resistance. It shows she still has energy to fight to get well. Good thing about chicks is they respond very quickly to treatment. By tomorrow, she will likely be a very different little chick.

 

[Sydni Crawford]

I maybe got 2 slivers of coconut oil down her. She is fighting the hell out of me. Which I am happy about. Her crop still feels full and she just sleeps in the corner away from everyone else. When she is awake she is eating with everyone, just seems to sleep a lot more. i haven’t noticed the gurgle as much this afternoon, but I really haven’t seen her choosing to drink as much

 

[azygous]

That's better than nothing. Is she pooping? How does it appear compared to the other chicks?

 

[azygous]

Is she eating? What does she like? I'm thinking of making a slurry with her favorite food with some warmed coconut oil and letting her eat it as she feels like it. You'd need to temporarily barricade her from the others so they don't eat it all or you could give it to all the chicks if you don't mind some temporaily loose stools to clean up.

 

[Sydni Crawford]

Poop is normal. She hasn’t been as interested in food and water this evening. Right now she is constantly grooming and scratching at her head.
I just feel like I can’t win for losing right now with her.

 

[azygous]

Yes, been there. I had a chick like yours. I nursed him along, got him caught up and reasonably healthy, and he went to live with another chicken keeper. He was still undersize and escaped the run and got eaten by something.

As long as the chick is pooping, forget the oil. But if it looks like things are slowing down, try the oil again.

What you're likely facing is a failure-to-thrive chick. Genetic problems may have caused improperly matured organs, so things aren't moving through the chick and it isn't absorbing nutrients properly. You just need to hang in there and nurse it along until it catches up. The Nutri-drench will help.

With the FTT chick I had, I gave it crumbled tofu with Nutri-drench sprinkled over it like an ice cream sundae. I allowed all the chicks to eat this so the small chick would be more inclined to eat also. It worked out splendidly, and everyone got the Nutri-drench for several days running, and it didn't seem to cause any problems. Too much Nutri-drench can sometimes cause loose stools. If that happens, discontinue the Nutri-drench or cut down on it.