10 week old silkie lethargic, not eating or drinking, cannot keep their head up

[MarvsMom]

My husband and I went away for two days (we had someone watching our chickens) and when we came home, our silkie chick was asleep alone in the corner of the chicken run. When we went to move them, they were extremely unresponsive and their feet were covered in dry poop. We brought them inside immediately and gave them an Epsom salt bath, cleaned them up, used the hair dryer, fed them some water with electrolytes through a dropper and some raw egg yolk. The chicken then started peeping, eating some food on their own and now they are asleep and have their head down again. We have them set up in a temp roost in our bathroom. We aren't sure what could've happened. We were originally thinking maybe they didn't drink any water and we just had a heat wave. Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

Is the chick pooping? What's that like?

I'd work on hydration, then see is she will eat some wet soupy chick starter.

Getting a fecal float to see if Coccidiosis is a problem would be a good idea.

The hunched appearance makes me think Coccidiosis, but this is a Silkie, so they can also be prone to other problems like Neurological conditions, etc.

If getting a float is not possible, then if she were mine, I'd start Corid asap.

Giving a direct oral drench of Liquid Corid at a rate of 0.10ml per pound of weight, twice a day for 3 days.

The direct oral drench would be IN ADDITION to her drinking Mixed Corid Water at 2tsp Liquid Corid to 1 Gallon of water, for 5-7 days.
Do not add any EXTRA supplements to the water or feed that contain B1(Thiamine) during the course of treatment.

I would also give her 400IU Vitamin E daily along with bits of scrambled egg.

 

[MarvsMom]

Welcome To BYC

Is the chick pooping? What's that like?

I'd work on hydration, then see is she will eat some wet soupy chick starter.

Getting a fecal float to see if Coccidiosis is a problem would be a good idea.

The hunched appearance makes me think Coccidiosis, but this is a Silkie, so they can also be prone to other problems like Neurological conditions, etc.

If getting a float is not possible, then if she were mine, I'd start Corid asap.

Giving a direct oral drench of Liquid Corid at a rate of 0.10ml per pound of weight, twice a day for 3 days.

The direct oral drench would be IN ADDITION to her drinking Mixed Corid Water at 2tsp Liquid Corid to 1 Gallon of water, for 5-7 days.
Do not add any EXTRA supplements to the water or feed that contain B1(Thiamine) during the course of treatment.

I would also give her 400IU Vitamin E daily along with
bits of scrambled egg.

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately we lost her tonight No idea what happened, we are thinking she may have been sick since we got her because she has always been slower than our other chicks we got at the same time.

 

[Logar]

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately we lost her tonight No idea what happened, we are thinking she may have been sick since we got her because she has always been slower than our other chicks we got at the same time.

I am so sorry to hear you lost her. Has it been unusually hot where you live? If so, that combined with a possible illness that she was hiding may have just been too much for her little body to handle.

 

[MarvsMom]

I am so sorry to hear you lost her. Has it been unusually hot where you live? If so, that combined with a possible illness that she was hiding may have just been too much for her little body to handle.

Thank you
We had 4 days last week that almost reached 40 ° C... we just kept refilling the chickens water. We think she definitely has been sick since we got her but I think we were hopeful she was just a bit slower than the rest. We found her sleeping alone in a corner of the coop twice last week too which was unusual, and when we started to let the chickens free range in the yard, the other four were eager to get out of the coop but she would always hang back.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately we lost her tonight No idea what happened, we are thinking she may have been sick since we got her because she has always been slower than our other chicks we got at the same time.

Thank you
We had 4 days last week that almost reached 40 ° C... we just kept refilling the chickens water. We think she definitely has been sick since we got her but I think we were hopeful she was just a bit slower than the rest. We found her sleeping alone in a corner of the coop twice last week too which was unusual, and when we started to let the chickens free range in the yard, the other four were eager to get out of the coop but she would always hang back.

I'm sorry about your little chick.

Sounds like she's been a little sickly since last week if she was isolating back then. Some fail to thrive, hard to know what was ailing her.