12 Week old Silkie Down

[NoSkiveez]

Last night they were all fine. This morning when I went out there was one that was away from the group and didnt come to greet us. Her wings are drooping, she seems sluggish and she is having a hard time keeping balanced on her feet. She acts like she is sleeping. When I picked her up and brought her in the house to check her out I noticed she was quite thin, but she eats. Ive seen her eating. I hand out treats daily and she has always gotten one. I have watched them all eat from the food containers but she is so thin. I am actually shocked to see how thin she is. The pen is clean, water clean, food has been stored in air tight containers. I dont know what to think. I examined her poop and dont see anything abnormal about it. I did the only thing I thought might help her and that was to ad a bit of sugar and some baby vitamins to water and gave that to her on the tip of my finger and she drank it. I also put some feed in the blended and fed her by syringe like you would a baby bird and a few minutes after she got the food she started to perk up a little and flapped her wings but she still isnt looking good and it didnt solve the problem. I am not sure what I should do for her next, she's never had any issues before now. Any suggestions would be helpful. She's been seperated and in the house.

 

[Wiglwerm]

Is she at the bottom of the pecking order? Maybe the others are keeping her from the food? I always worry about that with my younger ones in with the adults, so I always put out more than enough so when the adults are done pigging out the smaller ones get to eat. Hope all goes well, I would keep her inside for a few days till she gaines her strenght. Good luck, silkies are so sweet.

 

[NoSkiveez]

After a bit of racking my brain and watching the other silkies in the pen I think I may have discovered the problem. Im thinking that the issue wasnt with her or with my other silkies preventing her from eating. I am thinking its quite a bit of stupidity on my part. While watching the other silkies eat I noticed that some of them were having issues getting to the food thru the container because their head hair is too poofy to be able to reach the food really well. Hers seems to be the poofiest and I am thinking that might have been the whole issue. I should have noticed this much sooner and feel bad that she got so bad before I did notice there is a problem. I went back and pulled her back out of the crate and was going to syringe more food to her and she started to peck at the towel she was sitting on and went after the liquified feed in the baby food jar on her own. She ate until I could feel her crop was full. I am going to keep her inside and offer her the liquified food hourly. In the crate she has access to food and water. She is looking much better and was walking around on the towel. Hubby is on his way to the feed store to buy a different food tray for them so this doesnt happen again. Im just hoping this isnt something that will effect her down the road.