16 day old chick, closed eye falling over. Help.

[Poniest03]

Hi there, new chicken mom here hoping to receive some insight on what could be going on and possibly a way to help. I stalked this forum for the past 2 weeks but now I think I need to just make my own post about this.
I have a 16 day old chick who from the day I received her (3 days old then) has had one eye closed and been off balanced and falls over.
What I have and or am still doing are:
Fed egg yoke with vitamins for first few days until she wouldn’t eat it anymore.
Gave Vit and electrolytes in water but stopped that after 3-4 days.
Put triple antibiotic ointment (without pain reliever) in her eye.
Warm compress on eye.
Started Vit E with selenium.
Switched over to Mixrocyn eye gel.
Place chick in cup (only for a couple minutes at a time) to see if that would help strengthen her legs.
Chick eats and drinks just as much as the rest and even tries to scratch around like the others but she is constantly loosing her balance and falling over.
She sleeps more than the rest but I honestly think it’s bc she wears herself out struggling to upright her self all the time.
It almost as though she fights herself to balance and then falls over bc of it.
Could the eye thing be causing this? Do you think it’s a Vit deficiency?
Is there anything else I could be doing for her? She acts normal and wants to be a normal chick but she just falls over all the time.
The other chicks are kind to her and will lay next to her and sleep/keep warm together. They don’t pick on her, if anything they are a little protective of her/him.
Is this something she can grow out of? Has anyone had this happen and had success? If no success can you let me know what I could expect from her going forward? I’m trying to realistic on my expectations and also learn as much as I can.
If you’ve read this far, “Nugget” and I thank you and thank you for any advice you can pass along to this newbie

 

[Battlepants]

For starters, could we get some pictures of the chick.

Particularly, what I am looking for is:
Condition of the eye *note, no need to open the eye manually, a side head pic will be fine
Condition of the feet
How this chick attempts to stand

 

[Poniest03]

For starters, could we get some pictures of the chick.

Particularly, what I am looking for is:
Condition of the eye *note, no need to open the eye manually, a side head pic will be fine
Condition of the feet
How this chick attempts to stand

 

[Poniest03]

Thank you for responding!
You can see that when the chick does close it’s eye the bottom lid isn’t straight across. Idk if this was an injury during shipment or a deformity.. I haven’t ever seen a discharge in it. sshe eats and drinks fine and does great except the balance issue.
I wish I could attach a video so you could see how she tries to balance on her toes it seems when she’s on the board where the food and water is.

 

[Battlepants]

For the eye, I would probably just watch that for signs of infection. Eye itself currently looks fine, but yea, the eyelid looks to be either deformed or previously injured.

Feet look healthy, no signs of curled toes or anything like that that might cause walking difficulty.

Standing stance looks a little wide in picture 4, but looks back to normal in picture 5. Maybe this is an early sign (or minor case) of spraddle/splayed legs?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-we-correct-splayed-legs-on-new-chicks.72873/

 

[Poniest03]

Thanks for the info! So would you use the technique in the thread you attached just in case it is spraddle leg? I tried doing this when it was 4 days old and all the chick did was fall on its back and panic and couldn’t get up.
It was just way too much for me to watch so I took it off
I can separate and try this again. Would it be better to use a towel for the “bedding” or the shavings or even paper towels?
I’m invested now in this little one and want the best for it so I’m will to try anything as long as it’s not suffering.
I attached another standing photo if that helps. The chick kept laying down when I tried to get this one. I think it was nervous bc I had it away from its friends to get the pictures.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

With the vitamins were you diluting in water? Also what feed are you feeding?

 

[Battlepants]

Thanks for the info! So would you use the technique in the thread you attached just in case it is spraddle leg? I tried doing this when it was 4 days old and all the chick did was fall on its back and panic and couldn’t get up.
It was just way too much for me to watch so I took it off
I can separate and try this again. Would it be better to use a towel for the “bedding” or the shavings or even paper towels?
I’m invested now in this little one and want the best for it so I’m will to try anything as long as it’s not suffering.
I attached another standing photo if that helps. The chick kept laying down when I tried to get this one. I think it was nervous bc I had it away from its friends to get the pictures.

I would go with the leg brace method in the event of spraddle leg, but with that most recent picture you posted, I'm starting to doubt spraddle leg being the issue.

For bedding, I like using wood shavings. They are very absorbent and don't get slick when soiled. Another good one I hear is puppy pads. Paper towels and regular towels would probably be ok, would have to keep an eye on them to see how quickly they are getting soiled. Then, just worth mentioning as a no-no, is news paper - near no absorbancy and becomes very slick very fast.

 

[Poniest03]

I would go with the leg brace method in the event of spraddle leg, but with that most recent picture you posted, I'm starting to doubt spraddle leg being the issue.

For bedding, I like using wood shavings. They are very absorbent and don't get slick when soiled. Another good one I hear is puppy pads. Paper towels and regular towels would probably be ok, would have to keep an eye on them to see how quickly they are getting soiled. Then, just worth mentioning as a no-no, is news paper - near no absorbancy and becomes very slick very fast.

With the vitamins were you diluting in water? Also what feed are you feeding?

I was diluting the rooster booster and with the Vit e and selenium I was just putting a little bit on her beak and getting it in that way.
To start with I was using medicated chick starter but I quickly switched over to an organic starter bc I was worried maybe the food was blocking the B (I think that’s what it does?) vitamins and causing an issue. The chick was probably on the medicated for 2-3 days before switching. I didn’t start the Vit e until it was 5-6 days old.