2 Week Old Chick Not Eating and Opening Mouth with each breath - HELP!

[JoyfulPromise]

Hi, I have 8 - 2 week old Barred/Blue Rock chicks that were hatched from prize eggs won in an Easter Hatch-a-long contest. You can see their hatch story and pictures HERE. They are being cared for by a Broody Buff Orpington, and have seemed to do great, but yesterday I noticed one chick sitting apart from the others and kind of breathing heavily, and opening his mouth with each breath, and later my brother brought him in and said he had noticed it too and thought he might have something in its throat. We tried to look, but couldn't see anything, but we noticed that the chick had NOTHING in its crop and was very small and lightweight compared to the other 7 chicks.

It didn't want to eat, or drink much, and since then I have noticed when I feed the hen and chicks that this chick will come up with the initial rush to the food dish, and maybe halfheartedly peck at the food once or twice, and then stand back and watch disinterestedly. I am afraid he is just going to waste away!

Symptoms are a constant opening of the beak (not drastically, but noticeably) with each breath, and every so often it will shake its head and give a little cough/cheep like it is trying to dislodge something. I have felt its neck, but there is nothing there but its skinny little neckbone/spine!

Any help or suggestions is GREATLY appreciated!

 

[momofLC]

Hi, I just wanted to know what happened with your chick with the difficulty/disinterest in eating.
Can you give an update?
Hope all is well.

 

[Lavendise]

I have had a number of chicks with the same symptoms in the past few weeks. They tend to just stand in one place with their eyes closed and opening their little beaks to breathe.
They seem disinterested in eating and drinking.
This goes on for a few days and sadly, the ending is not good. They just keel over and die.
I look forward to seeing what happens to you chicks. Please keep us updated.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Hi momofLC and Lavendise, thank you for your interest!

Unfortunately, about a week after I noticed the sickly, gasping chick, we found him dead in the box with his momma hen and siblings one morning. During the time before he died, I kept an eye on him and he seemed to enjoy running around the yard with his siblings, but of course did not have as much energy as they did. I tried to feed him vitamin/electrolyte water a couple of times, but it seemed to choke him and make his breathing worse.

I reported his death in my other thread about my Rock babies HERE. You can see pictures of him and his siblings in that thread, and updated ones of the remaining 7 chicks which I just posted today if you are interested.

 

[Johnies Girls]

Watch your chickens closely. That sounds a lot like gapeworms. And if it is, it can spred. I would isloate all chickens that came in contact with that one for at least a week and watch them closely. Also read as much as possible about these worms. I know some have said it doesn't effect small chicks at early age, but I disected a 2 week old one that I desperately tried to save with Ivermectin and it was gapeworms. I tried the cue tip method down the throat before it passed and found nothing. Itreated all my birds for safety, but only lost the ones bought at the same time and a few in connecting cages on the sides and in the back. It was painful, but I destroyed several older birds that follow me into the chick area as they too started gaping. Total loss was 14 birds to date and I can't swear it's over yet, as I never tried to keep chickens or chicks seperated when it was scratch training days (play time for my flock) and I was throwing down the dried worm treats and old bread treats.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

I know it sounds similar, but I did look up about gapeworms and something just didn't seem to match. We have never had a problem with gapeworms before, and it has been 2 weeks since this chick died and all the rest of our chickens are doing fine. Thank you for your concern though. I will continue to keep an eye out for similar symptoms in any of the other chicks.