3 day old chick pasted vent and keeps falling over - please help! :-(

[kelster1981]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum...I'm really worried about one of our chicks and I hope someone can offer their opinions or advice. Today two of our 3 Bresse chicks (3 day old) had pasted vents. I cleaned them and put Vaseline on their butts to help stop their poo from sticking to them and both chicks had massive poos after I finished cleaning them. One of the chicks I'm still worried about though because it is quite unsteady on its feet. Walks a little bit, wobbles, leans to one side and falls over. It is eating, drinking and pooing ok (I made them some hard boiled egg and added sugar to their water). The others seem fine (including the other one which had the pasted vent) I just don't know what is the matter with this one. We have a towel in their brooder and it doesn't appear to have splayed legs. My Dad got the eggs from Ebay, only 3 out of the 6 eggs hatched. They had bleeding navels when born and the 2nd chick to hatch was malpositioned and we had to save it (the chick I'm worried about hatched 1st) I'm starting to think they aren't even Bresses because they have feathered feet and I'm worrying about Marek's disease - maybe they were hatched by infected hens. Have you ever experienced this before in chicks/ chickens? Any opinions or advice you have would be very much appreciated. It is the first time we have kept chickens... we have some Light Sussex chicks which are nearly 4 weeks old in a separate brooder next to them so I'm really worried in case it is anything contagious. Thank you so much.

 

[kelster1981]

The chick also seems to have a drooping wing on one side and yesterday one of her eyes was closed shut. I bathed in salt water and is now open and has looked ok since. Anyone??

 

[laurengeeves]

I'm completely new to looking after chicks, I'm looking after 1 that got rejected..

But my one was always wobbly and falling over.. And was using its whole leg to walk instead of just the foot.. It's now stable and walking fine at 10 days old..
Give it time and hold it up so it will use his feet and not its legs, it will be fine, make sure the surface you use for them is grippy and not something it will slide around on as it will lose balance more, I had spare bit of carpet that I put in its pen

Hope this help a bit, and if you need some tips on getting them eating and drinking more then I can help
Laurenx

 

[kelster1981]

Thank you so much for your reply Lauren

My boyfriend thinks it may just be a slight leg/foot injury when she was hatching out (we were all asleep when she hatched so didn't see). It seems so be just one leg which is affected and there's a towel in the brooder for them so fingers crossed it will get better. Thinking back she was lying down a lot in the brooder before the others hatched out so that seems pretty likely. You've put my mind at ease, so thank you! Will keep you updated.

Kelly x