3 week old baby chick, puffed feathers, head pulled in, lethargic, slight drool, runny poops, growth stunted.

[tgmoore]

Hey All please help,
My wife and I are first time chicken owners. We have four 3 week old chicks.

4 days ago one of the chicks started closing her eyes, staying closer to the heat lamp, eating/drinking less and acting lethargic.

3 days ago she developed what seems to be a drool/mucus that doesn't drool out but food sticks to it and seems to be troubling her eating. Also she started to chatter her beak in a motion kind of like chewing.

2 days ago we noticed her poops to be much less frequent and looked like diarrhea that has gotten more liquid/white. Yesterday we noticed she weighs and looks smaller than the others, she has always been the biggest and most feathered up until then.

Medication: 3 days ago we started the flock on save a chic electrolytes. This seemed to not help at all. Last night I started the flock on liquid corid with 3.75 mL in our 1.5 qt waterer thanks to yalls amazing answers to others questions concerning cocci. I didn't notice very much improvement this morning before work.

Also her crop feels hard and I can feel the chick starter granuals in it. Its hard than the others. I've tried massaging it and syringing water/very small amounts of olive oil in her beak to no avail.

Questions:
Does this seem like cocci or something else? I have not seen anything with the drool on cocci posts. Also she's been in a holding pattern of poor health for 4 days, should cocci of killed her off by this point?

This is a picture of her two days ago. But she looks very similar currently.

 

[azygous]

How about treating her for constipation? That's pretty common for this age, and it would make her feel very sick. All the information you need is in the comments on your other thread on this chick.

 

[LaFleche]

3 days ago she developed what seems to be a drool/mucus that doesn't drool out but food sticks to it and seems to be troubling her eating. Also she started to chatter her beak in a motion kind of like chewing.

Welcome to BYC! I am sorry that you are having trouble with your chick.

Your description has me thinking that something is blocking her crop or stuck in her beak. So check her beak first.

What kind of bedding do you use? Chicks sometimes ingest wood shavings that will swell to a size that makes it impossible to pass through their digestive system.
Can you feel something other than just the feed pellets in her crop?

You could try to administer coconut oil (chilled so you can break it into little pieces) or lactulose syrup, and hopefully this will help to move along whatever it is blocking the digestive system.

 

[tgmoore]

How about treating her for constipation? That's pretty common for this age, and it would make her feel very sick. All the information you need is in the comments on your other thread on this chick.

I will try this tonight. I thought the diarrhea/runny poops would eliminate constipation.

 

[tgmoore]

Welcome to BYC! I am sorry that you are having trouble with your chick.

Your description has me thinking that something is blocking her crop or stuck in her beak. So check her beak first.

What kind of bedding do you use? Chicks sometimes ingest wood shavings that will swell to a size that makes it impossible to pass through their digestive system.
Can you feel something other than just the feed pellets in her crop?

You could try to administer coconut oil (chilled so you can break it into little pieces) or lactulose syrup, and hopefully this will help to move along whatever it is blocking the digestive system.

I use the coarse/big pine shavings. It mostly feels like a wad of chick starter but I'm new to this and not positive. I've opened her beak to administer the water/olive oil and didn't notice it. I'm going to try the coconut oil this evening and I'll check her beak when I do this.

 

[LaFleche]

How does her butt look, is it wet or otherwise messy, does the vent stick out?

 

[tgmoore]

How does her butt look, is it wet or otherwise messy, does the vent stick out?

Her vent looks like all the other chicks. Pasty butt was the only ailment I was told and looking for at the start haha

 

[tgmoore]

How does her butt look, is it wet or otherwise messy, does the vent stick out?

Also whenever I massage her crop she doesn't seem to mind much.

 

[tgmoore]

Also whenever I massage her crop she doesn't seem to mind much.

Welcome to BYC! I am sorry that you are having trouble with your chick.

Your description has me thinking that something is blocking her crop or stuck in her beak. So check her beak first.

What kind of bedding do you use? Chicks sometimes ingest wood shavings that will swell to a size that makes it impossible to pass through their digestive system.
Can you feel something other than just the feed pellets in her crop?

You could try to administer coconut oil (chilled so you can break it into little pieces) or lactulose syrup, and hopefully this will help to move along whatever it is blocking the digestive

How does her butt look, is it wet or otherwise messy, does the vent stick out?

How does her butt look, is it wet or otherwise messy, does the vent stick out?

Is there a trick to holding her beak open? It's fairly small and she's very resistant lol

 

[LaFleche]

Her vent looks like all the other chicks. Pasty butt was the only ailment I was told and looking for at the start haha

Yes, a clogged up cloaca often leads to crop issues as it can quickly shut their system down completely.