3 week olds acting sick-swelled belly

[MoodyChicken]

Do you know the breed? Heavy meat birds like Cornish naturally have larger abdomens. But they don't normally look like that, and the fact that it is dark in color isn't good either. Vitamin K deficiencies cause dark abdominal swelling. Ultimately, the birds die due to internal bleeding that won't clot. Feel the lump, is it fluidy?

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

uld be vitamin K deficiency
is the chick feed got lot of vitamins in it?
I am sure mayb a vet could look and diagnosis the chick
too bad you didn't take the dead chick to the vet
hopefully you will find out before very many die

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I'm sorry your chick died, Adam. Was it the one in the last pic that you posted, the one with the really swollen rear end? After I clicked on the pic to make it bigger, I saw that it did not look like the "normal" swollen bellies my meaties have. My meaties are 5 weeks old now and doing very well. I took them off 20% starter feed at 3 weeks and put them on 15% grower/finisher. Now that they have a couple of layer pullet tractor-mates I'm mixing the 15% finisher (DuMor) with 18% starter (Purina), so mine may start growing faster again. Can't starve the layers and, out of necessity, I have to house them together.

Best wishes to you with the rest of yours!