8 weeks old chick has saliva in mouth and slight lump under chin

[Kerioki]

Hello everyone. I am new to chick rearing and am panicking a bit here. One of my 8 weeks old chicks has seemed a bit lethargic since yesterday but she ate and drank with her siblings as normal. Today she seems even more out of it and I noticed there was some drool on the sides of her beak. When I picked her up and to take a closer look, i felt a slight lump under her chin that seems to irritate her when I touch it. Usually it's hard to get a chick to open it's mouth but when I applied gentle pressure where the lump is her mouth popped open and I saw saliva coating the back of her throat. She doesn't seem to be in respitory distress as she's not breathing through her mouth, but she doesn't seem to be able to swallow her grains today. She picked at a piece and it basically just stayed on her tongue so I had to pry it out, which wasn't difficult since she didn't even resist. She's usually one of the rowdier ones in the group so her sudden shift in behaviour is pretty alarming. When she goes to drink water she doesn't do the scoop method, she sort of just nibbles at the water then walks away. I don't know if it's an obstruction or some sort of illness. None of the other chicks are acting like that. Is there a safe method to figure out if the lump is some sort of obstruction? My heart breaks just looking at her, especially since I lost a chick last week from unknown causes. Any insight anyone can offer will be appreciated. I'm trying to not full out lose my mind because other than what I described she does have a bit of life in her and her little chick cries are really strong and she runs around a bit with her siblings before stopping in a corner for a break.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post photos of her, the inside of her beak and of her poop?

What are you feeding, including treats?

Is her crop full?

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Welcome from New Orleans. I am so sorry we are meeting due to a problem. I see you have @Wyorp Rock helping, that is great news! If you can follow those instructions and answer questions with as much detail as you can as well as posting pictures, God willing your little chick will be better soon. Good Luck @Kerioki

 

[Kerioki]

Can you post photos of her, the inside of her beak and of her poop?

What are you feeding, including treats?

Is her crop full?

I will take some pictures later when I get home.

I mostly feed her oats and grains/wheat. She's always catching bugs though. And I give her scrambled eggs with garlic and also greek yogurt occasionally as I hear those help with her immune system. Honestly i'm so green at this that I don't have any fancy vitamins or anthing like that. I'm going to my local feed store tomorrow to get something new for them.

Her crop was not full this morning. She did eat a bit (I gave them the eggs this morning) and she ate it up, but afterwards is when I noticed her being more withdrawn and when I checked I saw the saliva in her throat.

 

[Kerioki]

This is her. The pics aren't that great but hopefully you can see them. One is her poop right after she had a meal. Another one is under her chin but that might be a bit blurry. I'll have to try and get pictures of inside her mouth later because she's not cooperating right now. I gave her some greek yogurt mixed with simple oat grains because she seemed to have trouble with the harder stuff earlier and she gobbled it right up. There were a few times she paused like swallowing was a bit difficult but then she dived right back in. Then she went and nibbled some water. She didn't take a lot but my sister says she was drinking normally about an hour before I got home. She's running and flying and playing a bit with her siblings but there's still saliva in her mouth. The lump under her "chin" seems to not be as bad as this morning but I'll still watch it. I was in such a panic that I called the vet I take my dogs to and she said it might be a yeast infection Are there other yeast infection signs I should be looking out for if it is that? I'm separating her from her siblings tonight because I don't know if she's contagious and I don't want them making her uncomfortable when they start getting rowdy. I hope its nothing contagious because she was with them all day.

 

[ChickNanny13]

1st pic - I see some "red" but looks to be intestinal lining
3rd pic - blurry but think I see that "lump" you mention under her beak
Crop should be full in the evening & empty in the morning ... If you can get someone to help you, picture of inside her mouth would really help. Wondering if she's got some feed stuck.

Did she always have that "lump"? What are you feeding them? Grain? Are you providing them Chick Grit?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Where are you located in the world?

If you are giving her grains instead of a commercial chick starter then she will need access to grit. Grit is either crushed granite that you can purchase in most feed stores or sometimes you may have suitable hard small rocks/pebbles where you live that she can find while digging in the soil.

The lump under her beak, are you asking about the lump on the right side of her breast? If so, then that's her crop. This will fill up when she eats/drinks and will go down as she processes foods.

 

[Kerioki]

1st pic - I see some "red" but looks to be intestinal lining
3rd pic - blurry but think I see that "lump" you mention under her beak
Crop should be full in the evening & empty in the morning ... If you can get someone to help you, picture of inside her mouth would really help. Wondering if she's got some feed stuck.

Did she always have that "lump"? What are you feeding them? Grain? Are you providing them Chick Grit?

I'm not sure if she always has that lump. I don't think so. The others don't have it. The lump seems to contribute to the issue in some way. When I apply light pressure her mouth pops open and her tongue rises.

She seems to be having a little more difficulty swallowing this morning. She still dives for the food but spits out back out. I had to give her a softer version. She ate that fine but then sort of regurgitated some of it before eating more. The bubbles in her saliva change colours to whatever she eats, like pure white when she had yogurt.

Yes I mostly feed them grains. There are dirt beds around that they play in sometimes but I'm not sure if they get gravel from it. I'm going to the feed store this morning so I'll ask for grit.

I managed to get pics of inside her mouth with some help. I'm not sure if these are good enough but she was a bit rowdy and I didn't want to hurt her. There's one with flash and one without.

 

[Kerioki]

Update:

So I gave her some water mixed with apple cider vinegar this morning because there were some brown pieces of what looked like bug at the side of her mouth. I figured she might be having some trouble with digestion only for her to start gagging after drinking a little. When we shined the light into her mouth again we found HAIR. It was an obstruction after all. The hair was wrapped around her tongue and stuck at the back of her throat which we didn't see before. My sister and I spent the next hour dislodging the hair from her mouth. Her tongue started bleeding a bit and there were some mucus looking things mixed with the hair and blood. She looked exhausted afterwards and we left her hunching on her little bed. Now we're home from work and she's almost back to her old self. She's being rowdy with her siblings and pecking at me. She's eating a lot and drinking water the scoop way. She's more alert. Only thing is her tongue went through trauma and I can see its still a bit tender. There's still some saliva but not as bad as before. I'm going to monitor her closely over the weekend just in case this is a false dawn but I'm just so relieved she's being my rowdy little troublemaker right now. Thank you all for your help.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

What wonderful news. I am so glad to hear she is feeling better. Thank the Lord she has you and your sister, who never gave up. Who would have guessed a chick with a hair ball! Those are for cats, I am glad y'all kept trying to find the problem and were able to dislodge it.