Aah! Help!

we fed her medicated chick feed for her first two weeks, but now she eats regular chicken feed..


I would suspect rickets because she will be getting way too much calcium on adult layer feed at that age. (Ie as per below where excess amounts can also cause it). They call it layer feed because it is for hens that are laying so using a lot of calcium in the egg production. Chicks have no way of using up that extra calcium so you get rickets.

Rickets
Rickets develops because of inadequate bone mineralization, due to calcium, phosphorous and vitamin D3 deficiency. However, all of the minerals must be in the correct ratio, SO EXCESS AMOUNTS CAN ALSO CAUSE rRICKETS. The proper calcium-to-phosphorous ratio for healthy bone mineralization is 2 to 1. Vitamin D3's role is regulating the body's metabolism and absorption of calcium. If any of these crucial minerals are out of whack, rickets can result. Rickets is not contagious, so it's quite possible that some birds in your flock suffer from it while others don't.

Symptoms
Chicks suffering from rickets develop an obvious lameness because of the mineral deficiency. It generally appears when the chicks are about 2 weeks old. In older birds, a similar condition is known as osteomalacia. Because the bones are so soft, the bird develops bowed legs. In a worst-case scenario, chicks can't walk and can't get to food and water. Some die of suffocation because their bones aren't strong enough for them to breathe. If your chick's beak is very soft and easily moved, suspect rickets.

Put her back on an age appropriate feed such as chick grower till she approaches laying age around 20 weeks or so. I had one went lame with this problem though we caught it before it got that bad, that we bought from a breeder who had had the 11 week olds on layer feed. After a week on chick grower it cleared up.

Yours is very advanced if that's what it is and sounds like it's suffocating so quicker treatment.
Supplements
If chicks or birds in your flock have rickets, give them three times the recommended dose of vitamin D3 in their water for two weeks, according to Hobby Farms. It must be vitamin D3 -- chickens can't process other forms of the vitamin. You should be able to buy it from a pet shop.
 
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I doubt it's rickets. We've had lots of chicks hatch and they all had the same feed system, none got this. She's doing fine now, we just give her her feed, water, vitamins, etc. she either has a vitamin deficiency or got stung by something

Never mind I didn't actually read all of it
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I doubt it's rickets. We've had lots of chicks hatch and they all had the same feed system, none got this. She's doing fine now, we just give her her feed, water, vitamins, etc. she either has a vitamin deficiency or got stung by something. Thanks everyone for helping :)


The symptoms do sound a lot like rickets, so I think we will do chick feed just in case
 
Ok. Here's an update
She's back on chick starter, and eats a lot faster now that it small and soft. I gave her a little capsule of vitamin d3 by cutting it and squeezing it in her beak, she ate it. She's eating and drinking fine. Does anyone know how much vitamin d3 I give her?
 
Ok. Here's an update
She's back on chick starter, and eats a lot faster now that it small and soft. I gave her a little capsule of vitamin d3 by cutting it and squeezing it in her beak, she ate it. She's eating and drinking fine. Does anyone know how much vitamin d3 I give her?


Hmm didn't realise you were using a capsule. I have no idea how you would dose that. The one I was thinking of they sell it in liquid form at the pet shop and you mix it with water at 3x what the bottle says and you then replace their regular water with it.
 

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