Advice needed for chick

[axg17]

Hi everyone, I have a chick who is 10 days old and not eating. I have been giving her Nex Tex Poultry Nutri Drops (my Nutri Drench has not arrived yet) but she has not wanted to eat anything today. She does not open her beak to eat or peck, so we have been spoon feeding her her seed mix with water, but has not wanted it today. Hopefully, when she has more energy she will be more willing to eat, so we will keep trying; but I was wondering if she will be alright with just the Nutri drops and water- I know that she does need to eat, but can she get by the next couple of days with just this and water?
Also, after having the drops she has been shaking whilst relieving herself, but doesnt seem to be in pain-does this likely mean that they are too hard on her stomach? Or is this just because she is very small and it takes a lot of energy?

 

[coach723]

Did you hatch this chick, or purchase it? Has it been normal up to this point? Is it pooping normally? Has pasty butt been an issue with this chick? Do you have other chicks with it? If this is a failure to thrive then there may be nothing that can be done. Things can go wrong internally sometimes that we can't see or do anything about. If it's having trouble pooping then it may be constipated. If that's the case then giving some coconut oil may help get things moving. Refrigerate or freeze a tsp to a TBsp of coconut oil til firm, break it into pieces and feed it to the chick, just put small bits in the beak, give it as much as you can get it to take.

 

[Tonyroo]

her seed mix with water, but

Have you been feeding the chick seeds all this time?

 

[axg17]

Have you been feeding the chick seeds all this time?

She does not eat her seeds as they are, so we mix them with water; she has also had egg yolk a couple times

 

[coach723]

Can you post a picture of what you are feeding? She should be on a chick starter feed, not seeds. Do you have chick grit available to her also?

 

[axg17]

Did you hatch this chick, or purchase it? Has it been normal up to this point? Is it pooping normally? Has pasty butt been an issue with this chick? Do you have other chicks with it? If this is a failure to thrive then there may be nothing that can be done. Things can go wrong internally sometimes that we can't see or do anything about. If it's having trouble pooping then it may be constipated. If that's the case then giving some coconut oil may help get things moving. Refrigerate or freeze a tsp to a TBsp of coconut oil til firm, break it into pieces and feed it to the chick, just put small bits in the beak, give it as much as you can get it to take.

Hi, we hatched this chick along with 1 other chick as the other 5 sadly did not make it. The man who helped us hatch them has a farm and is experienced with chicks, but this is our first time raising any. She is pooping normally and has not had any issues with pasty butt. She is lethargic because she has difficulty walking as she has splay leg (which we are treating) but other than that she is alright. She never refuses water when we give it to her and she poops and sleeps normally. She has been this way since she was born 10 days ago.
She doesn’t seem to be constipated because she is pooping normally, but she was shaking as it came out (maybe she needed energy for it) but as soon as she was done she was acting completely normal.
Yesterday I thought she may have had an impacted crop so I gave her some water and oil and massaged her crop, but she is fine as her crop was empty this morning.

 

[axg17]

Can you post a picture of what you are feeding? She should be on a chick starter feed, not seeds. Do you have chick grit available to her also?

Sorry, I think this is starter feed. I do not have chick grit because it was recommended to me that I give that to her once she is older.

 

[coach723]

That looks like chick starter, should be fine. Some give grit from day one, some start later, if they are only eating starter then the grit is less critical. Once they have access to other things to eat and pick up off the ground, it's important that they have access to grit so that they don't get impacted. In a quick search I was not able to find an ingredient label for the drops you are using, am assuming they are similar to the nutri drench we use here. It's very good for quick boosts, but it may (depending on your products ingredients) cause diahrea if used too long. If the chick has been this way since it hatched (and you said the others didn't make it) then this may be caused by an incubation/hatch issue, it happens. When they are so small it's often hard to know. The other recommendation I would give is to get a B complex tablet or capsule (human ones - regular not time release) and give 1/4 a tablet daily ground up or emptied and mixed into a bit of moistened feed. B deficiencies can cause weakness and neuromuscular symptoms (the shaking). and deficiencies can be started during incubation if the parent stock was low in B's. The B's are very safe and extra is excreted, little risk of overdose. See if you get improvement with that. If the chick survives I would suggest you get it some companions, it will be lonely and stressed on it's own. In the meantime, a small unbreakable mirror may help with stress, it can see a friend in there.

 

[axg17]

That looks like chick starter, should be fine. Some give grit from day one, some start later, if they are only eating starter then the grit is less critical. Once they have access to other things to eat and pick up off the ground, it's important that they have access to grit so that they don't get impacted. In a quick search I was not able to find an ingredient label for the drops you are using, am assuming they are similar to the nutri drench we use here. It's very good for quick boosts, but it may (depending on your products ingredients) cause diahrea if used too long. If the chick has been this way since it hatched (and you said the others didn't make it) then this may be caused by an incubation/hatch issue, it happens. When they are so small it's often hard to know. The other recommendation I would give is to get a B complex tablet or capsule (human ones - regular not time release) and give 1/4 a tablet daily ground up or emptied and mixed into a bit of moistened feed. B deficiencies can cause weakness and neuromuscular symptoms (the shaking). and deficiencies can be started during incubation if the parent stock was low in B's. The B's are very safe and extra is excreted, little risk of overdose. See if you get improvement with that. If the chick survives I would suggest you get it some companions, it will be lonely and stressed on it's own. In the meantime, a small unbreakable mirror may help with stress, it can see a friend in there.

We are only going to use the drops for 3-5 days (per the label) and then when the poultry nutri drench you use gets here (in around 2 weeks) we will try that. I agree it could be an incubation issue- I also think it could partly be because of her splay leg- it could be causing her stress so she does not want to eat & is lethargic. The shaking is only when she is pooping and it is big- as soon as it is over she goes back to normal, do you still think we should give the vitamins a try? We have one other chick, however he is so much bigger than her and sometimes stands on her when she has toppled over because of her splay leg, and has recently started pecking really hard which would cause her discomfort, so we have separated them.

 

[coach723]

You might try giving the coconut oil as well anyway, for a day or two. If she's not eating and drinking well, then dehydration may be a factor in causing the pushing so hard to poop, and constipation may still be giving it issues. If things are moving more normally then it may help with appetite. If she is smaller than the other, then there may be more issues that are not obvious (if they are different breeds then that could account for size also). Not much you can do but provide support and see how she does over time. The vitamins will not hurt anything, and may help. But if she's having digestive absorption issues, there is nothing that you can do for that.