asking all experts. chicks scratching at ears

[thebirdfarm]

I just hatched 3 wheaton maran chicks and they are all scratching a lot at their ears. The one chick even scratches so much that it keeps falling over and then can't seem to flip back over. any help would be great. I kinda spent a bit of money on these chicks and now my wife's gonna kill me if they die.

 

[babyspice35]

Mites perhaps?

 

[thebirdfarm]

Alright well I'm not really sure what was going on but just incase this helps other's. Because I was unable to find any answers even on some other posts with chicks having similar problems. On the other post I read they used alcohols ointments etc. So I thought about it and it just hit me maybe that chick isn't drinking. (sometimes you can show them by dipping their beak but they don't always learn first time) So anyway I started dipping the birds beak and making it drink 4 or 5 times where it tipped its head back. This seamed to help so I kept it up a few times that night and the next morning a few more. I finally stopped doing it when I noticed the chick drinking on its own and now it seems to be doing fine.

 

[Giddyup]

Found this on a search. We had his happen with one of our chicks. It started immediately after the hatch and did not improve. It won't make it as we can't feed it or water it. Even if you hold it, it seems as if there is someting wrong (would hold head "chin" down, beak open and "toss" head side to side). It almost seemed as if fluid may be in the head? brain? Or bad brain development? The rest of the clutch is very energetic and vigorous.