Baby Chick injured, panting and shaking

[alsiebs]

We have a two week old baby chick that somehow injured herself in the night. She is with two other baby chicks in a storage box with a heat lamp about 3 feet above them in our kitchen. We realized that after the injury, (or maybe the cause of the injury) the other chicks pecked her on her sides and she has feathers missing and one side is worse than the other. She limps on the side that is worse. We are not sure if her foot or leg are broken, or if the damage is above in the muscles that connect to her leg. It has some scab from light bleeding, but has not bled since the injury two nights ago. She shakes and pants most of the time, except when we hold her. She is the same distance from the heat lamp as the others but they are not panting like her. She eats, but very little, and drinks a little too. Has anyone experienced this? This is our first time raising chickens, thanks for any advice.

 

[chicmom]

It's possible that, if one side only seems to be affected, that she may have had a stroke. This does happen with chickens sometimes. It could be that, when she was unable to move around like the other chicks, then they attacked her, making things worse. Chicks don't like to be alone, but if you don't keep her away from the others, they will just peck her to death. When chicks and chickens see blood, it really makes them become violent.

This chick might recover with some nursing, but sometimes you never really figure out what went wrong, and they do pass away. If you really want to hand feed it and give it water, and you make sure the chick stays warm, you never know, it may recover. Not everybody has time to do that though, so if you can, just make sure the chick is comfortable, and that food and water is close by for it.

Best wishes for the little chick,
Sharon

 

[alsiebs]

Thanks for the quick reponse. Yes we have it seperated now with food and water. I may try and post a photo if I can figure that out. Also we put antibiotic ointment on the wound every night.