brain damaged chick?

[kinnip]

I have one chick who seems narcoleptic. She stands rarely and when she does she wobbles back and forth like she's drunk until she falls asleep again. She's sleeping with increasing frequency and never runs or flaps her wings. She just sleeps. She's nowhere near as big as the other chicks, since she eats and drinks rarely. The other chicks don't pick on her much. Mostly they ignore her. All of the other chicks are highly active and seemingly healthy, so I don't suspect disease. Is there anything I can try to get her back on her feet, or is this one I might have to deal with loosing?

 

[Catsie22]

Hi-
I'm a newbie myself, but sounds like you might have a runt on your hands. Regardless, the chick would probably benefit from hand feeding/water....it will definitely only get worse if its not eating and drinking as much as the others to begin with. I'm dealing with a sick chick right now and can't say I'm having a ton of luck, but have found a lot of suggestions online for offering vitamin/mineral boosters (those make specifically for birds as well as infant vitamin drops) and also for feeding yogurt if the bird has some digestive imbalance. Worms also come to mind...but I know even less about those in chickens. If you want more info about the above, I can explain in more detail, but won't occupy any more space for the time being.
-Cat

 

[kinnip]

They have a vitamin and electrolyte powder in their water supply. As for hand feeding, I haven't tried it, but I did try holding her thinking it might get her excited, but she just fell asleep on my knee. I'll try it with food, but I'm getting more worried by the minute and she's less and less interested in anything other than sleeping. I wonder if someone didn't peck her on the head a little too hard.

 

[kinnip]

This is weird, but maybe someone with an explanation will see it. Little Wallflower seems to be o.k. today. She's still smaller and slower than the others and stands around staring alot, but she's eating and drinking and sleeping no more than the others. Other than behaviour, the only difference I can see is that she had a poo. Yesterday, I spent ample time inspecting her butt for pastiness and it was clean as a whistle. Today, she has the same black poo stuck to her hiney fluff(not her vent) that the others had in the first day or two. Could she have been constipated? If so, is it likely to happen again? Could there have been permanent damage? Am I a fretting mother hen for no reason?