Chick, 11 weeks, size of week old

[Kajoda929]

I have a chick who has continued to keep her stunted size. She is now 11 weeks old and has had three sets of hatch mates go outside already while she remains indoors with the heat lamp. She couldn't even handle the regular warmth of the house when our power went out for a few hours this past week and had to be warmed up. As it is, I have had to file her beak(it started overgrowing), clip her wings numerous times to help with balance because they keep growing while she does not, and trim her nails because they keep getting too long as well. We are now trying scrambled eggs and tuna for a week to see if the added vitamin E will make a difference.

All posts I've seen so far regard chicks that grow to a few weeks and seem to slow down or stop, but even their feathers stop growing, from what I'm reading. This little one's are not. I don't know if anyone has experienced this before...She is my bff's chick now and she refuses to give up on her, so if anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate them.

She is the chick on the right in this photo...The one on the left is 4 weeks old.

 

[Perris]

Does your bff think the chick is enjoying life? likes the interventions with files and scissors and clippers? And living under a heat lamp? And that's just attending to the things wrong with this chick that you can see. What else is wrong on the inside?
In any case, that is not a good life for a chicken. Quality of life matters. Sometimes the kindest thing to do is to stop the suffering.

 

[Sussex19]

I had a chick that just didn't grow, and she died a bit later.
If I had know what I know now, I wouldn't have let it carry on as long as it did.
I think if you have tried everything you can, which it sounds like you have, then it might be time to let her go.

 

[Kajoda929]

Does your bff think the chick is enjoying life? likes the interventions with files and scissors and clippers? And living under a heat lamp? And that's just attending to the things wrong with this chick that you can see. What else is wrong on the inside?
In any case, that is not a good life for a chicken. Quality of life matters. Sometimes the kindest thing to do is to stop the suffering.

Explaining this to someone who doesn't want to hear it makes absolutely no difference and has already caused multiple arguments. If I put her out of her misery, my bff will never, ever forgive me and she is not mine to take care of. I cull my own when they are sick or hurt and won't get better within reason and she has no say in those. Now I have no say in this.

I asked if anyone knew what the cause itself might be because I'm tired of seeing this day in and day out. I do not need to be reminded of what I see every day, thank you.

 

[Sussex19]

All I can say is, whenever I've seen this sort of thing, it's generally something wrong internally.
Good food and care are all one can do.

 

[Peep-PeepChick]

Please, if you have FB, there is a group that deals just with special needs chickens, and some of them are experts and they are a NO CULL group. They work on finding the solution and figuring out if the chicken IS living its best life. Please consider asking to join this group (or asking your friend to). There are people I know personally in this group who spend the majority of their free time only helping the people who ask. It's a great group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/502385220514214