Chick acts like shes dry heaving-- bedding question

[Noobchick]

Not sure which forum this goes in; thought id post here too since it also involves a bedding question. Sorry if thats incorrect.


1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Ameracauna, 1 1/2 weeks old.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Acts like its dry heaving- sticks its neck out and opens its beak wide

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
About 30 min

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
No

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I saw the silly bird eat very tiny twigs, the diameter if fine wire. Its mixed up in the pine shavings bedding.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Medicated chick feed, vitamin water

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Normal

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Dipped the birds beak in olive oil about 5-6 times.

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I think we'll be able to fix this ourselves

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Large square cardboard brooder, normal set up lots of room to move. Only four chick in there right now. I was using newspaper with paper towels on top but they started pecking and shredding the paper towels. Was afraid they were eating the paper bc i couldnt find all the pieces. So i switched to same setup with about an inch of pine shavings on top. Then they dug thru the pine shavings and STILL shredded the paper towels. So about an hour ago i cleaned out all their bedding and just put newspaper with pine shavings in.

Not sure what to do with the chick OR the bedding situation. Really hoping you all have some advice. Thanks in advance.

 

[N&MSchroeder]

It sounds like the chick is just adjusting her crop, which is perfectly normal. It isn't a problem unless the crop is impacted in some way. Look/feel her chest area to see if it looks unusual. (lopsided, hard, etc.) It will be full and large if she has just eaten so ignore that. It should go down by morning. Observe her behavior and as a long as her droppings appear to be normal and she continues to eat and drink, then she is fine.

She doesn't need the olive oil unless she has an impacted crop. Good luck and

 

[Wildflower_VA]

I've only raised one batch of chicks, but my very healthy peeps did this a lot. They are now 13 weeks old, and I still see them doing it once in a while. The first time I saw it, I thought the chick was choking.

 

[Noobchick]

Thanks to both of you! Its amazing how much I still have to learn.

 

[N&MSchroeder]

It sounds like you are doing a great job taking care of your chicks!

What kind(s) do you have? As a side note, this same mouth opening behavior is exhibited when a young cock is trying to crow.

 

[Noobchick]

N&M-- Thank you! Im really trying. I know chicks die as a matter of course, sometimes through no fault of their owner. But since this is my first go at chickens I really really want it to go well. Losing a chick would be so discouraging to me.

I have 2Ameracaunas, a Welsummer and a RIR. The one doing all the yawning/dry heaving is my fiestiest bird. But so far looks like a single comb coming in. Better not be a rooster!! My neighbors would flip out.