Chick can't stand up...doesn't look like spraddle...any ideas?

[mkr]

Hello,
I have a day old chick that cannot stand up and I am having trouble figuring out what, if anything specific, is wrong. Here are the symptoms: 1.) It cannot stand or walk on its own. When I place it upright it falls over on its left side and then flips further onto its back. 2.) It appears twisted toward its left side generally.It's legs look normal in isolation but again seem not quite oriented correctly and seem to cant toward the right side of the body 3.) It's wings do not look like they lie correctly on its body. They seem stuck in a raised position. 4.) It is very large for a newly hatched chick and appears to have a distended abdomen compared to the others. Here are some pictures. It is alert and has eaten a little grow gel from my fingers. I have it in the brooder propped up in a bowl. When it gets stuck on its back it is clearly very agitated but cannot flip itself over and is definitely is not moving independently.


I have looked around on here but haven't had much luck with answers. Anyone had this before? Should I give it a couple days and hydrate with a dropper? Cull? Any kind of bracing I can do? Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks!



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[chooks4life]

If you own the parents, I'd possibly make a note about them potentially carrying a genetic disease, and in the meantime I'd try it on multivitamin mix of some liquid form for ease of administration; it may simply be a serious shortfall of some nutrient. It could be some exposure to a toxin or chemical the mother or even father received prior to breeding, or during the formulation of the egg, or whenever..

You could maybe even try homeopathic Hypericum. It's worked for some people's birds with Marek's which has fairly similar symptoms. There's a thread somewhere on these forums with the info; if it works, it's worth keeping an open mind about and trying out, I reckon. Homeopathy isn't quackery, as misunderstood as it is, there are vets and doctors who use it with great results. I still remain slightly skeptical but I've used it on my own animals and had it used on me with success. That's the power of the logical mind to deny reality when it doesn't understand how something works, I guess. lol.

Homeopathy isn't something you give less of to an animal just because it's younger, the dose is actually the same for all ages, but because people find that hard to understand the producers of the homeopathics tend to label them like other medicines, i.e. '2 drops for adults, 1 for kids' etc. For this reason you can just give it a normal dose and see what that does; sometimes it can aggravate the symptoms but it's part of the healing process. St John's Wort can also be bought in capsule form or dried form and generally is used to treat neurological disorders of all sorts. I've seen it work on both humans and animals. Probably more use to you in homeopathic form since you can just administer it via eyedropper.

If this is something more serious, you may want to retain the chick, even if it dies, for testing or autopsy to identify what went wrong, on the chance it happens again.

Best wishes.