CHICK DYING

[emilyterrill]

chicks 1 week old, came home and three other chickens were laying on top of one that was laying on its back barely breathing. can barely lift her head or open eyes. we took her inside and she held her head up for short intervals and now she's back to being super weak. occasional chirps from her. she hasnt had electrolytes yet. she cant hold her wings to her sides she's so weak.

 

[Alaskan]

Dribble warm sugar water (or electrolyte water if you have it ) into her beak. One drop at a time. She should swallow when she feels the drop.

Go nice and slow. ..every so often warm the liquid back up.

 

[Alaskan]

The holes in her beak...that is her nose

 

[Alaskan]

how do i tell when her crop is full?

The crop, when full, will be a round bump on the front of her neck.

Check a healthy chick after it has eaten a bunch, and you should feel it.

 

[Kiki]

I'm sorry you are having to deal with this.
She needs water asap....hold a spoon of it to her beak to see if she will drink on her own....if not drip drops onto he beak so they will flow into her mouth.


Do you have older chickens on your property?

Where these chicks hatched outside?

 

[Kiki]

Not cold water...room temp...and not HOT water.

 

[Alaskan]

Hopefully the warm sugar water (or electrolyte water), will pep her up a bit.

If it does, (hopefully in about 10 minutes...but you might need to take a break and warm her up under a heat lamp), tempt her to eat very softly scrambled eggs, or watered down runny peanut butter.

Again, warm is good. Work hard at it.

If you can coax her to eat, keep working at it, every so often pausing to warm her back up, and give her more of the warm water, until her crop is FULL.

Then you can rest for a bit.

The hope is after one force feeding and a good warming both inside and out, that she will pep up and be fine.

If she is very run down though, she might need three tries with the feeding thing. Just watch her, if her crop gets small, talk her into eating.

Or..... she could be too far gone.

 

[Alaskan]

So no....Dribble the water into the end of her beak....

 

[Kiki]

NOT IN THE HOLES....
Stop.

 

[emilyterrill]

how do i tell when her crop is full?