Chick keeps getting flipped over on her back!

[Folly's place]

I hope what you are doing will help!
Look hard tonight when everyone is roosting for mites or lice! Have a small flashlight or head lamp, and check their skin around their vents, under wings, neck and back. If she's weak because of anemia, this can be the problem.
Are her pupils equal? Head tilt?
What are your feeding, and what's the mill date on the feed bag? Vitamin deficiencies happen...
Has she been 'off' her whole life, or is this a new problem?
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

Is she a new bird? Marek's disease also comes to mind, although I do hope not.
Mary

 

[smott]

Is she a new bird? Marek's disease also comes to mind, although I do hope not.
Mary

Hi Mary, thanks for the response! I have 14 7-8 week old chicks, all of whom I acquired about the same time. I am a new chicken momma, so we have a new setup and no previous flock.
To attempt to answer your questions: I have dusted the entire flock with a mixture of Sevin dust and DE due to gnats are horrible here right now and were driving them crazy. (I had been spraying them with vanilla as well as the FlysX non-chemical version without any relief.) There is also DE in their dust bath. I have looked for mites/lice, but I really don't know what I'm looking for. I just moved them to their coop about a week ago, and it seems they have not settled in well enough that I can go bother them at night without upsetting and waking them all. I guess the roosting soundly comes later...? I will certainly look for pests again since I have noticed her scratching under her neck!
Pupils are equal and no unusual tilt to her head.
I started out feeding Purina medicated chick starter and have changed over to the non-medicated. (I did mix in some Dumor 24% starter because TSC sold me the wrong thing and I had already opened it. ) They also get mealworms, various fruits and veggies, and eat lots of grass. I no longer have the feed bag unfortunately. ( Will remember to check that next time I buy!)
As for her history, we have battled curled toes since I got her. I bandaged one toe on each foot early on (it was almost like they had no bones in them and just folded up underneath her feet). I thought we had "fixed" them, however the one on the left foot now is kind of flaccid and tends to get caught up under the toe next to so I try to keep a bandaid on it all the time. She has always walked a little funny and been clumsy, but I honestly attributed it to the fact that her feet are so heavily feathered. She kinda walks like a penguin anyway, so that, along with the toe issue unfortunately I think delayed my coming to the conclusion that something was wrong. It wasn't until I noticed her rolling onto her back that I really got to wondering if there was something going on rather than clumsiness. I got Dottie and most of her flockmates from Tractor Supply... from my online reading I assume that they are unvaccinated. I have read some about Marek's and I really hope that isn't what's going on. None of my other chicks have had any problems at all.
I know this was long... thanks for taking the time to respond . I am so worried about her.

 

[Folly's place]

Unless there were chickens on your property within the last year, or reused poultry supplies, Marek's disease is very unlikely in new chicks. That's good!
She has some kind of problem just her own, and I hope you can help with the supplemental vitamins, if it's a deficiency.
DE is about useless, and dangerous for everyone to inhale, so it's best to not use it out there.
Carbaryl is not approved for chickens, so use permethrin instead if there is a problem with mites or lice.
Some vitamins degrade over time, and some individuals may have a need for more than the normal amounts of something, or there may be a neurological issue not related to any deficiency at all.
Always check the mill date on each bag of food you buy, and it's best to store it in the original bags in a metal garbage can or some similar metal container.
She might have flown into a wall, or have some other injury not obvious, and besides nursing care, it's just going to be up to her to get better, or not. Sadly, every chick isn't going to live...
Mary

 

[smott]

Unless there were chickens on your property within the last year, or reused poultry supplies, Marek's disease is very unlikely in new chicks. That's good!
She has some kind of problem just her own, and I hope you can help with the supplemental vitamins, if it's a deficiency.
DE is about useless, and dangerous for everyone to inhale, so it's best to not use it out there.
Carbaryl is not approved for chickens, so use permethrin instead if there is a problem with mites or lice.
Some vitamins degrade over time, and some individuals may have a need for more than the normal amounts of something, or there may be a neurological issue not related to any deficiency at all.
Always check the mill date on each bag of food you buy, and it's best to store it in the original bags in a metal garbage can or some similar metal container.
She might have flown into a wall, or have some other injury not obvious, and besides nursing care, it's just going to be up to her to get better, or not. Sadly, every chick isn't going to live...
Mary

Thanks Mary! There is SO much to learn about caring for chickens, and so much of the info available on the internet is contradictory unfortunately. I have noticed them sneezing quite a bit after dust bathing, so I will probably forgo the DE from here out. The entire run and coop area were sprayed with Permethrin prior to putting the chicks out there in an attempt to cut down on the gnat population, so hopefully lice/mites aren't a problem yet...(my skin is crawling just thinking about it) but I'm definitely going to check them all closely tomorrow. I appreciate all of your help!