Chick not growing, not eatting, Help please!

[nickie]

From personal experience with a mildly pasted chick:

She was barely pasted, but after 4 days she was smaller and weaker with the sickly chick look. I watched her and noticed she wasn't pooping. She had no pasting on her butt, but she was clogged internally. She has become constipated without any outward signs other than a slightly enlarged behind. To be graphic I put a finger on each side of her vent and applied slight pressure to help her poo. I did this every 15 minutes for 2 hours (popping her poop pimple) and then checked her hourly for the rest of the day. She recovered fully and earned her wonderful name Buttplugg.

Check for constipation.

 

[kari_dawn]

She is pooing...I had thought about that...squeezing her like a zit, but she IS pooing...I keep having to remove it off her rear...the exact ammount I would expect to have to remove from what she has been consuming...

 

[nickie]

Quote:
Is she droopy and huddled?

I honestly don't know... I've only had experience with one set of chicks and one set of ducklings. I'm sorry.

 

[kari_dawn]

She isn't as active as the others...She does move around...I would not exactly discribe her as huttled or droopy, but certainly not as active as I would like

I did notice that she seemed to have a bit of "umbilical cord" dried to her tush below her vent (which, coupled with her eyes being stuck shut when she arrived led me to begin giving her egg yolk) though.

 

[kari_dawn]

...its almost like she just wasn't quite ready to hatch

 

[kefiren]

I lost a chick to poop-butt this year. Weird. Up to then I'd never lost a chick. Perhaps because it was summer, I always brood in late winter. Also, my food was different than the breeder's food.

In my case the chick was fine at bed time and dead by morning. Anyways, this is what I did for the rest.

I transferred them to a larger brooder with lots of space and fresh air (garage) so they could get away from the heat light if they so desired. If anyone read the "old-timers" thread, you can read about how silly it seems to some old-timers to have chicks indoors in a large tupperware tub. At that time the house temp was swinging wildly and I was raising and lowering the light like a mad woman. Better to let them have the choice of cool and warm areas.

Daily, I mixed chicken grit with their food.
Daily, I broke open a capsule of people probiotic and put it in their water tower. I also added about 1/4 teaspoon of pascalite clay.

On 90+ degree days I put them outside in a grassy, half shaded-half sunny area in an uncovered cold frame for an hour or so each day.

Your mileage may vary, and I'm sure my intuitive ideas might sound strange to some. But--the poop butts cleared up within about a day and a half, and they are 5 months now.

Probiotics help digestion, clay helps detoxify-in people too!