Chick with Failure to Thrive & Enlarged Crop (may be normal)

[Tina B]

Sorry if these questions sound silly, but I am new to chickens!

I bought 6 chicks of 3 varieties. One little chick is not thriving....she is now about 4 weeks old, but the other chicks are triple her size. Her feathers are also very slow to come in..the other chicks are getting their colors but she is still yellow and downy with the exception of new wing feathers. She eats and drinks, scratches, pushes her way into the food, and does all the things the others do. I've added an antibiotic to their water (about 3 days ago). I separated her and one other chick at night so that she could get extra food, but nothing seems to be working.

Today, I put them all in the outside coop for the first time. When I brought them in tonight, I noticed that the right side of her breast was enlarged and very hard near the wing joint. Her mate protects her, but I think the others may be peaking her? An old post on this site mentions it is probably her crop, but I treated it with iodine just in case.

Any suggestions?
Overall symptoms:
Failure to thrive
Failure to develop feathers
Hard swollen right breast

Otherwise she seems healthy, but I still worry about her.

 

[Renee]

Some chicks have internal deformities or genetic problems that are not visible to us at first. Some are just small. It sounds like she is doing fine, even though she is little.

You should check her crop in the morning to see if it has flattened out any. Is she eating pine shavings or straw? If she is, you should remove them.

Adding an antibiotic may possibly give your chickens yeast and fungal problems. Now that you have started, however, be sure to give them a full week's treatment so that you don't create any superbugs. It is not recommended to use antibiotics unless you are treating a specific disease.

Good luck with the baby chick. She might be like my Quasimodo, the runt with the hump-back (or chest). Quasi is now Queen of the Roost!