Chicks limping, slipping, won’t stop chirping, and only drinks water

[Nicks4eva]

Hello one of my baby chicks is limping, slipping, won’t stop chirping, and only drinks water. When I hold him it feels like he puts all of its weight on one leg and one of its legs seems a little twisted. I was on vacation when my mom was taking care of them , the chick is 1 week old and starting to turn weak. Does anyone how I can help it?

 

[azygous]

Have the chicks been eating anything other than chick feed? How is this weak chick's poop? Anything? Can you feel its crop? Is it flat and empty or is there a hard bulge in it?

What is the bedding? Is it newspaper or is it shavings? Or some other substrate?

When a chick is peeping constantly, it means it is in distress. Figuring out why requires these questions and answers.

 

[Nicks4eva]

I haven’t been able to tell it just has white poop. All it’s been eating is medicated chick feed. Right know the bedding is a blanket I’m buying aspen shavings today! The crop is a buldge.

 

[azygous]

Is the crop a hard bulge?

 

[Nicks4eva]

Is the crop a hard bulge?

It just started eating like 5 minutes ago but it’s still chirping louder than the others and I thought it was a hard bulge but all my other chickens have the same thing

 

[azygous]

Try this. Warm a towel in the dryer. Nice and warm but not burning hot. Wrap the chick in the warm towel and place it back in the brooder. Yeah, it will look like a burrito. That's what we want. Wrap it so its snuggly warm and can't get loose.

See if it stops chirping. If it does, and it becomes quiet and content, it may be that the chick can't get warm enough due to not being able to process calories efficiently. This would make it a failure-to-thrive chick. It would need special feeding and vitamins.

If the chick doesn't stop chirping after it's wrapped in a warm bundle, it could be constipated, which is very painful. The chick would then need to be treated with coconut oil orally in order to break up the blockage in its intestines.

 

[Nicks4eva]

Try this. Warm a towel in the dryer. Nice and warm but not burning hot. Wrap the chick in the warm towel and place it back in the brooder. Yeah, it will look like a burrito. That's what we want. Wrap it so its snuggly warm and can't get loose.

See if it stops chirping. If it does, and it becomes quiet and content, it may be that the chick can't get warm enough due to not being able to process calories efficiently. This would make it a failure-to-thrive chick. It would need special feeding and vitamins.

If the chick doesn't stop chirping after it's wrapped in a warm bundle, it could be constipated, which is very painful. The chick would then need to be treated with coconut oil orally in order to break up the blockage in its intestines.

Thank you it seems to stop chirping in heat I have another question I have a 2 month year old red cyami chicken he’s a aggressive at times but would it be ok to put her in the same brooder as the chicks? She pecked at ones head very near the eyeball might make a wall

 

[azygous]

Your chick is likely a FTT chick. (Failure to thrive) This means it could have been hatched without fully developed organs and it's now having trouble making the most of its food in order to produce body heat. So you need to feed it specially for a week so it can catch up.

Poultry Nutri-drench is something you need to buy if you don't have it on hand. It's special chick vitamins just for a chick such as yours. Get some tofu and crumble it up and sprinkle a few drops of Nutri-drench over the top like a chocolate sundae. This is easy to digest and high in protein. You can alternate with soft boiled egg. Do this for a whole week. Let all the chicks eat it. The sick one will be more likely to eat if it's with the others.

Getting an aggressive baby chick to stop trying to peck eyes out is easy. All the tips on this are here. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aggressive-baby-chicks-and-how-to-stop-the-behavior.72029/

All chicks should be kept together. They don't thrive alone. Yes, even sick ones and injured ones do much better kept with the rest. Making a wall in the brooder can help, but it really isn't necessary. Most chick bad behavior is extremely temporary.

 

[Nicks4eva]

Didn’t look like the reply went through about getting it! I just bought the nutri drench for chickens and should be here in about 10 days what can I do until then? And I made a wall between the aggressive chicks!

 

[azygous]

Nutri-drench is sold at all feed stores. You should be able to find it where you buy your feed. Your chick needs it now, as in right this minute. Ten days won't cut it. Your chick could be dead by then or at least seriously behind the others chicks. You need to catch these genetic issues as early as possible to even think about getting a decent outcome.

You could use baby vitamins, but they aren't formulated for sick chicks. Nutri-drench is absorbed directly into the blood stream without needing to be metabolized through the immature liver.