Chicks recovering from Malnutrition (Pics added)

[Erica]

Is it possible to get another photo of Percy? The beak looks quite strange in the photo so far, but it may just be the light/focus.

I agree with others, adding some soluble vitamins would be a great thing to do in the short term.

 

[ll]

^ agrees with Erica ~
Pip's beak looks fine, Percy's looks different.

 

[drumstick diva]

Polyvisol vitamin drops (NO iron) are cheaper at Walmart. Percy's beak does look very much off. Her lower beak needs to be trimmed to match up with the top. It doesn't look like cross beak tho. Maybe her diet caused a nutritional problem (with the beak) - that would cause her to have trouble eating.

Don't beat yourself up over it. I had something like that happen many years ago. I used to raise dogs and always used Esbilac(puppy starter) if I needed to tube feed. For the last litter I thought it was stupid and wasteful to buy a case of esbilac. I found a starter formula in the manual re:tube feeding. To make the story shorter, all heck broke loose, none of the puppies died (thank goodness) but they were skinny, stunted in size and having diarrhea with blood and mucuous in it. The vet had me try various things - none worked. I was crying constantly expecting them to die any minute.

Finally at the last visit he decided to do a fecal check and found alot of fat in their stools and said the formula was irritating their pancreous( I know that is spelled wrong). I don't recall what he had me do (other than get them off the formula) but their development was delayed for quite awhile.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
You can always feel the breast bones on layer hens. You should be able to feel a small amount of meat on their breasts (like the back of your hand), but they generally don't have a lot there. When it feels like its skin over bones they are literally skin and bones.

Poultry rations are designed to be a complete ration. If you want them to get caught up, don't give them extras like eggs and yogurt, you are only throwing off the energy/protein balance that the feed was mixed to give. Keep the starter ration in front of them at all times and don't worry too much about the feathering. The feathers will come. You can give them treats later.

 

[la-pro]

Here's another picture of Percy. She sure does hate having her picture taken! Her beak is longer, the bottom half is longer than the top. She doesn't have any trouble eating at all, she's quite a little pig in fact. I'm thinking now that perhaps she wasn't malnourished if it's normal to have some breast bone sticking out. Pippy, on the other hand, definitely was, as she couldn't lift her head last week.