Failure to thrive?

[hgood]

These chicks are 3 weeks old. One has had delayed development since the first few days. It does eat, drink, poop, and play as if nothing is wrong. What can I expect from it? Will it catch up? Does it have to be fully feathered before heading outside?

Added pics of the chick next to another born the same day and a pic of its feather development.

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[hgood]

This one doesn't show up for me.

 

[azygous]

The chick is going to be a tiny chick for a long while. I've seen this occasionally here on this forum, and the chick will still remain a fluffy "baby" even at six or even eight weeks old. The problem is this - you're seeing retarded growth externally. Internally the same may be occurring. Organs and other internal processes may also be seriously lagging. The important growth and development is not taking place, and vital details may not be happening at all.

As for the future for this chick, it doesn't look good. The chick is probably male from the appearance, and it will never be full-size, and will probably be sterile. It will be vulnerable to predators and may be subject to mistreatment by the flock. Such is the way with different ones in Chicken World.

 

[hgood]

It did have some strange yolk issues. Like leaking maybe? Hard to explain.

Sad to hear your prognosis. Is it better to cull or just keep waiting it out?

 

[azygous]

You know, that's your not-so-easy decision. It really depends on your flock management plan and how you view your chickens. If you keep chickens more for pets than other reasons, then perhaps you may decide to keep him on and see how things go.

But it's almost a given, he will not be a normal rooster or even a fully developed chicken and may not even live out a full year. If it turns out I'm wrong, and this is a pullet, she almost certainly won't lay eggs.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

This bird's symptoms are consistent with some forms of Mareks disease, especially failure to thrive or grow. Does that mean he has Mareks? No!

 

[hgood]

Yes that's hard. I honestly figured it would die naturally the first week, and am surprised to see it up and running around. He's still kicking today, but hasn't gotten anymore feathers since these pictures. I am not really sure of my flock management plan I guess. I started this year with both meat birds and layers. My meat birds have been processed and my oldest layers are coming up on laying time. One of my sexed Pullets is a rooster and he keeps attacking me, yesterday he drew blood with a peck to my ankle while I was filling the food dish, I believe he will be processed this weekend as much as I loved him he just turned mean..
I've had 33 chickens this year, and haven't had any issues except this one (couldn't resist the lavender!) I'm thinking I'll probably decide at 6 weeks, when the other two will be heading to the mini coop-whether to move this one out and see what happens or cull at that time.

I'll look up Mareks disease too. I've heard of it but not sure of symptoms. The other 2 chicks with it are fine though, growing as expected.