HELP!!! 5 day old chick is not eating, sleeps all the time, not growing...

GreenAcres31

Hatching
7 Years
Aug 13, 2012
7
0
7
Nottingham, NH
Hello. This is my first go-around with raising baby chicks so I could really use some help/advice. I purchased six black australorp chicks from our local Agway (so I did not see them hatch and don't know if there were any complications). They were three days old when I brought them home. Immediately that day I noticed that one of the chicks was not acting like the others. She was smaller and instead of being up and about, wandering around the brooder and pecking at the medicated chicken starter like the rest of them, she was just sleeping on the 95 degree side of the brooder under the heat lamp. Once in a while she would get up and go have a drink of water on her own, but then she'd just fall back to sleep as soon as she stopped. She didn't appear injured and I checked for things like "pasty butt" and she looked fine. She was chirping loudly and frequently that day when she was awake. I read some of the forums on here and decided to take the advice of many of the posters in the forums and try some sugar water. I mixed it up and used a 10cc plastic syringe to place droplets of the sugar water next to her beak for her to drink. She did well with that, so I decided to try mixing up a mash of the chick starter (I crushed it into a powder first) and hard boiled egg yolks. She ate like champ from the syringe, pecking at the end of it for more as I pushed the plunger. I put a few droplets of the mash onto the towel that I was holding her in and she pecked it off the towel too. I also noticed that she pooped on the towel. Just a tiny bit (black and white and watery in consistency). This made me hopeful! Whenever I put her back in the brooder though, she would just spend 90% of her time sleeping on the 95 degree side under the lamp and the other 10% getting up to go and huddle with the rest of the chicks. She made it through the night, but on day 4 she wasn't looking so good. I never noticed her going to drink from the waterer by herself like she had on day 3. When I tried feeding her the mash from the plastic syringe as I'd done the night before, she wasn't interested. I had to water it down even more and put the droplets along the side of her beak to basically just let them slide into her mouth when she opened it. She drank it if it was running into her beak, but she wasn't actively pecking at the syringe like she was the day before. It was hard to get her to open her beak too since she was barely staying awake in my hands, so I could only get a couple cc's at a time into her. I tried this about 4 times throughout the course of day 4. She pooped once that I noticed and it was watery and black and white again like on day 3. She made it through the night last night. Today is her 5th day and so far, she's acting exactly like she was on day 4. Not interested in the food, only swallowing what's sliding down her beak, and sleeping the majority of the time. I'm going to pick up some "Sav-A-Chick" from the store today, but is there anything else that I can try? Anything else that I should be doing? I'd hate to see her die after trying so hard with her for the last few days.
 
Sounds like you are doing everything right. Unfortunately sometimes they are just weaker ones. I have a SS in my brooder now that had all the same symptoms as yours. I did sugar water for a quick fix and got the sav-a-chick probiotic and electrolyte mix and mixed both in the water. She just seemed to not be grasping things like the others even though she had been shown the food and water. She would peck at the feeder, but not where the food comes out, like she didn't understand. I put a paper towel down over the pine shavings and placed the feeder on that and sprinkled food around the feeder where she could clearly see it. She liked the new water mix, but she "pecks" the water, she doesn't drink like the others with the typical "scoop" method then tilting their head back. And she started eating the food around the feeder. After a few days she seemed to catch on and now is doing well eats constantly and is making up for lost time growing and her feathers are filling in like the others. I just think she might be a bit "special" :/
 
Okay, I'll try the probiotic and the electrolyte mix this afternoon when I get home from work. Mine did the same thing on her 3rd day that yours did (pecking at the feeder but not at the feed). She drank the water just fine though on day 3, but she seems to have deteriorated on day 4 and today. I'll try the paper towel and feed trick that you mentioned if she gets to the point where she can stay awake long enough to know what's going on. Hopefully the water mixture will work. How many days total did it take for yours to come around?
 
I also moved the food a little closer to the heat source to entice her since that was where she was spending most of her time. It took about 3-4 days before I even started telling people I thought she was going to pull through. But, I also was afraid I would jinx her if I said anything too soon. I'm still putting a paper towel down under the feeder. I found it helps with waist since the feed doesn't fall through the pine shavings and they are more likely to eat it. Good luck. I truly believe the sav-a-chick pulled her through. It was after I started using that, that I noticed the increase in appetite.
 
Okay, I'll start by getting some of the Sav-A-Chick probiotics & electrolytes on my way home. I just hope she's still alive when I get there
hmm.png
Thank you for the tips and tricks! I'm praying for the tiny little girl to make it through. Poor thing.
 
Post from 6 years ago and I’m going through the exact same with my chick and no one ever said if chick passed or found something that helped 😢
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom