Help!! Baby chick sick.

[Simmiechicks]

Good day all!
I have a week old baby chick who is a bit lethargic. I started noticing that sometimes it falls on its back and struggles to get up, but when you turn it on it’s back it can get up.
The baby looks at food and pecks at it but doesn’t eat alot. She was eating and drinking till yesterday. We have crop fed her some food with electrolytes.
She gasps for air but only when stressed and has crackles in her lungs. It gets slightly better when steamed with oxygen and meds but resumes after about 15minutes. At times she does have labored breathing when resting but comes and goes. She is the only chick with these symptoms.
She cries constantly and only stops when held against my chest.
I have given her antibiotics and electrolytes to keep and her hydrated.

What on earth could this be???

 

[Debbie292d]

She's crying probably because she's hungry and thirsty. You sound like you know what you're doing to keep her fed though. Just be careful as they can aspirate so easily.

She might have something internally wrong with her starting from when she was growing in the egg. With new chicks, it's hard to know why some struggle and others don't. It could wind up being a FTT (failure to thrive) chick. I've only had one out of around 500 I hatched this year like that.

Since it's a baby chick, it wouldn't have an infection already, so I'd not be giving it antibiotics though. Instead, I'd give it a little Poultry Cell or Nutri-Drench either in their water or a couple of drops in the mash you're feeding it.