- May 14, 2012
- 112
- 3
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I lost a baby chick and don't want to lose another. Please help! Below are some symptoms/observations/actions we have done to help the chick.
It's been 4 days since this baby chick has shown signs of weakness. Before that, she was a very healthy/active girl. An Americauna we picked up from a local feed store. She should be about 2 weeks old and has huge wings and a good amount of tail feathers but a tiny TINY body.
She weighed 38g when we brought her home 9 days ago. Today, she weighs 32g. Weight has been steadily declining, which is predictable considering the fact she is not eating well. She used to be the leader, digging in the feed bowl and used to have the largest peeps. Now, she gets pushed around and doesn't want to eat/drink but rather sleeps all day.
Following the advice presented in this forum, we have been feeding her boiled egg yolk in water for the past 3 days (we noticed she won't really eat solid food any more). She let out happy chirps as she gobbled them up yesterday, but today, she hasn't been very interested in it.We also started feeding her water from our palm because it seems she does not have the strength to make it to the water bowl from the warm area. And yesterday and the day before, she drank vigorously, but today, not so much. We have also added plain yogurt to her diet as advised by many in this forum.
For more symptoms...
Yesterday, she kept one eye closed and the other open most of the day. But today, she is opening both, which I think is a good sign. She has also been having very watery/runny poop. And it has been getting on her bottom and hardening. Yesterday, it was so bad we gave her a little haircut, making sure not to hurt her. Today, we cleaned her up with warm water on a cotton pad and then applied olive oil to her vent/bottom area. Since then, her poop has not been sticking, although it is still pretty watery. So we gave her some ground up oatmeal as advised in this forum. She started eating that pretty well but we noticed that she tends to fall asleep as she is eating the food. We are starting to think that the constant falling asleep is what is preventing her from eating a lot of the time!! (Is there some sort of sleeping disease?) We also noticed that her vent is red, swollen and protruding more than normal and points down, which might explain why the poop had been sticking onto her furry bottom. Also to note, there is NO blood in her poop.
Also, her wings seem much too large for her body. I think she gets tired carrying them around. The wings are longer than her body and she can no longer carry them on top of her back like the other chicks do(is this normal?). She also came with a good amount of tail feathers...but the newer tail feathers that have been sprouting out look sort of shriveled!
I lost one chick last week...it was one that was smaller/weaker than the others to start with. But this one was healthy. I would hate to lose her. Help!!!
It's been 4 days since this baby chick has shown signs of weakness. Before that, she was a very healthy/active girl. An Americauna we picked up from a local feed store. She should be about 2 weeks old and has huge wings and a good amount of tail feathers but a tiny TINY body.
She weighed 38g when we brought her home 9 days ago. Today, she weighs 32g. Weight has been steadily declining, which is predictable considering the fact she is not eating well. She used to be the leader, digging in the feed bowl and used to have the largest peeps. Now, she gets pushed around and doesn't want to eat/drink but rather sleeps all day.
Following the advice presented in this forum, we have been feeding her boiled egg yolk in water for the past 3 days (we noticed she won't really eat solid food any more). She let out happy chirps as she gobbled them up yesterday, but today, she hasn't been very interested in it.We also started feeding her water from our palm because it seems she does not have the strength to make it to the water bowl from the warm area. And yesterday and the day before, she drank vigorously, but today, not so much. We have also added plain yogurt to her diet as advised by many in this forum.
For more symptoms...
Yesterday, she kept one eye closed and the other open most of the day. But today, she is opening both, which I think is a good sign. She has also been having very watery/runny poop. And it has been getting on her bottom and hardening. Yesterday, it was so bad we gave her a little haircut, making sure not to hurt her. Today, we cleaned her up with warm water on a cotton pad and then applied olive oil to her vent/bottom area. Since then, her poop has not been sticking, although it is still pretty watery. So we gave her some ground up oatmeal as advised in this forum. She started eating that pretty well but we noticed that she tends to fall asleep as she is eating the food. We are starting to think that the constant falling asleep is what is preventing her from eating a lot of the time!! (Is there some sort of sleeping disease?) We also noticed that her vent is red, swollen and protruding more than normal and points down, which might explain why the poop had been sticking onto her furry bottom. Also to note, there is NO blood in her poop.
Also, her wings seem much too large for her body. I think she gets tired carrying them around. The wings are longer than her body and she can no longer carry them on top of her back like the other chicks do(is this normal?). She also came with a good amount of tail feathers...but the newer tail feathers that have been sprouting out look sort of shriveled!
I lost one chick last week...it was one that was smaller/weaker than the others to start with. But this one was healthy. I would hate to lose her. Help!!!
