Help!!! I think I have a sick chick!!!

[EmmaKnight]

Hello everyone,
Pheobe is the newest addition to my flock of three chickens: I have HeiHei who is 6months and Pixar who is a week older than Pheobe. The three of them share a large cage with a heat lamp and get along just fine (HeiHei loves putting them under each wing and snuggling and it’s so cute). With that being said, I noticed Pheobe has had some weird feathers coming in. Pixar has the same issue before but they smoothed out now. I believe HeiHei did too but I can’t remember and I don’t have baby pics either. So the pictures below were taken today and I am very concerned because I don’t know if feathers should grow like that and she had some tail feathers at one point but now she hardly has any. When I was maneuvering her around and taking these pics, she threw up twice. And it was only clear with some saliva. I’m not sure if this means she is sick or not but I can tell you this: Before I took her out, she was drinking water so maybe motion sickness? I took a picture of her throw up too.

My chickens live in a very clean and large area. They have a place for eat and a place for shade. I keep it as clean as I can and feed them with good food. HeiHei eats this type of grain from BigR and the chicks eat chick feed. I also but this vitamin in their water (not the whole tablet; half or less than half) to give them their essential and daily vitamins. They love it. Sometimes, however, they kick bedding into it and drain the water out and it might stay like that for hours until I am home and able to go down and refresh it (maybe when I put the water in, they overload on water and get nauseous for drinking it too fast). Overall, they seem happy and healthy with each other and I am hoping and praying that Pheobe is okay and not sick OR possibly being picked on by the other chicks for some reason (I never hear her squak out in pain or see HeiHei or Pixar attack her; Pixar and Pheobe are inseparable and get so worried when the other is gone. HeiHei is
very protective of them because when I try to grab one to pet or check up on, she freaks out and bites my hand. This is just some background information to use to help solve this problem.
Someone please help. I don’t want my baby to be sick or (if she is) being picked on by the other chicks

 

[Stephine]

I don’t think chickens get nauseous, you might have just pushed on her crop a bit after she just filled it up with water...
I would get a small nipple waterer for them that you can hang, that way they can’t knock it over or get bedding in it and deprive themselves of water while you are gone. I don’t see what you mean about the feathers, though. Are you talking about the ones that look a bit like spikes? That’s completely normal, that is how new feathers come in. Try not to touch those, they are sensitive while in that stage.
Unless they are outside in freezing weather that heat lamp is probably too warm - your older pullet definitely doesn’t need it and the little ones should be fine without since they snuggle up with Heihei like they would with a mama hen. What breed is little Phoebe?

 

[EmmaKnight]

I don’t think chickens get nauseous, you might have just pushed on her crop a bit after she just filled it up with water...
I would get a small nipple waterer for them that you can hang, that way they can’t knock it over or get bedding in it and deprive themselves of water while you are gone. I don’t see what you mean about the feathers, though. Are you talking about the ones that look a bit like spikes? That’s completely normal, that is how new feathers come in. Try not to touch those, they are sensitive while in that stage.
Unless they are outside in freezing weather that heat lamp is probably too warm - your older pullet definitely doesn’t need it and the little ones should be fine without since they snuggle up with Heihei like they would with a mama hen. What breed is little Phoebe?

Pheobe I believe is a Sex Link but I got her from BigR so I’m not exactly sure (almost positive she is a sex link). The cage is pretty big for all of them and I put the heat lamp in the corner and only have it there because my basement is pretty cold. It only heats a small portion of the area tho so that’s good. And that is an amazing idea about what to do with the water! I didn’t even think of that!