HELP!!!! I think our Dorking chick is dying right now

[Lady_Bat]

First time chicken parents, we're used to having quail. We got a mixed flock (1 White Leghorn, 1 Cream Legbar, 1 Black Copper Maran, 1 Astralorp, 1 Speckled Sussex, 1 Barred Plymouth Rock, 1 Easter Egger, 1 Blue Easter Egger, 1 Light Brahma, 1 Silver Gray Dorking, 1 Buff Orphinton, 1 Splash/Blue Orphinton). Not gonna lie, the Dorking is the smallest & we are suckers for the underdogs in life so she is totally our favorite.

The Dorking is waaaaaay smaller than everyone else but seemed to hold her own. Until last night. At bedtime check the Dorking was drunk walking & sleepy. I checked her butt, it was clear (no paste butt), held her for a bit, made her drink some water (dipped her beak) & she seemed to perk up & be ok.

This morning Hubs checked on them first light & said Dorking seemed ok. Then I went to check everyone & Dorking was drunk walking & sleepy again. I checked her butt, this time there was paste butt. So I did the butt wiping & cleared it. She seemed angry at me so I took that as a good sign. She was fine for the next check but we just checked her again & she's back to drunk walking & sleepy. No paste butt. Her crop isn't full of food at the moment but we've seen her eating & drinking.

They were shipped to us the week of Feb 19, so they are approx about 2 weeks old.
They are on Organic Chick Starter feed.
They have 3 waterers full of Ropa Complete (Nutritional Water Supplement) water.
They have chick grit & sand.
They all had paste butt when we first got them but that was over after day 3 of them being here.
While she is tiny compared to the others, she does have wing feathers & is developing.
As far as we know, she is eating & drinking.

What the heck is this drunk/sleepy walking thing?!?! Please help save our baby!!!!

 

[The chicken wizard]

How are the other chicks acting around her? She may be drunk/sleep walking simply due to lack of sleep from bullying. Do you know if the chicks are vaccinated for mareks disease? drunk walking may be an early sign of mareks disease. I would recommend separating her from the others, giving her medicated chick starter, and just showing some TLC to her.

 

[Lady_Bat]

Omg, THANK YOU for answering!!!! We are worried sick!!!!

We got them all from My Pet Chicken & paid to have all of them vaccinated for Mereks (I assume it's a trusted site/operation as opposed to Craig's List). Everyone else is growing like a weed, super active, curious, & silly.

I was just in there watching them & while I didn't see any bullying, I did notice Dorking shy away from the food when the others get too close to her. She also likes to go hide under the heating plate while they play on the jungle gyms or the keep away game. She is walking fine right now. It seems to come in waves.

When we separate her, do we need to put that cage near the brooder so she can see & hear everyone? Or should we bring it into the living room/main house?

 

[The chicken wizard]

The goal of isolating a chick is to make them feel less stressed and to not feel the presence of the others. You should put the cage in the living room away from the others to give her a stress-free environment; hopefully a few days alone will stop the drunk walking.

 

[The chicken wizard]

Also, I dont know if this will help, but my chicks really enjoy relaxing to classical music, just like babies. I would guess that of your willing to leave a music device next to the dorkling's isolated brooder playing Beethoven or Mozart, it would significantly help your dorkling rest up.

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you give the Ropa vitamin supplement orally? I would prefer Poultry NutriDrench or Poultry Cell (give a couple of drops daily) since I am not familiar with the Ropa products. I would dip the beak in water as often as you can while keeping her warm. Drop some crunbles of feed on a clean paper towel around her feet. Offer some watery feed in a,lid as well. What is the temp in your brooder? Shipping stress can always be hard on chicks and cause some pasty butt. I would check them daily for that because it frequently comes back in the first few days.

 

[sylviethecochin]

The goal of isolating a chick is to make them feel less stressed and to not feel the presence of the others. You should put the cage in the living room away from the others to give her a stress-free environment; hopefully a few days alone will stop the drunk walking.

Chickens do not do well in solitary. Rarely do chicks younger than four weeks of age even think about bullying each other beyond some toe-pecking.

 

[Lady_Bat]

Update:

First we tried pulling her out of the brooder & putting her in a small very pimped out version by herself. Omg, she cried like crazy!! Like break your heart sad, why am I being punished crying. So we held her & baby talked her for a bit/calmed her down, then put her back with her sisters. She was happy again.

Hubs read somewhere on BYC that maybe it wasn't warm enough for her. So we got to thinking....

We keep the brooder in the Summer Kitchen (so like a mother-in-law suite we just use for storage). We had jacked up the heat for their first week so that they would be comfortable when out from under the heater (we kept joking that it's the perfect temp for our grandparents). 11 our of 12 are zooming along in development (tail puffs & full wings) & we read on BYC not to baby them temperature-wise so that they will better tolerate the cold as adults. So we lowered the room temp to a normal range (mind you the heating plate stayed the same, one end is lower & one end is higher so everyone can find a sweet spot). Everything seemed fine until a few days ago, then the Dorking started the drunk/sleepy walk.

Last night we jacked the heat back up & watched/played with them for a long time. We still didn't see any bullying. The others are like crazy bulls in a china shop & Dorking is very lady like/polite. When they accidentally back into her, I could swear she's the one that apologizes & says "excuse me". Dorking looked & acted normal. She even dropped a normal poop that somehow looked really cute compared to everyone else's poop (you know you're a mom when...). We watched her this morning, she's eating well, drinking well, pooped normal again, & moving about normally.
So I think the ambient room temperature was too low for her & she had mildly hypothermia. That also explained why she didn't really want to drink a lot since that was too cold for her as well.

Eggcessive - THANK YOU for the other options!!! We are going to TS today & will look for Poultry NutriDrench or Poultry Cell. We read the back of the Ropa & are not happy about Polypropylene Glycol being in there.

Huge THANK YOU to everyone on here!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so thankful to have a place to turn to in times of crisis as well as joy!!!!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that you realized that the ambient temperature might have been a problem. With those heat plates. It does need to be fairly warm in the house, at least 70 F. Good luck with your little polite dorking. Love the description of the chicks.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Also, I dont know if this will help, but my chicks really enjoy relaxing to classical music, just like babies. I would guess that of your willing to leave a music device next to the dorkling's isolated brooder playing Beethoven or Mozart, it would significantly help your dorkling rest up.

Or Rachmaninoff? I do the same for mine, including while they're incubating - seems to promote good hatches, too.