Help! one of my day-old Australorps isn't doing well!

[Jewelwing]

I just got my 10 new chicks, and 9 of them seem to be doing great. The 10th isn't, though. She's eaten, I think (there seems to be something in her crop, although not as much as in the other chicks), but I don't know if she's drinking. I'm feeding them fermented food, so it has quite a bit of moisture in it already.

Her butt looks good, and I don't know enough to know what else might be the proble.

She's wobbly, kind of like she's drunk, and she wobbles her head back and forth and then she falls over and paddles to try to right herself. I took her and dunked her beak in the water (which has UP/ACV in ijust very briefly, and she made swallowing motions with her beak. So I did it a few times.

If I put her in with the other chicks, they peck at her, so I"m just holding her in my hand and she's sleeping. She occasionally peeps.

Is there anything I can do?

 

[Jewelwing]

I guess no one has any ideas? The chick isn't dead yet, but she isn't any better either. I set up a little place for her away from the other chicks so they wouldn't peck at her, but she isn't doing any better at all. I was surprised to find her alive this morning, actually.

Last night and this morning I gave her some water with ACV in a syringe, and she did drink and her crop is full, but she's not interested in eating at all. I'm not too worried about getting food in her because she was only hatched on Monday so I think she should still be good, since My Pet Chicken says it may be Thursday before the chicks arrive anyway.

So I'm still open to suggestions! I'd really like this chick to make it, but she hasn't opened her eyes since last night. She seemed fine when we opened up the box when it came yesterday around 1pm, but a few hours later she was stumbling around, and now she can't walk or even stand without falling over. She likes to sit in a hand, though, so we're doing that a lot, and now I feel bad that we're not playing with the nine other chicks we got.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[CedarAcres]

Does she have any injuries? Is there anything odd going on with her legs if you compare them to the others? There is splayed leg that can affect some chicks. Their legs will sort of jut out from their body at the wrong angle. And a slipped tendon is another issue chicks can have. I'd take a closer look at her legs.

I haven't run into too many issues wiih our chicks in the past, but the last group we had one chick (actually an australorp) who was just acting very strange. She would just sit there with her eyes closed rocking back & forth. The way she would move was odd. I was so sure she was going to die. I thought she had some serious neurological problems. But as she grew up the odd behavior just slowly stopped and now she's totally normal. Sometimes they just behave oddly. If she picks up with eating & drinking, then I'd just watch her.

 

[azygous]

I hope she's still hanging on. You have a slow-starter. I had one a month ago, and she pulled through after I gave her some tofu, crumbled up with Poultry Nutri-drench sprinkled over the top. Don't worry about measuring and diluting, just put ten drops over the tofu.

Here's the important part. She needs to go back with the other chicks so they can encourage her to eat. Leave her with them unless they appear to be really hurting her. Her sense of abandonment will further make her condition deteriorate.

Try getting some chick starter crumbles and make a pablum with warm water with the ten drops of Nutri-drench sprinkled over the top. Offer both the tofu crumbles and the pablum to all the chicks.

Unless the chick has an infection, she ought to pull through. Mine is still small, but she's quickly catching up to others now at five weeks. Good luck with yours.

 

[Chikenbutwut]

Have you tried Sav-A-Chick? It comes in little packets from your feed store. It can get needed electrolytes and vitamins in them. It helped with one of my chicks that was acting all wobbly.

How about sugar water or water with molasses in it? I added a bit of molasses to the Sav-A-Chick and the chick did a quick turn around.

 

[Chikenbutwut]

Ah yes, Nutri-Drench...another good suggestion!

 

[CedarAcres]

I just remembered, that quite a few of our chicks loved it when we wet down their food, so maybe she will be encouraged to eat if it is a wetter consistency.

 

[Jewelwing]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions! Getting solid food into her is pretty much impossible, though. Maybe she's worse than I made it seem. She never opens her eyes, and either lets her head just droop limply or stretches her beak up to the sky (which is partly why she falls over if she's not held in a hand or placed against a wall). The other chicks were pecking her mercilessly as she lay on her side and paddled with her legs to try to right herself, so I don't think putting her back with them is a good idea.

She doesn't seem to have any injuries, and her legs are fine. I felt her belly, and it feels to me like the other chicks' bellies. She did poop this morning, and it looked like the first poops the other chicks had yesterday - light colored and kind of runny. Today the other chicks have more solid poops, and they're mostly black. I'm feeding fermented food, so there is a fair bit of water in that, and from what I understand, it makes their poops a bit more solid. I don't think this one chick has eaten anything, though. When I put her beak in anything (water, food), she pulls her head away and doesn't want it to go back.

I'll try the Nutri-Drench and Sav-A-Chick - great suggestions! I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again!