help please! 7 day old chick tucking its head and rolling onto its back!

[kl115]

help please! 7 day old chick tucking its head and rolling onto its back!

help please! 7 day old chick tucking its head and rolling onto its back!

#1 of 2an hour ago

kl115

Hi all! First off, I have NO experience with chickens. My son's science class hatched eggs and the students were allowed to take a chick home. We took one to raise with the expectation to give it to a friend that has chickens.
This chick was very late hatching. The last one to hatch actually. It needed help getting out of the eggs and afterwards just laied on its side with eyes closed, not moving. The teacher was not expecting it to live through the night. But it did and we brought it home.
It is now 7 days old and is eating, drinking and running like normal. BUT on occasion it will tuck its head and roll over into its back. Like a front somersault. Sometimes its flips back over right away and sometimes it lays there!
Anyone know what is going on with it & what ( if anything ) I should do?? Thank you for reading!

#2

When it was born it appeared to have a deformed wing but since then it moves it and flaps it so I'm thinking the feathers are just a bit messed up. I have it on medicated chick food and have been using the probiotic in the water.

 

[gander007]

Well my first question is what are you feeding the check ....

Did you add anything to it's water .....

Boil up an egg peal then mash the egg up real good
then serve the egg to your chick this will help out your
chick .....

 

[kl115]

I will make it an egg, thank you!
I am feeding it the food that the teacher gave me when I picked up the Chick. Its Purina medicated chick food and I have been putting the probiotic in the water also.

 

[gander007]

Sounds like you are doing it right

Keep us updated

 

[kl115]

Will do! I have the egg in the pot now! Thanks!

 

[kl115]

My chick has no interest in the egg whatsoever

 

[gander007]

My chick has no interest in the egg whatsoever

Try putting just a little in the beak this happens but it is rare ...

 

[hildar]

If it rolls onto its back after its head went back like that normally that is before they will die. There isn't much more that you can do then what you are now. We tried everything possible under the sun to help a Delaware last year that did that, but to no avail. Sorry but sounds like it will not make it to much longer. And yes they will run around for awhile looking for food, but once that starts they start going down hill from there.

 

[lazy gardener]

You might try giving it a drop of Nutri-Drench (for poultry) several times/day. If you can get a bit of Vitamin E from a regular capsule into it, that may make a dramatic improvement. Just a dab on the side of the beak, not even a whole drop. But, as PP said, this chick is most likely "circling the drain". Good luck, and rest assured that you have given it your best shot, and perhaps this little chick has a congenital weakness that will not allow it to thrive. However, if it does survive, it will be important to get an other chick for it. Chickens are flock animals, and without a flock to identify with, they will have all sorts of behavior issues. Kind of like what would happen to a human baby if it was raised without an other human to interact with.

 

[Ernie G]

It is called Wry neck. Look it up. I had a chick this year with it. I gave it water with the powder you give to chicks. Held it and dipped its beak into the water several times a day. Tried to give it vitamin E but chick would have nothing to do with it. After about a week it recovered. Good Luck.