Help Please!

[mmwinget]

Hi Everyone. I am new to the board. I am also new to raising chickens but I live on a farm, have many other farm animals and would like to start a small chicken flock. I am a teacher and we incubated some new babies, that have now hatched. I know nothing about chickens besides the basics and I am in desperate need of some help! I think that I have a sick one. It's about 2 days old. The rest of the flock is acting normal, running around, eating and drinking. The others were pecking at this baby so I seperated him/her. The sick chick only has one eye (other seems to be sealed shut with lid, eye ball inside). Also, I am having to feed it with a syringe, it will not eat on it's own. I have mixed water, with the chick grain to give it. I have it in a box at 95 degrees with the reb bulb. It is using the bathroom a bit. I have also tried a small amount of sugar water (I read online that this may help). She is having trouble walking as well. I am not sure if it is because she is weak or deformed. She appears to be healthy except for the shut eye. She is very sleepy/largathic. Any advice? What should I feed/do? I am so worried about this baby! Thank you for your help!

 

[mmwinget]

I sure do hope someone can help! I have a bad feeling that time is running out for this sweet little one.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

bump

 

[AndreaS]

I had a very similar experience with one of my chicks. Here is what i did:

Seperated her. Kept her warm. Wiped the closed eye with a diluted saline solution on a q-tip twice a day. Gave her scrambled eggs that were ground quite fine in a food processor as her food. Got poly-vi-sol baby vitamins WITHOUT IRON from walgreens. Dribbled a drop along her beak line twice a day. Tried my best to get her to eat, and every hour or so i would dip her little beak in diluted honey water. (Heat the honey first quite well to kill any bacteria) I suppose sugar water is a safer bet, but my chick didn't like it as much as the honey waater.

By the end of the 2nd day, the closed eye had opened, and she actually started eating on her own....i had to tap my finger in the eggs quite a bit to get her to eat. She was crying a lot because she was lonley, so i would stick her in my shirt up against my chest for a little while. I know i am not the only one who has done this!

Third day, i had to go to work and was terrified i would find her deaad when i got home. When i got home from work, she had lept over her cardboard box and was lying next to the brooder box with the other chicks in it, pecking at the box and chirping

I figured she was okay to go back with them after that. I kept a close eye on her and the bullying had stopped. I just kept up with the poly-vi-sol for about a week and tapered off after that. They all got a tiny bit of Organic apple cider vinegar in their water every few days.

She ended up just fine. For a looong time she was about 1/3 the size of the other chicks, but now she has caught up. Her name is bernice, and her pic is my avatar. The good side to having to do all of this for her is that she is a total lap chicken now! Very sweet and tame.

All of the above was advice i had gotten from this forum, and it worked quite well for me. You are checking her for pasty butt, right?

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

Andrea

 

[mmwinget]

Thanks so much, Andrea! I really apprecite your help! Now, that I have gotten her to eat some she is doing much, much better! Thank goodness! I am going to try everything you said. I pray the eye will open up. Thanks again, I'll keep you posted! PS- Your baby is beautiful!! Love the avatar.

 

[Lorije1]

If she is eating a little on her own, I would highly recommend scrambled or hard boiled egg for some protein and still try to get some infant multi-vitamin in her (no iron). Good luck with your little fuzz butt!

 

[AndreaS]

Quote:
She is beautiful, isn't she? She thinks so too, she also thinks i am her personal jungle gym.

It's My pleasure to help. I am new to chickens as well, and was on here asking questions all of the time. I was so paranoid over my chicks! I'm glad that i have a little bit of experience to pass along now.

It seemed to me that once Bernice's eye was able to open, she ate a lot better, i hope your little one's eye opens up soon too. It's wonderful that she's eating, that makes all the difference. Hopefully she'll build up some stregnth soon. I really agree that the poly-vi-sol baby vitamins without iron are key. They hate the taste of it, but if you can drizzle some along the side of the babys beak....she'll get some of it.

Sometimes you get a baby that just needs a little extra help to get going. I'll keep my fingers crossed for your little one. Let us know how it goes!

Andrea

 

[AndreaS]

How is she this morning?