Help! Week old baby chick found in her water

[texas chick girl]

Hello,

I found one of my week old brown leghorns laying sideways earlier today in her water (her body was in water, but her head was not). Just yesterday I set their water and their food up on a small board to keep them from knocking their shavings into it, but the board is big enough for them to get up on and even move around a little. I took her out and dried her and wrapped her in a dry soft wash cloth to keep her warm. She would not open her eyes. Her breathing was slow and steady, but she wasn't hardly moving or peeping. She was also very pale.

I searched several of these messages on what to do and was able to get her drink some water through a straw. I also mixed some of her food (medicated chick starter) with warm water and got her to eat a little. She is opening her eyes now and moving around a little bit more and she doesn't look as lifeless as she was.

I separated her from the rest and I have been checking on her very often. Is there anyting else that I can do or should do? I sure hope that she is going to be okay.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Karen

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Just keep her warm and hopefully she'll be ok. Make sure your waterer isn't big enough for them to get into. I use a quail waterer for the first few weeks before moving up to a regular sized chick water

 

[texas chick girl]

Thanks for the reply. The water container I have is small, so I'm not sure what happen.

 

[HorseFeathers]

To prevent the others from getting in the waterer as well you should put some VERY CLEAN marbles or stones in. Just nothing sharp and make sure they can still get at the water.

 

[CUDA]

If you found a chick in your waterer, it isn't small enough. There are ones specially made for chicks so there is no way for them to get in there, only their beak will fit in there.

 

[BlueMoon]

How warm are you keeping her? My vet said you can't keep them too warm.

I too had a chick end up in the waterer. I thought it was dead, pulled it out and put it by a heat lamp, dumped the water out and noticed the chick was breathing. Ran it inside, blow dried it and gave it three drops of polyvisol for good measure. Popped it under a sitting hen and couldn't tell which one it was by the end of the day.

Good luck!