Help with one week old emu chick

[jasonkimberly]

We have a one week old emu who has suddenly started tucking his neck under his belly and falling over, seems like he can't control it , he will eat and seems to be pooping, we've been giving him dropperfulls of water and electrolytes , has anyone has this problem?

 

[Calla]

Hi has your chick been walking well up to this and are the legs normal , did you hatch them?
Hope it gets better soon.
Calla

 

[jasonkimberly]

Hi , we picked them up two days ago from somone that hatched them in an incubator, her legs seem fine and she was totally walking fine the first day .

 

[Calla]

Hi I have hatched and reared lots of Emu chicks, but would never let them go off till I was happy and they fed well and run on grass happily outside...on sunny days or indoor in their 6ft brooder, not before 2 - 3 weeks old. From my experience, they don't normally eat properly before 3-5 days old.
Hope she picks up.

 

[birdeo]

Somersaulting chick. Could very well be retained yolk sac, if so..not much you can do.
Could be a vitamin deficiency ( due to several possible reasons ). If it's from a retained yolk sac then sadly, again, not much you can do short of surgery by a qualified vet , that would be costly and quite possibly of no help in the long run.

Try this...get some vitamin E IN THE BIRD .
Take a gel cap and puncture it with something clean and sharp then squirt it in the chicks mouth , give it some time and see what happens.
May have to do this 1 x a day for 2-5 days before you see if it helps any .
Make sure it has plenty of warmth, fresh air and sunshine, fresh clean water and ROOM TO EXCERCISE ...this means for ALL of your chicks...ALWAYS !
Lack of exercise, fresh air and sunshine can cause many problems in chicks and this "could be" one of the problems from not having those
but good chance it's from a retained yolk sac.
If it's warm enough for YOU to be outside barefoot then that chick can /should be outside also while it is warm enough.
Good luck, hope you can pull it out of this but if not at least you know what to do for the other chicks to help prevent it.

Also, add a good vitamin/ electrolyte/ probiotics supplement in the water and/or feed for ALL your chicks .... especially get some in that one ASAP.
Do this for several weeks....Rooster Booster makes a good one that can be bought at Tractor supply, comes in a little 8 oz. white plastic jar with a yellow label.

 

[EmuChemainusBC]

I also had this problem this year. I figured the symptoms of lethargy head tucking and wobbly walking looked like a Vitamin E deficiency. I talked with our feed store nutritionist and he said Vit E not absorbed without 1/1 addition of selenium. We had to talk to him first as they control the amount of selenium sold because too much can be fatal. He said one pinch of each in water solution couple times per day down the throat watch not to get any in the wind pipe. I was luckily able to bring him around. Stunted growth but will see if he catches up over the long term.