I NEED HELP! BABY CHICK FADING!

[Suzie]

I am following....great to hear that Pom is improving....

keep updating please..

 

[Eggcessive]

I disagree with your vet on giving pellets instead of chick crumbles to your 5 week old. They need chick starter grower until about 18-20 weeks, and pellets may be too big for a chick still. One other suggestion is to use biotin, one of the B vitamins, since the foot issue could be from a deficiency. Swiss chard, eggs, carrots, canned tuna or salmon, and wheat bread crumbs are a few things that contain biotin. This is the only vitamin supplement I can find with biotin listed: http://www.jefferspet.com/products/avian-super-pack-4oz Dosage is 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons of water.

 

[debster1556]

Thank you for following and thank you for the replies. I put her on the pellets and she loves them but I will also add chick starter to it. I put it in water still and put a drop of iron in the with it to make sure she eats it and she does! She is so cute! Sleeps all night. I get up a few times to check on her and there she is with little piles of poo behind her. She seems to be more quick to get up and use those feet. We're going to make sure she gets a chance to walk around and get some exercise. I'll post a pic!

 

[debster1556]

Pom! Good morning!
The purple color on her feet and on her breast feathers is from the blue kote.
She seems to be a lot more alert.

 

[debster1556]

One more thing, I'm definitely going to try the biotin thing. I'll do the mashed egg.

 

[debster1556]

QUICK UPDATE: CUTE STORY!!!!

So we took our baby chick indoors to help it get well, knowing that it might be hard or impossible to reintroduce to the flock again. Poms 2 siblings, who are 12-24 hours apart, are completely intergrated to the existing flock and have been totally accepted by the 3 other adult hens and 1 adult rooster. There wasn't any problem at all.

So as I stated in a prior post, we were going to let Pom out, supervised, with the others, so she could get some sun and just be outside. I had to work and my husband was outside working on a garden that's right next to the coop.

He got to feeling sorry for Pom because here's her 2 sisters and all the big kids playing and enjoying themselves in the sun, so he brings her out and sets her in the grass. Daisy, Her momma, sees her, makes a clucking noise and Pom runs to her like nothing ever happened. This chick has been indoors with us for 3-4 days 24/7.

Then Scooby, our rooster, walks over to check things out, picks up a treat from the ground and offers it to Pom, which she takes from him. My husband let them all free range for about 4 hours. Pom seemed to have no problem keeping up with everyone else. She had some oyster shell, a tiny bit of grit, scratch, she took a llooonnnggg dustbath and totally stretched out in the sun. She never got pecked or messed with by any of our other chickens. They were good citizens, as my friend from work said! She had a great big day!!

She is back in the cat carrier sleeping away and we're going to do the same thing again tomorrow.

This turned out alot better than I'd hoped!!=)

 

[debster1556]

NOTHER POM UPDATE!!

So it has been a few days since I posted.

We were keeping Pom in the cat carrier and then we were going to let her have a few hours whenever we could out in the coop. Things have been going good enough that Pom had her first whole day out in the coop with the adults and her siblings! I was very worried because neither me or my husband were home for the day and work is about 45 minutes from where we live so it's not like I could come home for lunch.

She did great!! Not a mark on her. So we did it again today and no problems. She is one exhausted little chicken when we bring her in. It gets too cold at night and she is still very small and not nearly as feathered as her siblings, so she has been sleeping in our bathtub. No more heating pad either. She has to get acclimated and ready for when we do start putting her out for the night. Of course we have soft towels and her food and water in there with her. The shivering all the time has finally stopped.

One thing that we have noticed when watching her out with the others is that she is kind of a loner. If they come up to her, she will peck along with them or socialize but sometimes when they walk off, she seems content to stay where she is, just stands there. She seems to be totally accepted, like she never left.

Our current regimen for her footpad dermatitus is povoidine twice daily, the one at night is after a quick Epsoms salt soak.
We are feeding her layer feed but a friend of mine who also has chickens asked me why I wasn't feeding her pullet grower feed??
I had no idea. I haven't heard about that before.

We also put 1 drop of iron and a tiny pinch of vitamins in a little bowl with water and mix some pellets with that. She loves it and that way I know she is getting what she needs.

The tops of her feet finally look better. Less red and swollen and so far, no new scabs forming. The bottoms still look pretty rough but it looks like there is some healing going on there too.I really think being in the coop with the sun out and scratching around in the dirt is helping slough off the old dead skin and scabs.

I hope I'm right!!=)

I'll post some pics this weekend!!

 

[casportpony]

How is she now?

-Kathy

 

[debster1556]

Letting her in the coop we thought would help but apparently she wasn't done healing. She has been in our bathroom for a while now. Strictly iodine and the vitamins. The feet are healing but I don't know that she will ever be right. The skin looks better but then it starts getting very dry and peels and she pecks at it. Then it starts looking kind of red again.
So my husband and I decided we would let her get completely healed before putting her out with the others. Plus we were letting her be around them a little bit and everybody was acting fine.
Until today. Put her outside and her own mother attacked her. Pecked her once in the eye and once on the top of her nose, drawing blood both times.
And as soon as she gets pecked, she runs to me and hides behind me.
I'm not surprised but it's still sad. We're not sure what to do with her now.
Her feet are not ready and I think she will get attacked if we put her in with the others again.
She doesn't know how to be a chicken.
Any ideas?

 

[debster1556]

This is her now.
She's not getting outside much at all. When we put her outside, she just stands in one place like she doesn't know what to do. Or she follows me around.
She eats fine but she is 1/2 the size of her siblings.