is my 4 and a half day old lavender girl sick??

[brooklynzoo]

on day 1-3 she was one of the friendliest and smartest chicks of my 7. today she has been sleepy and inactive. she will drink water and electrolytes but i haven't seen her really eat. she wants to sleep a lot and i have encouraged her to sleep in a separate area where she wont be bothered, but also dont want to separate her yet in case she is stressed: i took them outside yesterday for the first time because it was 80+ degrees. they were in their same mobile brooder box that i keep in my living room during the day, but maybe all the handling stressed her out.
something else i noticed today was that everyone's face really matured, except hers still has the egg tooth on the end of her beak. everyone else seems to have grown out of that. she isn't the smallest one yet, but i really worry that if she doesn't eat better today she will fall behind, or die

 

[brooklynzoo]

this is her sleeping while everyone else eats

 

[brooklynzoo]

this is her awake for a little bit. she drank on her own but didnt eat and seems to be extra shy of my hand, where she used to fall asleep being held.

 

[brooklynzoo]

please help! is this coccidosis? I'm not sure what to look out for.

 

[casportpony]

Do you have a food scale that you can start weighing her on? Do you have a separate brooder you can put her in? I suspect she might need something a little warmer than what she's in now.

 

[brooklynzoo]

Do you have a food scale that you can start weighing her on? Do you have a separate brooder you can put her in? I suspect she might need something a little warmer than what she's in now.

I do have a scale that I can use for her and I can take her back to the main brooder in the bathroom which is probably 10 degrees warmer. Because this is my first time I am worried about extra handling and separation being a source of stress for her that will affect her getting better. I know chickens don't do well when they are alone either I can take both brooders into the same room, would that be the best option?

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I'm not an expert on raising chicks, but I have raised two sets of them. What I do know is that she's a bit young for coccidosis, and you should be seeing runny or bloody poops. In terms of her maturation rate, there are always varying rates of growth for chicks. For example, my Polish chick is much, much smaller than my maran's, but that's because as adults, marans are smaller than Polish. Even feather growth can be different. I let a hen hatch two barnyard mix fertilized eggs from a friend. The only thing I knew about her flock is that her rooster is white. Well both peeps were yellow, but one started getting tail feathers and the other didn't. Just when I was starting to wonder if one was rumpless, it started sprouting tail feathers. In terms of behavior, I've never had any chicks that enjoyed the company of my hand in the early days. They definitely don't enjoy being separate from each other.

Do you know where her crop is? It is located on her right side of the her chest. At night, does it feel full and hard? At that age it should be the size of a grape at night and relatively empty by the morning. If her crop is empty during the day, she probably isn't eating and you can maybe try hand feeding her or mixing the feed with a small amount of water to make a mash. I'm not sure what else could cause the issue so in terms of appetite I'm just throwing out some ideas I'd try.

 

[MonicaWA]

Chicks up to 7 days need 95 degrees. I am not sure your heat pad is keeping them warm enough. I have the same one that I use to proof bread but not for my chicks. It doesn't get warm enough. I would get some more heat on those babies. You can treat for Cocci if you want. Liquid Corid 1 1/2 tsp per gallon, powdered Corid 2 tsp per gallon.

 

[brooklynzoo]

I'm not an expert on raising chicks, but I have raised two sets of them. What I do know is that she's a bit young for coccidosis, and you should be seeing runny or bloody poops. In terms of her maturation rate, there are always varying rates of growth for chicks. For example, my Polish chick is much, much smaller than my maran's, but that's because as adults, marans are smaller than Polish. Even feather growth can be different. I let a hen hatch two barnyard mix fertilized eggs from a friend. The only thing I knew about her flock is that her rooster is white. Well both peeps were yellow, but one started getting tail feathers and the other didn't. Just when I was starting to wonder if one was rumpless, it started sprouting tail feathers. In terms of behavior, I've never had any chicks that enjoyed the company of my hand in the early days. They definitely don't enjoy being separate from each other.

Do you know where her crop is? It is located on her right side of the her chest. At night, does it feel full and hard? At that age it should be the size of a grape at night and relatively empty by the morning. If her crop is empty during the day, she probably isn't eating and you can maybe try hand feeding her or mixing the feed with a small amount of water to make a mash. I'm not sure what else could cause the issue so in terms of appetite I'm just throwing out some ideas I'd try.

whew thanks so much that's a little relieving. I couldn't feel anything hard in that area today yet, I'll check tonight but she did just eat from my hand a bit!! I gave them all some yolk/water mix. she seems to be perking up a little bit. no blood in their stool, it looks very uniform actually.

 

[brooklynzoo]

eating a little bit!