Just hatched baby Serama chick having motor difficulties- can it be helped?

[Bocktobery 10]

She is scratching and pecking this morning! She's never done the scratching before.

Her muscle twitches are much less pronounced also.

 

[chickcrack]

I love hearing about her progress! You should both be very proud of yourselves! Lol
Have you given her a name yet? I called Happy "Tinkerbell" for the first 2 weeks because i thought he was a girl. Then when i figured out i had a little cockerel he went nameless until he hoppped into my cats kibble bowl one day and started flinging them everywhere. He just looked so proud of himself and so happy that it stuck. Cant wait to read that she is fully functioning on her own

 

[Bocktobery 10]

I love hearing about her progress! You should both be very proud of yourselves! Lol
Have you given her a name yet? I called Happy "Tinkerbell" for the first 2 weeks because i thought he was a girl. Then when i figured out i had a little cockerel he went nameless until he hoppped into my cats kibble bowl one day and started flinging them everywhere. He just looked so proud of himself and so happy that it stuck. Cant wait to read that she is fully functioning on her own

Your little Happy sounds like a delight. I'm so glad he pulled through for you too. Its because of him and your experience/ struggles that I am now being helped. Life is a struggle but life is also a gift. I know I said this before, and not to sound like a broken record but thank you!

I am happy, but I am exhausted! I could cry... not a good cry, but a stress cry. I think I've been holding my breath this whole week! And on top of it, just today she developed a swollen vent and scream peeps when she tries to poop. She was crouching and straining a lot too so I thought maybe she was extremely constipated. I was frantically trying to find out information on how to help her with that because I thought no way after doing all that work am I going to loose her to constipation! Anyway, I think she just as a swollen vent- maybe from the few diarrhea poops she has then and there- the acid from it would burn and I think that is why it is now swollen and hurts her. So I ran down to the local pharmacy to get some preparation h ointment and ever since I put some on her backside she's been more than ok. She has pooped several times since... none of them are hard poops. I am concerned that some were dark green, and one was mint greenish. I do know that vitamins have a tendency to color your urine, so I am guessing that is what it is? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, even if I'm wrong and its bad news.

She looks like a right peep right now, walking around and scratching and pecking. Not sure if she's actually getting anything yet though. I have a clump (the loaf) of food on the floor for her to peck at and I think she has, but I'm not sure if its eaten or not- I would assume she did. (I've been away this afternoon) The only problem is that she really detests water and she doesn't know how to drink without getting water all over herself.. When she was straining I put her under warm running tap water to get her to 'go'.. well, the water got all over her and she kept scream peeping and running all over the place. It must have felt really weird to her and now she doesn't like the feel of water even on her beak. So, more struggles ahead with that. (I did use the hair dryer to dry her off)

I'm just glad that she's had this breakthrough but, boy will I be happy when I can just put her outside with the rest of the peeps. That may never happen if she never recovers, I know, but I will dare to dream a bit more. Never thought she would make it this far... its really astounding to see the difference! I do have a lot of these stages on video, so hopefully if I ever get a You Tube account situated I will put up on the internet for others to see what a some TLC plus B-complex vitamins and selenium and vitamin E can do. Seriously, there were so many times I thought I need to just cull her. Oh, and I"m pretty sure its a she.. I feather sexed them all on the first day. I could be wrong of course, but I have done it before with success.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Here's a

too!

You have done so well!
I'm sure you are exhausted.
I hope she continues to improve every day!

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Hello.. just updating on the Serama peep..

The Prep. H worked well on the swollen vent. At times she still will have a movement that hurts her... I think its also swollen internally where I can't apply it. But most of all, it did the trick. Worked fast too.

She's still scratching and pecking at times... however, she doesn't appear to be able to get the food very well. I have no idea what amount of food she is taking in or not when she feeds on her own. I did notice she did little poops after putting her in a smaller dish with ground up chick feed all over the bottom of it. So she is eating a bit.. maybe not a whole lot- when she pecks. I've decided to continue to give her food via the syringe plus let her scratch and peck- perhaps she is not used to it and hasn't mastered it yet but will need both hand feeding and time to master eating by herself.

She still has somewhat of a tic in her neck. Other times, she is peaceful and calm, usually when sleeping. She often is alert- standing with her neck all the way outstretched, her eyes wide and seems to be listening very attentively.

I do believe she is fully blind. I also think she puts up a fuss at feeding time because she doesn't see my fingers coming for her beak and they touch her eyes accidentally which hurts her.. I didn't realize this until I actually saw my finger touch her eyes (she moves her head a lot when feeding time comes) and she peeped loudly and squirmed harder. SO, feeding is not going well at all because she doesn't see my fingers coming to blink. I suppose there will be all sorts of struggles along the way like this until she matures. She also does not like water and with her being blind I haven't figured out a safe way to give her a dish or present it to her so that she can drink safely. She's fattened up a bit- not as roly poly as her hatch mates and behind in growth a bit, but she has lots of energy now. She is very difficult to hold, but she likes to snuggle. I would say its her favorite thing to do, other than actually finding some food when pecking and scratching.

Most of the time she either sits or stands with her eyes open. I am concerned she is lonely. I try to take some more time to pet and snuggle with her and talk to her but I think it would be better if I had a few other chicks her age in there with her. I do believe now that she has something called A.E. (Avian Encephalitis) because she has almost all the symptoms. (tremor is one of them which I didn't mention because I thought she was just scared from being so ill) I read this is contagious through fecal matter, so I can't put her back with the other chicks right now. I will have to find out how to know when she is over being contagious..... Or will she always be a carrier and danger to the flock? I heard if she gets through it she will be immune. She will be two weeks old tomorrow.

Anyway, she is doing ok. I am concerned about her growth being slowed. I would suppose she is still in some danger of not making it, but she's been one peppy chick ever since we got the feeding thing figured out and she got regular full meals.

I'll continue to update just for educational purposes.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Just wanted to comment too that I have been adding B-complex vitamins, Vitamin E (oil form) and Selenium to her food. I have one of those small grinding bowls -mortar and pestle- and I put one pill of the b-complex and one pill of the selenium and ground them up together. I then sprinkle some of the powder - probably about 1/8th teaspoon to 1/16th teaspoon on the Kay Tee hand feeding bird formula that has already been mixed up... I mix up about 6cc's worth (usually only use up 3). So hopefully that should give you an amount. I am not sure that this is too much vitamins for her or not. I think the Vitamin E you can overdose on- so I only give her one or two capsules worth a day. (She doesn't eat the full amount I 'm sure)

I feed her through a syringe- with no needle of course- and give her about 1cc (will increase as she gets bigger/older) an hour or every two hours. It depends on if her crop is empty or not. Which reminds me to comment on the fact that sometimes she gets hungry sooner than expected and starts to swallow air which fills her crop- I thought she had an air sac problem, but it was her crop and the fact she was starving. So, if it feels like a whole lot of air in there, and is not solid or mushy as if filled with food material, do put some feed into them, albeit probably slowly so that the air has a chance to get out.. somehow.

At first it took a while for her to master the art of swallowing, so feeding even just one cc was slow, but now she can eat one cc with relative ease. Don't put too much in the mouth at one time- you can choke them. I only put the food in the middle of the beak so that she can have more reflex time to swallow.. if you put it too far back, the chick may not have enough 'notice' to swallow and breathe the food in. If feeding water to her- I do not use the syringe. I use a dropper and drop a tiny bead of water on the tip of her beak on top. Usually, a bird will respond by opening the beak and let the bead of water go in. I also sometimes dip her beak into water. With her and her problems, I had to hold her at a downwards angle then when she lifts her neck up to swallow the water, I then tilt her up so that it can go down- but only after she makes the movement of putting her head back to swallow. (May be unnecessary, but she seems to have a bit problems swallowing- just trying to help by using nature of gravity.)

Been keeping her under a regular lamp with a light bulb that gives off enough heat to keep her at 95 degrees F. Sometimes it is lower- 90 degrees F. (will lessen the heat as she gets older by moving the lamp away from the container I have her in) I have her in a small 12 inch circumference Tupperware tub, lined with paper towel.. with the digital thermometer to the side. I change out the paper towel maybe twice a day, or more if there are a lot of messes (She can't see the wet poops to avoid them... not like regular non-blind chickens avoid walking and tracking anything anyway, but this keeps her clean since I have to pick her up several times a day. Don't want to deal with that mess either.) I have another smaller plastic dish with high sides to which I put ground up chick feed all on the bottom. This is for her to learn how to scratch and peck and eat. I put her in this maybe twice a day for an hour or so. I put a bit of mash (wet feed) in there also so that she can get some water in some form. Too much dry food eaten might result in constipation. (She's not yet eating too much of the dry feed by herself, so I don't worry too much about it)

The more alert and well she gets the more demanding I have found her to be. I do believe that her being isolated from other chicks is detrimental to her development and well being. Currently, I am happy she has pulled through, but wondering if I did the right thing. I think once she is fully feathered things could be easier as then I might be able to have her diapered and around me more to give her a sense of having some sort of flock to feel safe with. She is getting to be very much attached... understandably.

Again, just using this post for informational purposes, to help guide, instruct and suggest... I am no way a 'pro' at this! As I said before, I still may loose her to genetics or what-have-you.

Thanks for allowing me to post.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Two weeks and a half old today... sorry to say not much has changed since last time I posted. She is peppy now.. Oh my gosh, so much spirit that it makes it difficult to feed her. She won't sit still. She doesn't like her beak being opened to get the food in. I was hoping she would do better at eating on her own, (and drinking) and she hasn't. She prefers that she is with me all the time, something I can't provide for her constantly, so she gets stressed, peeping at the top of her lungs. I'm certain she cannot see and will be asking people here how to deal with a blind chick, their experiences, in another thread.. I'm running out of options as to how to get her to feed herself. I'm giving her time to figure this out and I'm hoping she will.

 

[chickcrack]

Poor little girl. I hear what you mean about her wanting to be with you all the time. I tried adding a buddy in with Happy but he would try to attack anyone I introduced and would get so excited that he would relapse and end up being the one being picked on as he was laying on his side unable to stand. To this day he prefers to be with my dogs or people over chickens maybe because his earlier experiences with them were not good. Hopefully your little one becomes more self sufficient soon.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Thanks chickcrack!

She's extremely energetic now. She is able to squirm out of my grip and has taken a dive to the floor a few times. She seems to be handling that well though. Didn't seem phased at all! (Yes, I will be more careful.. she's just that squirmy!) As soon as I feed her and put her back in her pen, she starts to cry for me. I've not tried putting her with any of her hatch mates- just afraid of getting them sick if she is still infectious, but I think at this point she is probably not. She's just too energetic.

Her crop is emptying at record speed- having to feed her about 1 1/2 cc's every hour. I think she is trying to make up for lost time in growth or something like that. She was a bit emaciated when she was a chick as I could easily feel her keel bone, but a few days ago I noticed she had much more flesh on her bones- now with the growth spurt it seems like she seems a bit emaciated again, so I will have to step on on the feeding. Perhaps I'm mixing too much water with the baby hand feeding formula and she is not getting enough. She is getting bigger though, which is a good sign.

Some days her down feathers look very nice, other days its back to looking greasy and flat and messy. Not sure what is causing this but wondered maybe if it was due to lack of drinking water. I do give her a few sips of water after feeding,(maybe I should do this before?) but she can't have a water dish just yet in her enclosure since she might drown in it, somehow. Hard to know how much water I should be giving her in a day.

Oh and I shined light into her eyes to see if her pupils would react- they did not. Does this mean for certain she is blind? I'm assuming it does.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Well, in about two days, its hard to believe but, she will be turning four weeks old. She is still stunted in growth, but is growing. I've come to realize she is probably what is known as a silkie serama- her feathers coming in (except oddly for her wing feathers) seem very long and wispy, soft, almost like fur.

She is doing well. I am still having to feed her though. That's still a problem but I think overall she is taking her time to learn. I imagine it would if you don't have sight. She does eat on her own a bit, but maybe not nearly enough as she should. I have put water in there for her but it usually ends up getting spilled. I think she is still largely dependent on me to help her. Progress is slow, but as she grows I suspect she will learn.

My concerns are yesterday i found her eating the paper towel liner in her cage. She even ripped off a piece ans started running around with it peeping as if she found something extra tasty and good- just like how peeps do when they find a bug and 'announce' it to the others who might not have been so fortunate. I've since removed the paper towels and switched to clean rag towels. So far I have not noticed any problems with her crop not emptying or being stopped up in the backside from the paper towel consumption... I hope that the probability of that happening has passed.

So today I introduced some chick grit for her just in case (probably should have had that in there before) and it seems she took to it right away. Its hard to tell is she actually consumed any of it though. I don't know how you get a blind chick to eat little rocks!

I have stopped giving her vitamins about a week ago now. I decided to give it a break and see how she was as I learned that sometimes vitamins can actually cause the ticks in the movement of the muscles. She still has them every so often but it doesn't seem as pronounced as I said before. I may start to give her some vitamins again soon.

One thing I've learned is that if you have a chick that is not growing at the rate it should, be sure and keep the temperature up and don't lower it just because your chick is at 4 weeks when its development is at 2 and a half weeks still.. ... I've noticed her hatch mates nearly have full feathers by now, but she is behind and does get chilled at lower temperatures. Perhaps she is chilled because she has silkie feathers, I don't know, but I thought it good to point that out... somewhere on the internet.

She is a little darling though.. and I'm enjoying watching her learn and grow. Being blind, she has funny ways of doing things that make me laugh. She spins in circles with her neck stretched up all the way when alarmed. When searching she puts her head down and out straight to the ground, walks forward and peeps rhythmically- as if she is echo locating or something. You can see the determination in her when she does this, its adorable. She likes to cuddle and makes cooing noises when doing so.