Lethargic, skinny 2 week old chick

[kittybethaustin]

I'm a first time baby chick keeper with only two months of experience with any chickens at all. I realized tonight that one of my chicks is not feeling well. It's about two weeks old. It's not moving around like the others. It sits hunched up by itself. It's eating some but is skin & bones. It's feels colder to the touch than the others. It sleeps a lot and when it does, it tucks it's head under a wing. I haven't seen any of the others do this. There's a small bit of poop on it's butt so it may have diarrhea but I don't know for sure. All of the other chicks are very active.

I've given it some home-made pedialyte but that's all I know to do. I also lowered the heat lamp. I had raised it this week because the chicks seemed to be staying away from it most of the time.

Any other suggestions for this little one? This one is one of two Buckeyes chicks that I have. There are 12 chicks total of various breeds.

 

[slivercove]

Isolate it and try to wet some food and put it in a dropper and give it to her

 

[kittybethaustin]

She's eating when I give her food by herself. I have to keep nudging her to wake her up to eat, but at least she is eating and she took several drinks as well. I'll just keep giving support of food and water and see what happens.

 

[jruhle]

Keep her really warm, it's good that it's eating and drinking. Good idea to keep it separated. I hope it gets better, it's heartbreaking watching them be ill. Good. Luck!

 

[kittybethaustin]

This morning I couldn't get her to eat much and now she's fading quickly. She''ll be gone soon. Sad. My first chick loss. With kittens they have something called "fading kitten syndrome" or "failure to thrive". That's what this seems like. One that's healthy and active one day, goes quickly downhill the next. There's no real explanation for it. All the other chicks are still very active and show no signs of illness. Thanks for the help, but I think this one was too far gone by the time I found her not doing well.

 

[kittybethaustin]

She's gone now. I knew it would be soon. I kept her very warm since last night and gave food and water but she got weaker and weaker and quit taking anything in today.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Sorry.

 

[starkist72]