My chick is one week old and can’t poop!

[TheDocter21]

Help! My chick is one week old and she can’t poop. She had pasty butt, but I cleaned it all up after she had it twice. I came home and she was limping around. One other chicken was dead from an unknown reason (it was almost mashed by the other chickens). She was pushing as if she needed to poop. She was chirping REALLY loud and then about 45 minutes later she quit chirping and did this real faint chirp. She has done the faint chirp for about an hour now. Should I cull it or wait to see if she will survive the night and day?

 

[TheDocter21]

Update: I isolated the chick and moved the 7 other chicks to another brooder to be safe against any disease. I don’t think she is sick and I think the other chick may have suffocated because the other chicks were snuggling up pretty tight.

 

[N Sully]

You might want to try Save-A-Chick that farm stores carry and follow the directions on the package.
Are they able to stay warm enough? Young chicks cannot regulate their own body temperature and need to have a spot in the brooder that maintains 90* to 95* the first week. After that you can drop the temp 5* per week.
Hope your chick is ok

 

[TheDocter21]

They are warm, I have the heater at 80 degrees because I read you bring it down 10 degrees a week. I don’t know if the chick will make it through the night though.

 

[N Sully]

If it’s not feeling good you might provide it with a little more warmth so it’s not using energy to stay warm. I thought of temperature because you said they were snuggled tight and that could be because they are trying to stay warm. I hope your chick will be ok. They are delicate and could be a lot of reasons for it not to be thriving. Might not be anything you can or could do if it has underlying problems that cannot be helped.
Good luck

 

[TheDocter21]

Should I put it with the other chicks to help it stay even warmer?

 

[N Sully]

If it’s weak, they could cause it harm. By heater, do you mean like a room heater or do they have a heat lamp or something?

 

[drumstick diva]

Agree

 

[TheDocter21]

They have a space heater set to keep them at 80 degrees. Too late though, the chick died. She passed away right before I went to bed.

 

[TheDocter21]

I took her away from the other chicks too. Another chick of the same breed is also having issues and I think it may be a combination of pasty butt.