New chick can't find food

[Prog]

I just got started with 6 baby chicks bought from the farm store a few days ago. 5 of them have been doing great and seem to be thriving well. 1 chick, "Ducky", a Blue Laced Wyndotte has had some problems.

At first she was really lethargic and not eating or drinking like the others, so I dipped her beak in water a few times until she learned to do it on her own. She was also getting pecked on the beak a lot by other chicks, so I switched from a red heat lamp to clear and things improved.

She started moving around a bit more but never would eat. Following advice I've seen here and elsewhere online, I gave her some Greek yogurt the first night, but it was difficult to get her to take it. I tried holding her and giving her sugar water with an eye dropper, but she would try fighting to get out of my hand; similar case with egg yoke from the dropper. I've separated her from the rest of the chicks, but I don't think it is sickness.

Night 2 she finally started taking the egg yoke from the dropper while in the brooder. But I noticed that she keep missing when she tried to peck at the dropper.

I've come to the conclusion that she is blind in her right eye.

Today, Easter Sunday, is day 3. She is a lot stronger now as I've been able to feed her with the eye dropper, but she can't find the starter crumbles, even if she stands in a bowl of them.

I need a way to get her to peck at the crumbles, but I can't seem to get her to do it.

Does anyone have advice? Thanks in advance, and I'm glad I've found good info here already as she is much stronger now after following advice people have said.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Chickens are visual. If it has sight in one eye I would try adding shiny marbles or glass rocks to attract it to the feed. If it's totally blind it will always need help.

 

[Eggcessive]

Could you get pictures of both eyes? Chickens’s left eyes are far sighted while the right eye is near sighted. So it may be that she cannot see close up very well. Is there any drainage or gunk in her eye? Here is some reading about their eyes.:
https://www.val-co.com/10-interesti... tetrachromatic.,helps them to track movement.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

If you truly believe she's blind in the right eye, I would take her out, set her on your table or at a desk, put small dish of very wet crumbles in front of her. Much like teaching a chick to dip it's beak in water, if she doesn't dip her beak into the mash, do it for her. She needs to get used to that's how you get food.

After that, you'll have to put the feed and water in the same place every time. She'll probably need you to guide her to each a few times. The blind chicken we rescued was four months old, and that's what I had to do for her. Yours being just a few days old should train a lot easier.

 

[Prog]

UPDATE

I tried the wet mash, dipped her beak in it several times, and tried putting shiny objects in it. But she still will not take it. She only wants to be fed from an eye dropper, and she was getting very stressed with what I was doing and not giving her egg yoke in the dropper.

It's a really sad and frustrating situation that she just won't eat.