Newbie with 2 week old chicks... is this normal?!

[earnhardtlvr]

u can water down gatorade and give them. i buy save a chick from tsc or feed supply store and give new chicks for the first few days. i would try to give some gatorade and see if that gives the chick a little boost. I used it to nurse a little brahma back to health. i even mixed the gatorade into the crumbles to make a mash for her to eat. good luck with the little one.

Pedialyte is ok to use. just watch the salt content. Karo syrup can be used to. I've heard that it works better than sugar because less likely to get pasty butt.

 

[LilyD]

The polyvisol you can get from any store they are just liquid baby vitamins but make sure they are without iron because baby chickens don't need iron.

 

[JodyJo]

Here are a couple pics of my newbies, at 2 weeks old...yours look sooo young!
I hope the sickly one is better today...

 

[Pele]

Im so sorry you've been losing your babies

I have a couple of questions that might shed light on your predicament:

1.) are you offering your feed to the chicks at certain time-periods, or are you free-feeding them?
2.) What is the brand of your feed?
3.) Have you been offering them any treats? If so, what type?
4.) Have you treated them for Cocci?

Hopefully we can narrow down what happened, and see what we can do to help your babies

 

[KristenRae]

Quote:
Thank you, all of you, for all of your support and help! Looking at the pictures of other two week old birds (and comparing the white rock chicks to my australorp/barred rock chick), it is obvious that both chicks are behind! To answer the above questions:

1- I am free feeding
2- I am feeding MannaPro Medicated Chick starter (with Amprolium)
3- I have not offered them anything other than the chick starter
4- Because I am feeding medicated food, I assume that means they are being treated for Cocci as a preventative measure?

I offered the smallest, sickly chick three drops of sugar-water yesterday. It drank it from a dropper, then I continued to offer it plain water drop by drop. I figured that because it had some diarrhea last week, that maybe it got dehydrated and had an electrolyte imbalance of some kind? I didn't have Karo, so I made do with what I had...Anyway, today I catch that chick eating greedily every single time I enter the chick room. I hope it is on its way to recovery, but I get that chicks just die sometimes. I plan on adding vitamins to their water, but couldn't find Poly-visol anywhere this morning while running errands.

 

[JodyJo]

Oh well done...

I hope it recovers, sounds like it is on the road to recovery..

did you check WalMart and Walgreens? They both should have Polyvisol...

You may not need it now, keep up the TLC...and keep posting pics!

 

[KristenRae]

Thanks JodyJo I went to Wal-mart and picked up the Poly-vi-sol and added some to their water. Better to be safe than sorry! The sickly chick is still eating, drinking and pooping well (no blood!). Fingers crossed!

 

[wyomingleghorn]

sorry to here about your baby, I also have one that is kinda sickly but i will say that my chicks at six days old have more wing and tail feathers than show in your picks. sounds like your doing everything ok and i also use the same chick starter just watch for that pasty but
good luck to you

 

[Sinfonian]

My only comment is to say, any chick not acting normal should be quarantined immediately to avoid spreading anything and for the chick's safety (other birds pick on the weak). I used a similar bin to my brooder box when I had to do this. Lasted 2 days before I was confortable reintroducing them.

Lastly call the farmer, maybe they can help.
Best of luck!

 

[KristenRae]

Farmer is clueless, and waiting for the extension office to return my message. Hopefully, it isn't anything serious and I am just a nervous new chicken Mama. The chick is isolated (and is very vocal about it!). I'll keep this updated as I get more info...