Please Help - My baby chicken won't stand up!

[AshleysTeapot]

My baby chicken was fine an hour ago and I just checked her now and she won't stand up! She is acting like she is asleep but her eyes open sometimes and she cheeps and makes noise here and there. She has no wounds and is completely find and i don't know what happened! Please help me, what can I do? Her heart is beating, she acts like she is about to die but she was fine and there is no blood. Is this some kind of weird virus? I am so nervous.

 

[greyartist]

how old is she? is she just sleepy?(newborn) hold her up to the water and dip her beak, make sure she is not getting dehydrated. Has she been walking ok on the bedding?

 

[AshleysTeapot]

She is about 2 weeks old right now. I keep her with 5 other baby chickens. There is a runt in the bunch and it isn't even her. She isn't sleepy I don't believe because she slept with them during the night and refuses to wake up and acts sad and unhealthy I suppose. I held her up to water like you said and she just spit it back out. To my knowledge the other chickens havent been mean to her and she has been running around fine on the bedding. one hour she was just a normal chicken and the next she acts like she has a full blown illness. She pooped where she layed and then moved away from it and now she just lightly cherps every half second and keeps her eyes closed. Idk if this is some weird illness. It's so weird how she had been so healthy and then now suddenly this...

 

[Blue_Myst]

I'm so sorry about your chick! I'm sure you'll find out what's wrong!

First, I think you should definitely post this in the "Emergencies/Diseases/Injuries and Cures" folder, you will get a ton of responses there, and you'll get more attention as this is a more emergency-related subject.

Also, try searching for "coccidiosis" or "cocci" on the BYC search engine. With this disease, the chicks usually start out extremely lethargic, eyes closed, and feathers fluffed.

Are her legs or toes twisted or inflamed? Do you see any swelling?

Hopefully this helped some! I hope she pulls through for you!

 

[rstampa]

Is it possible there might be a draft coming from somewhere. You know how susceptible babies are to drafts and change in temperature. Try to give her some extra heat. Hold her in your arms wrapped in a towel or a warm light. sometimes that we snap them out of it.
Good luck and God watch over you.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I am so sorry your first posts have to be about this problem.

You did good to notice this so quickly. What kind of bedding are they on? Some kinds of chips, like cedar, can cause problems. You should isolate this chick to a comfortable warm container of her own, so she doesn't spread illness to the others and especially so they don't pick on her while she's down. Offer her food & water, but don't force her to eat. She might want some minced scrambled egg, that's always good for sick chicks.

She could have ingested something she shouldn't have, someone could have picked her up & injured her & not told you, or she could just have less than her full component of ingredients and be destined to live a short little life. Stuff happens to chicks, not every egg laid is meant to hatch, not every chick is meant to grow.

I'm so sorry, please keep us posted.

I pray for a recovery as sudden as the onset of this illness!