PLEASE HELP: Two-Day-Old is Tiny, Wobbly, Can't Stand Up

Just ordered 25 EE chicks from Cackle, they sent 27, and it took 2 days for them to get here!! I was so scared.

When they arrived, 1 was dead in the box (looked like it had been trampled as it was a good size), 2 were in the process of being trampled and were having trouble standing up. I separated them and gave them sugar water, sprinkled some food on a paper towel, got them really warm.

One of them perked up and is at least able to sit up, sometimes walk around and peck food or drink water.

The other one, kind of runty, still has trouble standing and falls over a lot--can't drink or eat on its own.

Is there anything else I can do for this chick?? All the others are healthy and "skidding" all over the brooder!

 

Thanks for your response!!

After a few hours of dipping beaks in the sugar water and holding out feed mush in my hands, both chicks have learned to stand, walk, eat, and drink on their own.

So I put them back in with the others before I saw your comment One of them just blended into the crowd, but the really weak chick I can still spot because of a piece of poo stuck to its head It's huddling/running with the others and is actually being a bit of a bully, pecking at other chicks' toes. I guess if it takes a turn for the worse I can pull it back out.

I'm still not sure what was wrong/what is wrong with it. Definitely more uncoordinated than the other chicks, but doesn't look like it has/had spraddle leg. Looks like in transit the chicks piled up, so maybe these two happened to be at the bottom of the pile and got squished.

 

My first brooder was a cardboard watermelon box with a wooden plank down to cover the huge hole in its center... that worked wonders for my chicks who had learned how to pile up too well in someone's small backyard brooder box. The box has no sharp corners, instead has 8 sides all at really wide angles, and the chicks literally could not pile up.

And I've got to try Save-A-Chick, I keep hearing good things about it but have always stubbornly insisted that I can make my own electrolytes!

 

The weakest chick is back in the intensive care unit Did NOT do well overnight in the chilly temps, pasted up, and is once again having trouble standing/eating/drinking. I wish I knew some good breeders near me so I didn't have to ship, I really don't like the stress that the mail trip puts on them.

 

The local poultry swap has people I would rather not buy from anymore, all the birds I've gotten from them have been ill in some way, and most of the very local breeders do bantams without much regard to health. Trust me, I've looked at craigslist. I'm also really specific about what I would like from a breeder. The hatchery chicks, while unhealthy, are better than any I've gotten from breeders around here.

I'm REALLY excited about incubating! I just have to get a flock going first Most of the semi-local breeders are 3+ hours away and I'm not willing to do that, so shipping it is. Guess I have to pay the price for what I'm willing/not willing to do.

This little one took a turn for the worse and I had to pull it out of the brooder. Now it's literally dying in a box on my countertop, I've culled adults for sickness before but never a chick, so I just can't kill it.

 

Just wanted to update post and say that the two weakest ones died I'm really convinced it was the shape of the shipping box, but I know there are PO and seasonal restrictions. It's just frustrating, but at least Meyer refunded me.

Still on a breeder quest... guess it's hoping for too much to find someone REALLY local doing quality Ameraucanas! (And not Easter Eggers!)