Poult That Seems Close to Death

[LunaFluffy]

I just picked up a few poults from a local hatchery today. They were all doing fine in their box for a while, but one suddenly took a turn for the worse. It started laying down more. About half an hour later, when it did stand it couldn't keep its legs straight under it. Later it simply laid down with its legs sticking out on either side with its neck stretched out. It is also breathing heavily. I checked it's nose and everything seems clear. At first I thought it had simply gotten too cold during the car ride before I got them home and heat lamp on them, but now I fear something worse happened. I tried simply keeping it near the heat, but it still didn't perk up. The only time I can get a real response from it is when it gets too warm. At that point it stumbles away from the heat and flops back down. I tried looking up its symptoms but only found a mention of sugar water, so I mixed some up and gave it a little. I think it helped a little for a while. It seemed a bit more alert and offered some feed but it wasn't interested. Now its back to being unresponsive. At this point I'm clueless and could use any advice that someone has to offer.

 

[pdpatch]

Sometime they just don't get a good start, and start eating and drinking properly and are week. They lived off of the nutrients from the egg so far and didn't learn how to start eating and drinking or how to find the water and food. Take some feed and add to the sugar water and make a thin mash out of it may also help. You may need to force feed it for a day or two.

Two days ago we got a batch of Bronze from the local feed store and had the same thing happen but we didn't catch it in time and lost two. The rest are eating and drink OK and so far no other loses here.

Tom

 

[speckledhen]

Please no cross-posting per BYC rules.

I left your thread in the Emergencies where it seems to fit best.