RIR chick has trouble keeping balance

[wberry85]

It was a nice warm day today so I took some of the chicks outside to run around and one of them seems to have a problem keeping his balance. He would kind of drop one wing and fall over on his side and lay down. Seems like he can walk fine when he wants to, and he was jumping into my lap from the ground and everything so I think his legs work ok, but it was just weird to see him kind of fall over. He would do it on both sides so its not just one leg.

Maybe it was just different than the pine shavings he is used to?

 

[wberry85]

No ideas? I am worried about my chick

 

[hallroyal]

I have RIR chicks that are six weeks old and I moved them to the outside and they love the nice warm days here in georgia! At one point they were all laying around soaking up the sun. I think they look so funny when they lay down and kick a leg out to the side, it sounds like that is what your chick is doing, just enjoying the rays! If it is not getting up to eat or drink, you might have a problem......

 

[allpeepedout]

I had one that did that for an hour or two. I though it was dying or had a neurological problem. But... I had given the chicks some hard boiled egg as a treat, and wondered if the unbalanced one got more than its fair share and had too much food on one side of it's crop? That might be incorrect and anatomically impossible--I don't know--but I had to wonder. Or maybe the dryness of the egg yolk got stuck. I had pulverized it, I thought.

I hadn't given them any grit yet, so I gave them some, and it improved. It ate the grit quite aggressively. Maybe yours ate some outside items and wasn't able to digest or packed in too much. Again, I could be wrong.

 

[ChickenCrazy09]

sounds like it was sunning itself..

 

[looptloop]

How old is the chick?

The first time I saw mine dust bathing I thought they were having a seizure and dying.

Chicks do kind of bobble around at first, and going on the grass may just be more of a challenge than it was up to!

Keep us posted....