Sick baby chick

[pollitos2013]

We are brand new to chickens. We have seven babies in a big cardboard brooder 3' x 5' in the basement with warming lights. They came in the mail 26 days ago and they were all growing the same for the first two weeks but lately one little Speckled Sussex is not growing as well as her sisters. She seemed happy and drank and ate with the other chicks and pooped the same but she is now half their height. Another friend said she was a bantam but today an experienced chicken guy looked her over and said she has a crop problem and he said she will probably die! His wife helped me take her photo and felt her crop which is soft and squishy feeling. We put her in an isolation tub right inside the big brooder so she can see the girls but they can't hurt her. No one was picking on her until tonight when I saw one of the Barred Rock girls peck her neck. In the isolation tub she is eating her lettuce and baby chick food. She was not one of the chicks that had pasty butt. What can we do? Please respond if you can.

 

[pollitos2013]

this is the sick chick on the left and her sister on my son's shoulder

 

[loveourbirds]

it sounds like your doing about all you can. i would put one of the other chicks with her just for company.

im just guessing she is just the lowest on the pecking order, if there isn't much competition she will do fine. sooner or later she will catch back up (sussex are usually a little slower growing anyways) and be fine.

just so you know, when raising chicks you are going to lose some. as you raise more it does get alot easier, but even the most experienced people lose some.

 

[cafarmgirl]

There may not be much you can do other then offer good nutrition and some vitamins and just see how she does. Some chicks have issues and just do not thrive. Chickens of different breeds do grow at different rates and birds of the same age can vary vastly in size, even if they are all standard size breeds. What in particular made the guy decide she has a crop problem?

If they are eating anything besides their chick starter make sure you are offering grit so they can digest it properly. It is probably best if she eats mostly her chick starter since it is probably about the most nutritionally balanced thing she can be eating right now to help her out.

I don't know if I'd keep her separate unless she is clearly inactive and the others are targeting her. If she is active and eating and there is nothing more then normal pecking order stuff going on I'd probably keep her with the others. The longer she is separate the harder it would be to reintegrate her if it turns out she's growing normally for her breed.

 

[pollitos2013]

We have 3 speckled sussex and the little one is one of those, 2 RIR and 2 BR and they were all born the same day. Tonight she has a soft ball of something inside her just under her neck in front. The chicken guy said it was good it wasn't hard but it is not supposed to be there. It wasn't there before.

Thanks for the advice. I will put another chick in with her tonight and if she looks better in the morning I will try putting them both back.

My kids are pretty worried.

 

[cafarmgirl]

And it's not just her crop?

 

[pollitos2013]

The chicken guy said it was her crop. It is filled with fluid or something.

 

[loveourbirds]

the crop on a chick shouldnt be hard. and should protrude plainly. i really dont think you have an issue other than low in the pecking order. can you get a picture on here?

 

[pollitos2013]

The photo is above - the sick one on the left and her sister - same kind, speckled sussex, same hatch day on the right. She always had a little crop thing but tonight it is big and round and soft.

 

[loveourbirds]

i guess i should have been more specific, i was loooking for a picture of her from the front, showing the crop.

it sounds to me like she is fine, but please keep us updated.