Sick Baby Silkie Chick

[Sarah and Joey]

I have 2 baby silky chicks, they were hatched in a incubator on the same day and are now 1 week old.
One is yellow and one is grey.
When they first hatched the yellow seemed a lot stronger and was soon running & jumping around where as the grey one took a few days to find its balance properly.
Now, the grey one is regularly eating & drinking from the feeder, running about and has even started scratching today.
The last couple of days the grey one seems to have grown lots and is now double the size of the yellow one.

The little yellow one doesn't seem to be eating or drinking, no natural pecking instinct. It will drink when dipping its beak in water on a spoon but then won't follow the spoon down and naturally peck!
Its poo is still very watery - when it does occaissonally poo (its just a small green drip)

When cleaning the box out is seems to get cold very quickly and spends most of the day sleeping while the other one is jumping around. It makes a small pipping noise a lot of the time and looks a bit weak today. As the grey one has grown it seems to be pecking the yellow one a lot today.

Just visited the local chicken auction and a man has told us that the yellow one must have a disease and it must be killed before the grey one catches the disease.

The chicks have been kept indoors, we've cleaned their box out every day, giving them fresh water & food, we don't have any other animals in the house. Made sure we've cleaned our hands before & after handling them.

Does this sound possible that it has a disease and should we take it out?? Really don't want to kill it, but then don't want the grey one to catch any disease any loose both of them.

We're new to being chicken owners, thought I'd done plenty of homework but with them acting so differently I'm stumped.

Grateful of any advice.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I have 2 baby silky chicks, they were hatched in a incubator on the same day and are now 1 week old.
One is yellow and one is grey.
When they first hatched the yellow seemed a lot stronger and was soon running & jumping around where as the grey one took a few days to find its balance properly.
Now, the grey one is regularly eating & drinking from the feeder, running about and has even started scratching today.
The last couple of days the grey one seems to have grown lots and is now double the size of the yellow one.

The little yellow one doesn't seem to be eating or drinking, no natural pecking instinct. It will drink when dipping its beak in water on a spoon but then won't follow the spoon down and naturally peck!
Its poo is still very watery - when it does occaissonally poo (its just a small green drip)

When cleaning the box out is seems to get cold very quickly and spends most of the day sleeping while the other one is jumping around. It makes a small pipping noise a lot of the time and looks a bit weak today. As the grey one has grown it seems to be pecking the yellow one a lot today.

Just visited the local chicken auction and a man has told us that the yellow one must have a disease and it must be killed before the grey one catches the disease.

The chicks have been kept indoors, we've cleaned their box out every day, giving them fresh water & food, we don't have any other animals in the house. Made sure we've cleaned our hands before & after handling them.

Does this sound possible that it has a disease and should we take it out?? Really don't want to kill it, but then don't want the grey one to catch any disease any loose both of them.

We're new to being chicken owners, thought I'd done plenty of homework but with them acting so differently I'm stumped.

Grateful of any advice.

awww how is the chick? I cant help but perhaps you should post in the emergency section ??

 

[Sarah and Joey]

Hi Sally
Thanks for the concern and for the advice of posting in the emergencies (good for future reference) - unfortunatly little Fluffy didn't make it!!
After looking on the net for advice I went to the local pet shop, explained that she would drink but not eat and asked for something to put in her water to give her a energy boost.
They told me that if she was one week old then she must be eating otherwise she would have already died and they sent me home empty handed.
I tried crushing up tiny pieces of bread and putting them into her water but she managed to still only drink the water.
The following morning she looked quite weak but was still up, churping, and pecking back at the other chick.
So we took her to the local vet who couldn't see her but booked us into another vet nearby.
Little Fluffy then rapidly got worse on the journey to the vets and as the vet picked her up to examine her she passed away.
Just now concerned for the remaining chick.
Out of 18 eggs only 2 hatched, so Ruby is now all alone. (Yes, I'm convinced both my chicks were female-womans intuition!!)
She'd doing really well, eating, drinking, scratching & even trying to fly.
We do have four older silky hens & a cock, just concerned that when the time comes to put her into the coop she'll not know how to interact with the others after being by herself and will get picked on by the other hens.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Hi Sally
Thanks for the concern and for the advice of posting in the emergencies (good for future reference) - unfortunatly little Fluffy didn't make it!!
After looking on the net for advice I went to the local pet shop, explained that she would drink but not eat and asked for something to put in her water to give her a energy boost.
They told me that if she was one week old then she must be eating otherwise she would have already died and they sent me home empty handed.
I tried crushing up tiny pieces of bread and putting them into her water but she managed to still only drink the water.
The following morning she looked quite weak but was still up, churping, and pecking back at the other chick.
So we took her to the local vet who couldn't see her but booked us into another vet nearby.
Little Fluffy then rapidly got worse on the journey to the vets and as the vet picked her up to examine her she passed away.
Just now concerned for the remaining chick.
Out of 18 eggs only 2 hatched, so Ruby is now all alone. (Yes, I'm convinced both my chicks were female-womans intuition!!)
She'd doing really well, eating, drinking, scratching & even trying to fly.
We do have four older silky hens & a cock, just concerned that when the time comes to put her into the coop she'll not know how to interact with the others after being by herself and will get picked on by the other hens.

awww poor thing, sometimes we just dont know why : (

I actually hatched Halo solo lol.... BUT after two days of him driving me nuts with his LOUD chirping I asked on a local FB group if anyone had any day old hatchlings, and I bought two mutts
to keep with him. WHICH I have since given away and he again is alone. but seems fine, I did try to put him out with my trio of silks but they didnt want anything to do with him, so he is still inside probably till spring!

 

[Sarah and Joey]

Thanks,
must admit I've grown pretty attached to little Ruby now, and since we live in the UK where the temperature is pretty cold at the mo and getting colder, then she too will probably be indoors until the spring now!!
She did seem to fret for the first couple of days being in there alone, but seems settled now xxx