Sick Silkie Chick... Any Ideas What This Is?

FMAFarms

Songster
8 Years
Feb 20, 2011
439
4
109
Rural Michigan
We picked up our new chicks at 6:50 AM this morning, and were amazed at how lively the little things are after spending the weekend at the local post office. I'll post photos of them later (they are SO cute!!
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) but right now I'm posting because of something wrong with one of our new Buff Silkies.

First off, this was the only chick with pasty butt, but that was easily addressed. The chick was also tottering drunkenly everywhere, so we hobbled her for splayed leg. These are minor issues. My concern is that the thing is positively starved for water. It keeps hobbling over to the waterer, hangs its head over the ledge, then tries to drink (we raised the water level with pebbles so it wouldn't drown). Sometimes it manages to toss its head back to drink, sometimes it doesn't. I've had to help it drink twice so far this morning. Then instead of moving off, it settles down and tries to sleep with its head on the rim of the waterer. I moved it over to the feeder, and it fell asleep with its head leaning against the feeder.

So it's very weak. But worse... it throws up within minutes of drinking. And what it vomits is this clear, drippy goo that oozes out of its mouth. It doesn't rush out or pour out, like regular liquid. This is very viscous and it just hangs and drips, almost like a clear syrup. We are stumped. We isolated it in our hospital brooder, and it's sleeping now, but we just don't know how to treat the vomiting. I'm afraid that it's unable to hydrate and, in its weakened condition, it might not survive the day. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
 
I don't know what is wrong with your chick but could I suggest getting some polyvisol (baby vitamins sold at grocery stores) without iron and trying to get some into the chick? The vitamins come with a dropper but what I do is get a little on my finger and just gently rub the drop along the edge between the top and bottom portion of the beak. I would also try this with the water or use a dropper. Sounds like the chick might actually be drinking too much water at one time. I would give it a couple of drops of water and then see what happens. You might have to keep it from getting water on it's own until it is stronger and just keep giving it a few drops of water at a time. I hope someone who knows what this is comes along. Keeping
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for your chick.
 
Just wanted to report that our sick little Buff Silkie, whom we named Honey, died on the palm of my hand a couple of days ago. From what we can figure out, she wasn't sick. She just got squashed during shipping.
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We buried her out back by the coop she'll never get to live in. My sons want to name it Honey's House now. We also lost Spot, one of our Cuckoo Marans chicks, from a different hatchery, for the reason. Spot is buried out next to Honey.
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The remaining 47 are doing well, although our white-crested black Polish, Stefanski, is having major pasty butt issues. Ugh.
 

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