Silkie chick not himself

[meganhundley]

Hey everyone, I have a concern about 1 of my silkie chicks. I just got them 2 weeks ago and so far they've all been healthy, as far as I can tell. They eat well and drink plenty of water, no pasty butts, except for the smallest and I don't think it was really pasty butt, just a few droppings stuck in his down. We recently moved all of them outdoors from where they had been staying, in our bathroom, to a completely enclosed wire run with a ground level coop in our front yard. We had 6 chicks but 2 days ago a predator of some sort, the crafty devil, got my only black chick, somehow grabbed him and pulled him through the wire, I know this because I saw where he was pulled through, there was black down stuck to the wires. Whatever it was was a brave little sucker and stopped right in my yard to eat him, I know THIS because I saw a dried pool of blood 3 feet from the coop. Neither myself or my 3 pit bulls ever heard a peep from inside and the run is only about 20 feet from where we normally sit inside. We have since predator proofed the run. Anyway, that was 2 days ago. Today when I went to feed the remaining 5 chicks, 1 of them just seems to not be himself. Normally when I feed them they come running and flapping their little wings as fast and hard as they can, peeping up a storm, but 1 of them just kind of hung back and didn't seem interested in eating, which is not like any of them to do. He pecked at a couple peices of food but didn't show much interest. He walked kind of slow and just generally stood around kind of dozing in and out while everyone else ate. Then he drank a little water and kind of stretched out against the wire and stretched 1 wing out over his foot and started to take a nap! That was this morning. I went out again around 5 this afternoon and the same scenario again, no change, for better or worse. I'm worried he may be coming down with something, I don't want to jump the gun and tale him to the vet if he's not really ill, that's even if there is a vet in the area that will treat chicks/chickens. Is it possible that he's just feeling under the weather today? I've had days like that, but do chickens? I'm pretty new to chickens in general and brand new to silkies. Does anybody have any advice or words of wisdom or can anyone guess at what could be wrong, if anything? All of your replies will be much appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

[GitaBooks]

I'm sorry to hear about the chick you lost.

What is the weather like? Is it hot, cold, moist or dry?
Is there a clicking while he breaths?
Predator saliva can be toxic to birds and kill them in just a couple days, even a small scratch could be causing an infection. Have you checked it over for wounds?
How old are they?

I hope it gets better soon.

 

[meganhundley]

It's been in the 80's most of the week and humid, typical August VA weather, lol, not much rain since they've been outside. There's no noise when he breaths that I can hear, I looked him over this afternoon and didn't see anything although he did have something matting the fluff on his head. Not blood, just something clear that had made his fluff kind of stick together, possibly predator saliva?? But I didn't see any scratches or wounds there or anywhere on him. I'm not really sure how old they are, the woman I got him from never said, I'm assuming a month and a half to 2 months maybe? There fluff is just now starting to come in pretty good. Some are younger than others I think as 1 is very small compared to the rest and doesn't have as much fluff and wing feathers as the rest do. The 1 I'm worried about is 1 of the older 1's though. I would post a picture so you could take a stab at his age but I'm using the mobile app and pictures don't load very well if at all, lol.

 

[GitaBooks]

As a precaution, make sure that the sick silkie can easily get to somewhere dry and always has fresh water. You can offer vitamins in the water, as I found it really helped with my weak chicks. Scrambled eggs are also a great food to offer to sick birds.
Hopefully, he'll get over whatever it is and be fine.

I'd love to see any pictures of your birds, so feel free to post them!

 

[meganhundley]

Yeah, I read somewhere that scrambled eggs are good for a weak chick ot chicken. I'll try that today, thank you. What vitamins should I put in their water and where can I get them? Or can I just use regular store bought vitamins from like Walmart or GNC? Also, how much should I give them? I'll see if I can get a picture to load, I had a bear of a time getting a picture of my EE pullet to load last week, lol.

 

[meganhundley]

Surprisingly I got 1 to load pretty easily this time, lol. This pic was taken about 3 days ago. The black chick you see is the 1 that was taken. He was pulled right through the wire. How old would you say they are from looking at this picture? Like I said, I think 1 is much younger than the rest, or possibly a late bloomer or maybe he's just going to be smaller? The smallest is the top right chick. He's 1 of the partridge colored 1's I think. I have 2 white and 3 partridge chicks.

 

[meganhundley]

I just checked in him amd he seems to be doing better. He's a little more spunky today, maybe he just didn't feel good yesterday. He's still not.back to himself but he's better. He came running when I fed them, though once he got to the food he didn't eat much. Hopefully he'll come around. Do you think maybe he could be depressed from 1 of siblings dieing?

 

[GitaBooks]

Sorry for the late response.


If you decide to try the vitamins, I would suggest save-a-chick. It worked really well for me. You can buy it at your local feed store or TSC. I've heard that vitamins for people, without any iron in them, can be used also.
I'm glad to hear he seems to be doing better

. He could have been frightened badly by the predator, and chickens can also be depressed by loosing a friend, especially if the two were bonded.

 

[meganhundley]

Yeah, sorry about the picture, I had to load it as an edit on the thread so it's up at the very tip top of the page. The mobile app doesn't really work well for loading pictures so I have to switch to the desktop version while on my phone, lol, and it wouldn't let me post a picture as a reply so I had to edit the thread and post the picture that way, it's a pain but it did the trick. If you still don't see it let me know and I'll try to post a picture again some other way.

 

[GitaBooks]

Don't worry, I can see it.

Those silkies only look to be 3 or so weeks of age. This is a little young to have them outside at night, they aren't fully feathered. Do they have a heat light or heat pad that they can snuggle on if they are cold?