Sleepy chick chirping a lot - need positivity here

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

Good news, though I'm hesitant to say it - vet said we can pick her up this afternoon and she's eating food on her own again after some sub q fluids and a tube feeding. They had her on oxygen for a little while in an incubator but she improved so she's off it now. Little bit concerned because she was doing so well during the week before she just crashed. But vet is optimistic about her for now.

I get a bit pessimistic reading this forum sometimes- so many dead chicks. I know not everyone can afford to bring a week old chick the the vet, but sometimes we really can't give them what they need at home. For now, they said it would be better if we could keep her separated so she won't spread whatever she has to the other chicks, and so that we can give her Tylosin in her water without giving it to the other chicks who don't need antibiotics.. but it's difficult given that she really wants to be with her mates.

 

[Mellowmalt]

thx for sharing the story. I am only a hobby chicken keeper like most of us on here and even though I generally distrust vets experience, the ones that have dealt with chickens surely know a lot more than me. It sounds like they did a good job.
I think the problem is nobody really knows the right answers. Antibiotics are powerful however, they can cure illnesses but they weaken the immune system too.
My approach is just to keep things as natural as possible so I find the feed that sounds least processed on the ingredients within my budget, not too many fattening treats and I've never used medicine for my chickens, ever. Only mite treatment. If one gets ill then it gets put out of its misery but so far the fox always beat me to it...
You are right though that there are a lot of posts about chickens dying and I've lost my fair share to foxes, then I lost a few during incubating this year so it is part of keeping chickens. That is what makes it so hard and even made me give up keeping chickens for a while - you need to be ok with chickens dying if you are going to keep chickens. You can avoid dealing with that part of it but it inevitably will happen if you keep chickens and the only way to be a good chicken keeper is coming to terms with it and treating the flock like an ants nest, as long as the nest survives, then it is ok if a few worker ants die along the way.
I think with good chicken keeping practices though chickens are quite resilient birds and face much harsher conditions in the wild so should generally live long an healthy lives in our care. I hope yours does.

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

I'm not going to knock you for your philosophy on chicken keeping, but that's not mine.
I'm not okay with losing any chickens to things I could have prevented. I'm an entomologist- if I saw my pets like ants, they'd all be in trouble.

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

FYI in case anyone has this issue in the future and wants to know how it turned out- Princess is 7 weeks old now, and I can say with confidence that bringing her to the vet saved her life. If we kept her home she certainly would have died. She's doing well, and you'd have never known she was ever sick. Knock on wood.