Some questions on feeding a sick chick... also some tea questions.

[SoraHakuDA]

I live in a house where most chickens roam free 24/7. Recently, around 4 to 5 hens hatched their babies and had been doing their own thing around the yard. But i started to notice that the chicks were getting sick, aside from the chilly weather here, which we never get since i live in a tropical area, I have picked up the sick chicks and I have noticed 2 things: Their stomachs are hard, usually have little stone like objects in them and they are very much clogged and can't poop.

I have picked up so far 4 chicks, all of them have died. But today I found yet another chick, it's around two weeks old though this one seems to be doing ok compared to the others I had found, but has a hard stomach and it was clogged. I warmed up some water and placed the chick in it and cleaned off it's bottom with a cloth until I removed all the hardened droppings. My main concern was that the chick had not eaten all day, only thing in it's stomach was the hard rocks. So I picked out some feed for it. It so happened that I had an open tea bag drying out in the same desk where i was tending to the chick, the chick saw them and ran up to them and ate a few before I took them away. It was a Black Chai tea bag with vanilla herbs. The chick has been fine after that but i'm just wondering if I should make sure to keep those away from any chickens at all just in case. Also what can I feed the chick to help it's digestive system?

Sorry for the long post!

 

[azygous]

You have a mystery to solve. What is causing these roaming chicks to clog up and die?

The most obvious reason for this happening with chicks is lack of suitable grit. While adult chickens usually find plenty of the right size stones, it may be your yard lacks gravel that is fine enough to be suitable for chicks. Chick grit is usually about the size of sand and must have sharp edges rather than being smooth and round.

Another thing that can cause constipation in chicks is getting hold of something such as bits of plastic, rigid stemmed grass, or eating stuff such as wood shavings due to not having access to proper food. Also, not having access to plenty of clean water can also cause constipation. I had this happen to a four-week old chick when it couldn't get water out of a malfunctioning nipple water bottle.

The treatment is oil introduced orally into the chick's crop. It can save a chick if caught early.

Then there's the chance this is something the chicks are hatched suffering. Poor genetics can cause routine abnormalities, affecting many chicks if the gene pool is very small. Also, bacterial infection of the yolk sac can claim chicks' lives within a week or so of hatch.

Those are the possibilities I've come up with. Perhaps others will be able to add to the list.

 

[azygous]

I forgot about the tea question. The amount of tea the chick ate won't hurt it. But larger quantities of black tea contain tannin and it's not good for chickens.

Probioics are good for digestion and improving nutrient absorption. So is fermented feed. Many of us ferment our feed and chickens seem to like it. It has natural probiotics.

 

[SoraHakuDA]

I forgot about the tea question. The amount of tea the chick ate won't hurt it. But larger quantities of black tea contain tannin and it's not good for chickens.

Probioics are good for digestion and improving nutrient absorption. So is fermented feed. Many of us ferment our feed and chickens seem to like it. It has natural probiotics.

I see. Thank you for that info! I did the oil feeding along with lost of water and it helped the chick pretty well! It's stomach no longer hard and seems pretty lively. It won't eat on it's own so I placed a bigger chick next to it and as soon as the little guy saw the other one eat, it joined in! Hopefully the food relieves it from whatever it is that was in it's stomach.