Starving chicken ~ HELP!!

[scrabbleaims]

Hi, I am new with chickens as I have some white rocks that are only 5.5 weeks old. Sorry I don't know terminology yet but one of the chickens is starving itself now. It will always sleep (standing up?) and not move a whole lot. I never see it eat and it is wasting away as the others are just plumping out. It shakes its head as though the flies are bugging it, which very well could be but it doesn't seem to bother the other birds. It literally is NOT eating. We have isolated it with some pellets and medicated water (tetracycline) figuring it is something bacterial. I have fed it the medicated water through the syringe twice today... each time approx 9 mls. Any advice would be great as it won't last much longer

 

[Vtoraya]

So sorry! Some months ago i had one chicken like yours... The best way is just let it fight with its disease itself. My chick recovered but seems it doesn`t have good eyesight....I kept it in a box in its own and fed poor baby with cocktail made from milk and yolk..... using a small spoon.... or gave it sugar water.

 

[azygous]

There are so many different things that can make chickens lose their appetites and waste away, chicks and adults alike. Some diseases such as Marak's cause a chick to lose her appetite and waste away as tumors are taking over her organs.

Often we have no clue what is happening until a chicken dies and a necropsy is performed on the body.

You can try offering it tofu or boiled egg sprinkled with Poultry Nutridrench and see if you can get it to respond. Sometimes they do and sometimes it's a lost cause. It's worth trying.

 

[scrabbleaims]

Thanks for your replies. Well she seems to be better now. I kept her isolated and kept the grower feed along with the medicated water for abot three or four days. I also gave her mealworms, lettuce and kale which she seems to like quite a bit. She really wanted out so we let her out with the others. She was pushing her way to the food and water dish!

 

[Koodra]

I have a Delaware that has the same problem. Her Flock mate the same age is an EE and is filling out nicely. But the Delaware is stunted, goes to bed with barely anyting in her crop. Now she is partially blind in one eye from a fight with one of the big chooks, but hangs with her EE flockmate all day. I am begniing to think that EE eats all her food, but I see the Delaware eating, just very little. When we had grapes earlier in the Summer she ate them like a kid in a candy store. But she dropped from 2.5 pounds to barely 1.5 and it freaked me out. She doesn't like the scratch and peck grower much, but does like crumbles and I got some, they only had medicated so I keep it for her in isolation, but now she isn't budging. Freaked me out so much, I started soaking it in water, adding apple, a bit of molasses, pinch of chicken vitamin powder, peanut butter, brewers yeast (just in case its worms), flax seed and yogurt.
I gave her six 5 ml syringes at breakfast and the same before bed. She likes the taste, but hates the syringe process. But won't eat more than a tsp if let to her own devices. We tried that and no weight gain. After doing the syringe method, she has put on a 1/2 pound and is almost 2 pounds. Her comb started growing and he body is lengthening, she has more energy and fights back more too. Going to move to every other day as soon as we get back to 2.5 pounds. She was hatched 4/7 and is the smallest gal we got and lowest on the pecking order as well. I hope that she continues to grow and pack on the poundage, because I don't want to force feed her forever. She acts like a growing kid and looks for a place to nap while she digests and grows for a few hours, then continues foraging. But I am concerned, not a fan of watching anything waste away if I can help it. My Mom nursed a cat back from the brink before using the same method and after a while she got the hint. Hope Ashoka does too.

Also have a Blue Laced Red Wynandotte 6 months old with a beak injury that I have put back together with help from the chicken chick: diluted bentadine, tiny pieces of tea bags, crazy glue, liquid bandages and nail polish. It is holding well for the past week and a half, but she has also lost a pound due to it hurting too much to eat. She isn't yet laying, but I am also syringe feeding her 2x/day (same mix as above) until she starts eating more on her own. Chicken Chick's beak repair page said her birds took 6 weeks to heal. Padmé forages and uses her beak, (it is dirty) but it doesn't seem to be sharp or nimble enough as it used to be. She doesn't seem ready to hone it on a stone just yet, must hurt. Fingers crossed.

Advice is welcome.