Stress in Chicks??

[kswizzyswizz]

Its been a rough couple of days here and I have one 4 week old chick acting "off" out of nowhere. huddled in the corner, trying to sleep, not wanting to run around with the other chicks. I am hoping this is stress not something else...full crop this morning which is a little odd..

To put it into perspective: Monday - a different chick went through the chain length fence and met its maker with my dog.. this visibly stressed mom and likely others with all the commotion. Tuesday, two chicks made it through chain length fence ( unknown if the one in question was apart of this), luckily i caught it and was able to call my dog off before she made any contact...they were mostly just flushed around by her. Fast forward a few hours... a hawk came down and tried? to take a baby from a different clutch? I think? again unsure if this is the chick in question, so EVERYONE was stressed out by this, babies barely found their moms that night and i had to play match maker. One chick was in my neighbors yard which, could have been this one and he was out for a few hours before i found him, he ran right back to his mom and they went to bed for the night... chicks have been placed back into predator proof run

I did watch him eat a little bit of grass this morning and peck at the ground. I did have to leave for work and they are safe in a predator proof run, i had been free ranging all 15 chicks for 3 weeks now with no issues.

could this chick be acting off because of all the stress that happened? i will give them all electrolytes, hoping by the time i get home from lunch he is out of his funk.

 

[nuthatched]

Maybe you should give your mommas and chicks an enclosed area until the chicks are bigger. Have you ruled out constipation or coccidiosis?

 

[kswizzyswizz]

Maybe you should give your mommas and chicks an enclosed area until the chicks are bigger. Have you ruled out constipation or coccidiosis?

There have been no other symptoms through out the flock, not really a way to rule out either of those as this started this morning. Coccidiosis is my first thought but before i subjected 25 chickens to around of corid i wanted to be sure this wasnt just a symptom of stress from the days prior.

they are now all penned up in predator proof runs. but that wasn't my question nor did i need the blatantly obvious stated.

 

[nuthatched]

There have been no other symptoms through out the flock, not really a way to rule out either of those as this started this morning. Coccidiosis is my first thought but before i subjected 25 chickens to around of corid i wanted to be sure this wasnt just a symptom of stress from the days prior.

they are now all penned up in predator proof runs. but that wasn't my question nor did i need the blatantly obvious stated.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean mean to strike a nerve. If you've solved your escaping chick problem before hand, it be nice to include that in your post since that's what most people would focus on as its the more pressing issue. I don't think it's stress, he probably ate something like you think he did, how's his crop feel? Or he got chilled.

 

[kswizzyswizz]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean mean to strike a nerve. If you've solved your escaping chick problem before hand, it be nice to include that in your post since that's what most people would focus on as its the more pressing issue. I don't think it's stress, he probably ate something like you think he did, how's his crop feel? Or he got chilled.

his crop was full this morning.