Swollen chick,anyone know what might be the cause ?

[sidgrey]

Hello everyone,i have a little game chick that's kinda ill and i can't seem to find out what may be the cause or what i might can do to help it..The little chick eats good,drinks and drops out like there is nothing wrong,but even though he acts okay he seems very swollen on his bottom side and at times he walks kinda off balance like a duck..The chick is a hen hatched chick and it was hatched in a batch with 7 others and all of the others have out grown it badly.

Now as younger chicks i didn't notice anything wrong with it but a week or so ago i noticed he acted humped up at times and was becoming a runt compared to the rest but since he was eating good and running with them i thought it may just been from eating so much that was causing him to act a little slugish..Well yesterday i caught it up from the batch and its bottom side looks very enlarged..at times it seems like it is breathing hard and when i was taking these pics below i could hear it's heart thumping inside while i held it away from me in my hand..I've never heard such a loud heart beat..I did not start hearing the heart beat like that until today and it sounded kinda echo sounding inside the chick.

Here is a few picks showing the little chicks bottom side.

 

[AmyTx101]

im sorry im not much help but found this post helpful https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/157313/swollen-abdomen-in-2-wk-ameracauna-chick-update-need-help

or an outside source too.. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0615100723442.html read the third comment down might be helpful too..

good luck keep us posted

 

[sidgrey]

im sorry im not much help but found this post helpful https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/157313/swollen-abdomen-in-2-wk-ameracauna-chick-update-need-help

or an outside source too.. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0615100723442.html read the third comment down might be helpful too..

good luck keep us posted

Hi,thank you very much for the information..I'm going to read over it carefully,and hopefully i can get a better ideal of what to do for it.

Looks like being a newbie like i am on here i posted this in the wrong section..Mods if you see this, can you please move it to the emergencies/disease section please,thanks!

 

[nurse_turtle]

It sounds like ascites. If the other chicks are also developing poorly, I would suspect feed quality or genetic problems.

 

[sidgrey]

It sounds like ascites. If the other chicks are also developing poorly, I would suspect feed quality or genetic problems.

thanks for the info..I'll read up on that..I think it's just this one little chick..The other 7 that was hatched with it seem to be doing great and they all have out grown this one badly...this little chick is the runt of the batch..I have been feeding this batch and my other batches from other mates, starter and grower feed and this is the only one out of about 35 chicks that has had any problems..Hopefully none of the others get this way and i can find some sort of treatment for this one....thanks for sharing.