Swollen Two Week Old Chick

[Rose66]

I brought home four 2 day old chicks and put them under my silkie hens whom immediately accepted them and have been raising them perfectly. The chicks are two weeks old now and seem to be running around healthy. However, one of the chicks is really swollen in its body. The skin is so swollen that in places the skin has no feathers. When you pick the chick up, I immediately thought, "wow, this chick is really heavy and swollen." I checked for pasty butt and it was clean. The other three chicks are completely normal. Any idea as to what could cause a chick to swell up?

Thanks,
Rose66
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[TeamChaos]

I know you said it's butt is clean, but have you seen it poop? If you swab it with a warm wet cloth does it poop?

 

[Rose66]

I know you said it's butt is clean, but have you seen it poop? If you swab it with a warm wet cloth does it poop?

I don't know about whether it's pooping or not. Should I go get it out from under it's mom now and swab it with a warm wet cloth or wait until the morning?

 

[tinydancer87]

I had a chick hatch once that became swollen like you described, it was about 2 days old when I noticed it. It was very squishy, but ran around and acted normal, eating, drinking, pooping.

I thought that maybe it was born with a heart defect that made it retain fluid. I left it alone with its mom and siblings, and after a week or so it went down and matured normally.

It was a rooster.

 

[Rose66]

Just as an update, the swelling went down in the chick after a few more days and it now appears to be back to normal.

Rose
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