Tiny chicken syndrome?

[JacinLarkwell]

Seems like a failure to thrive chick.

 

[sourland]

Seems like a failure to thrive chick.

I agree. Sometimes such chicks reach a certain point, regress and die. Other times they suddenly rebound and catch up to their brood mates. Hopefully this chick is of the latter group.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Seems like a failure to thrive chick.

I know, right? I've just never had one live this long.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Update: 5.5 weeks. Still alive, still weird. She has some wing feathers, but none anywhere else. The Welsummer in the first photo is 8ish weeks old, but all the others are 5-6 weeks, hatched the same time as Tiny.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

This is very interesting. I’m glad your chick is still alive. Here’s another thread about chicks of a similarly small size: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/extremely-small-chick.1460101/.

 

[Peas4Ducks]

Update: 5.5 weeks. Still alive, still weird. She has some wing feathers, but none anywhere else. The Welsummer in the first photo is 8ish weeks old, but all the others are 5-6 weeks, hatched the same time as Tiny.

I’m glad she’s still alive! I’m sorry if this is super obvious and you’ve already tried it, but do you regularly add probiotics to their water? We had a duckling who was maturing way more slowly than her flock mates and that seemed to make a difference (though who knows, she may have caught up regardless).

 

[MountainWoman73]

Update:

Little bird died today.

A few weeks ago when she got strong enough to run around, I noticed she moved stiffly and seemed off balance. A week or so ago I noticed that one of her feet seemed to be turned slightly outward. Over the last week I watched it get worse and turn into a very bad case of twisted leg. In the end it was almost pointed behind her. Today she didn't seem able to walk anymore, so I dispatched her. It was strange to kill a bird that small. Usually I thank them for their meat, but this time I said I was sorry she wasn't born with good legs and thanked her for being the best chicken she could be under the circumstances. Glad that's done and all my birds are healthy again. Other than the legs, she seemed healthy and was starting to feather, so I wonder if twisted leg was always her issue, and she was delayed because she couldn't walk to the food?

 

[InterestingChickens]

Update:

Little bird died today.

A few weeks ago when she got strong enough to run around, I noticed she moved stiffly and seemed off balance. A week or so ago I noticed that one of her feet seemed to be turned slightly outward. Over the last week I watched it get worse and turn into a very bad case of twisted leg. In the end it was almost pointed behind her. Today she didn't seem able to walk anymore, so I dispatched her. It was strange to kill a bird that small. Usually I thank them for their meat, but this time I said I was sorry she wasn't born with good legs and thanked her for being the best chicken she could be under the circumstances. Glad that's done and all my birds are healthy again. Other than the legs, she seemed healthy and was starting to feather, so I wonder if twisted leg was always her issue, and she was delayed because she couldn't walk to the food?

Did you ever see her eat or drink?

 

[FluffyButtBabies]

I don't think her leg was what caused her lack of growth. What I'm guessing is that because of her small size, she either got injured or stepped on by accident. The injury kept worsening as time went on. Plus, she was also most likely so small because she was unable to retain the nutrients she needed to grow (think fast metabolism, but you barely get enough to live). So when she got hurt, there was no way for her to heal as all of her energy was already being spent of keeping herself alive. There really wasn't all much you could do to help her. Sometimes nature just makes a mess up. It happens. Sorry for your loss!