To Cull or Wait?

[eeckenrode]

This chick was born yesterday. I saw it hatch and then left without getting a good look at it. When I came back later in the afternoon it was out in the run all by itself with it's eye's crusted over. After cleaning it up it was able to open it's eyes but it's beak stays open most of the time. My guess is it is a deformity it was born with, not an injury caused by one of my other chickens... It acts strong and normally when with mama and the other chicks, pecking at mama's eyes like most of my chicks usually do. I don't want to cull her and would like to give it a chance but I don't want it to suffer or slowly starve to death. Any advice? You can see how good it looks in the last picture, with it's eyes open...

 

[FlyHigher]

Keep it. Since the baby chicken is your pet and has no contagious disease, it deserves another chance. When he/she grow up, this problem maybe can get fixed automatically.IMHO

 

[Suzierd]

Is it eating and drinking? It may need some extra TLC but I would give it a good chance.

 

[eeckenrode]

Well the chick is now 4 days old. I've noticed that it doesn't seem as big as the others and doesn't really peck around as much. It was chirping a lot today and while it does move around well, I don't know if it's doing much at the feeder and it seems to want to either sit in the sunlight or be under it's mama most of the time. I can't really tell but I think it's lower beak didn't form and what you see in the picture above that looks like a lower beak is actually it's tongue. I'm very torn about whether to give it a chance at the risk of if it suffering or culling it now...

 

[theoldchick]

Well, the longer you keep her the harder it will be to cull. I'd try feeding her soft food and see how she does. However, if you know for certain the chick can't ingest food, it would be best to end her suffering.

So sorry. This is a difficult situation.

 

[eeckenrode]

Thank you the oldchick for your advice. I did bring it in and tried to feed it wet food but it wouldn't eat. I've been watching it off and on today and it seems to be slowing down a lot more. When the other chicks and mama go to the feeder it follows them but them falls asleep at the feeder. It does run to keep up with them still but it just wants to be under mama. It seems to be breathing harder today too. So, although I believe it will die on it's own soon, I don't want it to suffer and so we'll put it down tonight.