4 day old chicken, is very weak but has been fighting death these past 2 days. The little chick seems to not be able to keep its eyes open, and peeps every now and again, she seems to keep her head up and try opens her beak like she's gasping for air, the chick can't seem to stand up without being wobable, you can feel all her bones, she can't seem to walk probably either alot of the time, She's really cold and i'm trying to do what ever I can to keep her warm, she's under the heat lamp but that doesn't do anything for her. When we first got her she wasn't perky or jump at all she was just really weak, she doesn't drink or eat, i tried feeding her with a eye dropper and putting a little bit of it at the end of her beak, she would hold her head up for a while and it would take a very long time for it to ever go down. I've tried giving her electrolytes but that doesn't help. I've only just separated her from the others, she was just relaxing why all the others where squashing her. What do I do?
Your chick has no chance for survival, I'm very sorry to have to tell you. It has a condition called "failure to thrive", a genetic thing. You have two choices. You can watch her suffer and die soon, or go ahead and put her out of her misery. The easiest, quickest method is scissors. Just cut off the head. There will be no blood to speak of. Get someone else to do it if you can't. But knowing when to end your chick's suffering is a very important part of being a responsible chicken keeper.
