What to do when my 4 day old chick won't eat or drink

[tamrah94]

My son got my chick all wet and I'm not sure if done them any harm the one couldn't walk at first after it got all wet and now all day yesterday it wouldn't eat or drink . I read you can give them egg yolk to help them I'm wondering how can I get her to drink water besides putting her beak in the water to get her to drink . Also how do I get her to get her to eat the hard food . Thanks let me know what I can do

 

[azygous]

I hope you dried the chick and put it under heat to bring its body temp back up. Hypothermia can set in immediately and can kill a tiny chick.

It wouldn't hurt to treat the chick for hypothermia. Warm a half cup of water to 100F and stir in half a teaspoon of sugar. Warm some cloths in the drier. Wrap the chick in the warm cloth. Then take a syringe or eye dropper and place a drop a a time on the right side of the chick's beak. (Its right side, not yours). It will slurp up the drop. Keep doing this until you get about a teaspoon into it. Then do it again every half hour until the chick is acting normal again.

 

[Ridgerunner]

To get liquid into a chick without drowning it I use a medicine dropper (some use a pippette) to put a drop of liquid on the tip of the chick's beak. It should swallow it. Don't force it down its throat, it can go down the wrong way.

Some people use electrolytes or enzymes, you can usually find a mix at the feed store. Some people use sugar water, I use hummingbird liquid since I always have that on hand. The liquid hydrates the chick. The sugar or eletrolytes give the chick energy, hopefully enough so it can eat and drink on its own.