What's With My 5-week Old Chick?

[Coop Z-ville]

I have 3 5-week old chicks, a silver laced Wyandotte, a white Marans, and a speckled Sussex. All has been going well. They have been in the outside "baby coop" getting used to my 3 2-year old hens (separated by wire). Ginger, my speckled Sussex, has always been smaller and slower to develop than the other 2. My white Marans is large and already has her white feathers. The silver laced Wyandotte is getting her feathers, but Ginger still has fluff, with a few feathers coming in which give her a very strange, gangly look. Today I noticed her rolling around in the damp sand under the ramp to the coop, then acting strange when walking-like falling over almost. It has been very hot lately here, but seems OK in coop- it is shaded. Could she be getting feathers and it is painful, like teething in babies?

 

[HappyClucker7]

That is definitely not normal. Maybe @Eggcessive can help you.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post some photos of her?
If you see the strange walking again, try to get a video of that. Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

What do you feed including treats?

 

[Bear1978]

Sounds like it’s having a dust bath and is just dizzy lol

 

[Eggcessive]

X2 for a video or pictures. Dust bathing can be a normal behavior, but watch for signs of dehydration or heatstroke. Coops get very hot this time of year, and I have plenty of windows and a fan pulling air through the coop blowing it out a window. Shaded multiple water stations, replenished with cold water twice a day are good.

 

[Coop Z-ville]

Thank you for the replies. They are eating Purina Chick Starter Crumbles (medicated), but will be switching to the same brand but unmedicated as they integrate with my layers. Not much in the line of treats yet-a little crumbled up "Baby Cake," but they don't seem too interested.
Here is a picture of Ginger earlier today when she was acting so strangely:

I have a video, however, I don't do You Tube (this site is as far as I go with any type of social media), so that's not going to work as a means of showing a video. She was definitely acting tipsy. I checked in on them a couple of hours later and got this picture:

Back to normal, running around, eating, drinking, and interacting with the other 2 chicks. She still is an odd looking chick to me-almost looks like a miniature ostrich! Here she is next to my silver laced Wyandotte chick:

You can see she has these little nubby wings, not much of a tail, and not nearly as many feathers!

Yes, the heat has been bad around here. I give the chicks, as well as the older gals, cold water several times a day and have a fan blowing through the run from the woods right behind it. Seems to help. The older hens also get cool treats, like watermelon and cucumbers (their favorites) I haven't wanted to give the chicks too many treats right away, although they do chase bugs in their run. The run you see in the picture is below the baby coop, so stays shaded throughout the day.

Hopefully my "Ugly Chickling" will grow into a beautiful Speckled Sussex in a few months!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post the photos in a larger size - I don't mean to complain, it's just that they won't blow up LOL

 

[Coop Z-ville]

Sorry-Maybe these are better?

I added the last one as it shows her wing bone sticking out. You can see some feathers just starting on her head and neck.

 

[Mmanist]

Ok so maybe my experience will help solve your problem. I was watching my chickens dustbathing in my flower beds. My cat snuck around the corner and scared my birds from their dust bath. Mean while the girls bolted up and shook off the dirt. But the rooster stumbled around. Like he was drunk. I seriously thought he was going to just roll over and kick the bucket right there. So I'm trying to catch him, while he is sorta stumbling from me still. Then he stopped and shook his excess dirt off from his bath. Then proceeded to dart off like nothing happened... no more stumbling. I kept and eye on him for like a week. No signs of disorientation or anything out of the normal. It wasn't until a week later, my hen did the same thing after a dust bath. Again after a few mins. She shook the extra dirt off and was back to herself. The only thing I could figure out. The extra weight from the dirt wasn't distributed evenly. Causing them to be slightly off balance. Hope that helps!

 

[ChickenLove0812]

I had a chicken named Ginger....