what's wrong with her?? in shock?? HELP!!--update, she just passed

[bethandjoeync]

Dh went into the coop this morning and found our smallest chick (should be bigger but is a "runt" or somthing) laying at the bottom step of the roosts, lifeless. she is breathing, but will barely move, and won't open her eyes much. we have her inside in the brooder with some sugar water. she will kick her legs trying to get up, but seems to not have any energy at all. she will hold her head up occasionally, or twitch her wings. we cannot lose this girl, it is my son's favorite. luckily he is away at grandma's house, so he doesn't know what is going on right now. we want to try and see if she will drink some water, I put some in a dropper and when I let some come out at her mouth she drank it. so I am holding out hope that we can rehabilitate her. we are thinking that maybe she was jumped on or stepped on, when everyone was getting off the roosts this morning, and could be in shock or maybe she hasn't eaten much or somthing. but I have felt her for broken bones and can't seem to locate any. she doesn't have mites or lice or anything like that.

what do you think is wrong??

we got her at the same time that we got the last group of chicks and they all should be about 13-ish weeks old, but she always was smaller. not sure if she is bantam (didn't think the guy had any) or a runt or something like that

you can read our page to see pics of her

 

[Katy]

If she's always been smaller than the others she may have issues internally that have finally caught up with her. There very well could be nothing you can do to help her.

 

[WingingIt]

Try hand feeding and giving water by dropper (add some sugar to it) for a while. Maybe she wasn't able to get to the food/water because of her size and not being able to compete with the others.

Good luck!

 

[bethandjoeync]

thank you for your help, but she just passed. my son is going to be heartbroken

 

[WingingIt]

Oh, I'm sorry.

 

[dlhunicorn]

There are many reasons for those "runt" chicks ... suffice to say you should always always give a supplement if it has not "caught up" by six or seven weeks (separate on own for a few hours with supplement enriched feed > AviaCharge 2000 and once a week three drops of polyvisol enfamil and if you can find it put wheat germ oil in with the flock feed along with a vitE gel tab once a week .
What the chick needs is electrolytes... You should always have electrolytes on hand (especially in the summer) ... dribble along the beak as often as you can until it is well enough to drink on its own... you can use childrens pedialyte (diluted) as an emergency substitute... this is better than the sugar water which if given too much or for too long can "crash" her system.
if you cannot get the aviacharge 2000 then visit your petstore and see if they have any baby parrot/bird feeding formula (is a powder you mix with water) ... if unable to eat but conscious you can give her some of that drop by drop in beak (do NOT squirt liquid or feed into beak as the bird may aspirate into lungs > it MUST swallow it on its own!) later when able to eat on own you can mix it in with its feed to concentrate the nutrition.
I had a runt once (didnt get his comb till over six months and I thought was a girl!) and I had to supplement for six months till he finally "caught up" but every case is different...

 

[speckledhen]

I'm so sorry, but sometimes, there is something internal that we can't fix and we rarely find out what that is.

 

[bethandjoeync]

she was eating just fine, and drinking, we always had the water and one feeder low enough for her to get to. I think it was either internal or maybe she was jumped on and just couldn't recover. she pooped twice since we found her, and seemed normaly but in any case...this is our first one lost, and we knew one would go sooner or later. we have had such a good experience with our flock, but we knew life and death happens.

 

[dlhunicorn]

those runts can really get to ya and are often more open to bonding with their human caretaker ... they are often picked on or bullied away from the feed (I have two separate feeding stations well away from each other to ensure the birds on the lower end of the ladder get sufficient feed and water as there are always going to be those bullied away from the feed )
.... I do not envy you the task of breaking the news to your son.
My kids became particularly attached to this one little black kitten... we had a labrador who was simply wonderful with animals and luved to look after those kittens when I let mamma outside for a break...
One day I came home... no blacky (kids named her that as she was only black kitten)...
Well I knew she couldnt have gotten far as they had only had their eyes open for a couple days and stayed right by my lab ... I searched the house ... mama cat yowling for the missing kitten... we could NOT find her! Finally my lab got up and wanted to go out for her walk (she had remained sleeping on the black carpet all this time) and then we saw the kitty underneath her ... crushed flat as a pancake poor thing. My kids were devastated (none of us had considered the fact that this was a BIG dog and apparently she had not seen the little black kitty on the black carpet as she plopped herself down). I took my kids to buy a little decorative tin and we put her that and the kids wrote a poem and drew a picture to put in with her (I filled the tin with kitty litter) and we buried it out back with a little cross. Seemed to provide some closure for them on the matter.
(((hugs)))

 

[LynneP]

There is a kitten in the barn like that- she's 6 weeks old but the same size as some ten-day-olds who are opening their eyes. She nurses and putters about but she simply looks underdeveloped and unable to thrive. I expect a similar outcome even though the mother cats all nurse her. Sometimes...

I'm very sorry, and especially since she was you son's favorite.