Hi All,
We got our chick order yesterday. We got 15 bantams and 15 broilers. I have the bantams and the broilers seperate because the broilers look soooo much bigger than the bantams! I was afraid they would smother them. Anyway, one of my little bantams isn't looking really good. It looks fluffy and clean but it is super sleepy. We are giving it sugar water periodically because it doesn't seem interested in food or drink. It sleeps constantly and falls over and looks dead! It will just lay there and all the others will be piled on top. I am not sure if it really is sick or if this is normal or if there is really anything we can do. The little bantams seem so much more fragile than standard chicks.
Laura
sleepy chick
good thinking to have them sepsrate....
have you checked out the little guys feet/legs? injury could cause pain [exhaustion] & lack of movement...
get him a small little box with his own stuff for the night. likely just regular water now. lemme know if he has a leg injury i will help all i can...
Hi TamaraFaye,
I don't think there is an injury but I have another little one that seems to have straddle leg. It is hard for this little one to walk. One of the broilers fell in it's water and was wet so the other broilers started pecking on it. I moved it in with the bantams and the two little bantams that seem sick are snuggled up to it. I think the big broiler is keeping them warmer. All the other chicks seem fine with the temps.
I will put them alone tonight and see how they look in the morning.
Thanks!
Laura
here is the link for straddle leg & other ortho problems...
http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/problems/
hope they are better tomorrow
you know they are warm enough if quiet, too warm if not active...
;-)
Wondering who you ordered from?
Well, we lost one in the night. The sleepy one. I don't know what was wrong. It looked fine it was just very lethargic. I am thinking stress. My 8 year old daughter and her little friend were here when the chicks arrived and they loved the little chick too much.
I ordered from McMurray but I don't think it is their fault. I really think it is because of the stress of being handled by little girls.
Thanks for the link TF. The little straddle leg looks healthy and is perky, eating and teetering around like a little drunk chicky. I will see what the sites say. It is so little I don't know how I would get a little hobble brace on it!
Laura
I had a couple of mine very sleepy for the first day or two.
My problem was once it was slow to get started, the other
chicks made it difficult for it to get to food and water, and it
was a bad cycle. It just is barely hanging on, and every day
it became more difficult to compete. I have him in with the
newly hatched chick, and he is even smaller than that one! :-O
It's a conundrum trying to figure out where is best for him.
I would certainly keep him apart from the others until he is
on his feet. I hope he perks up for you very soon!:o)
may princess tammy have busy chicks.
sorry Laura!
you can get a brace on that chickie & you must, because it will only get worse...
if it helps, a breeder/hatchery I order from who has little children assured me there was NOTHING my kids could do that would hurt a day old chick. they even dropped one once. so you can tell your daughter it's OK ;-( sometimes the cycle of life just isn't fair...
Oh, I'm sorry- I must have cross posted and missed that
sleepy lost the battle. I hope your other chick finds his legs
soon.:o)
may princess tammy have good a good wednesday. I'm
running out of accolades for the princess! sheesh.
how much longer are you inthis game truest?
SOrry about the chick, but it definately was NOT the kids fault. I can gaurentee that they were more gentle than even a mother chicken. He was probably just weak to start. It's amazing that any make it with what they go through.
I use a piece of elastic or rubberband and bread ties (to hook the band to the legs) to bring the legs just to the natural point under the body). It only takes a couple of days for them to get stronger. Also make sure that they have a good layer of litter under them. Smooth surfaces make it harder for them to keep their feet under them.
Laura, how are your McMurray chicks doing? I realized I was
having some of the same problems with my chicks from the same
hatchery, and it was confined to the crested polish, but now
one of my cochins is having the same problems, too. Depressed
and sitting back on it's hocks. I started a thread about it, maybe
we can get some more information.
may princess tammy get answers.
All the other chicks seem to be doing well. I think the one we lost was a partridge cochin. I am not sure which are which yet. How old are yours? Did you just get them?
Laura
Laura, check out the thread she started, we are ghetting lots of info there:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/817655/
tf
For your straddle leg chick - if you can't deal with the brace thing, maybe you could try what worked for me once... I made a little egg-shaped sack out of some stretchy scrap material and stuffed the little chick in it nice and snug with her legs in the right position, made a drawstring and wore her like a necklace next to my skin for a few days. She stayed nice and warm, plus the snug little sack in combo with gravity fixed her problem. Maybe the toe of a stocking would work too, as long as it was snug? Of course, I was working from home at the time... I don't think I could get away with peep jewelry at my current job!
neato! what did you do for foo dand water?
I hand-fed the chick a couple times a day. My mom was staying with me, and she's a night owl, so we took turns :) It was nice to have the extra help, as with any baby! I think we did just put the chick in her "egg" back in the incubator when we were both sleeping. It only took a couple of extra days before she was fine.
We had a straddle leg chick. I think the mother hen stepped on it or something. We kept him in the house in a box for a while (a few days) and helped him up everytime he fell. We just couldn't give up on him because he tried so hard. He would get his wings all twisted trying to get up, poor thing. We took a trip out of state and didn't know what we should do with him so we decided just to stick him back with the mother hen and the other chicks and let happen what would happen. When we returned a week later he was running around with the other chicks. You could tell which chick because he limped a little. He is now about 7 months old and a strong spoiled rotton rooster.
Hope your little one has a happy ending too. And sorry to hear about the other weak one. It's always hard to loose one so little and precious.