KEEPING CHICKS HEALTHY & HAPPY

by Pam
(alvarado tx)

i just brought home 1 week old chicks one of them is just laying around .. What can I do?

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starstarstarstarstar 		HOW TO HELP A WEAK CHICK
by: Sharon

The main thing chicks need is heat, then food and water, and a reasonable clean and good sized brooder.

How warm are you keeping the temperature in the brooder?

If the rest are fine, and just this one is doing poorly, check it's back end. It should be clean, without any poop build up. Poop can build up and prevent them from pooing, which will make them very sick.

Feel it's crop, gently, just near the base of the neck in the front. You should be able to feel if there is anything in the crop - where they predigest their food. If it feels hard with a lump of food, I'd suggest using an eye dropper or syringe to feed some water a drop at a time, if it's willing to swallow. Or you can dip the tip of its beak in a spoon full of water and see if it will drink. If it swallows several drops, you can try to gently massage the crop to mix water in so it will digest the food. When they don't drink enough water, the food gets stuck in the crop.

If the crop contents feels mushy, that's good, if the crop is empty it hasn't been eating, so would be weak. If the crop is empty, try a pinch of salt with some sugar or honey in a small amount of water and see if you can get it to drink from dropper or spoon. Don't force it.

Warm the chick up. Put it under the heat lamp in the brooder, on a heating pad on low or even use a hair dryer, not too hot or close. It may have become too cold, and when that happens they just start to shut down. If its feet feel cold, it's too cold.

Sometimes chicks will eat the wood shavings in the brooder, which are next to impossible for a small chick to digest. There is not a whole lot you can do about that and it's hard to tell.

Not every chick survives, no matter if raised by it's mother, or from an incubator & brooder.

I hope this gets to you in time and you can help the chick. If not you may be able to get a replacement from where you got it. Usually chicks are guaranteed for 24 hours.

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