Hi all. I've been raising chickens for a few years now and have been fortunate since we've not had any health issues til now. We just received 54 healthy chicks from MMcMurray last week - one silver laced wyandotte chick suddenly appears paralyzed maybe? Its neck is turned to the side (just slightly - but definately noticeable) and it has trouble walking straight. It does seem to eat and drink well enough and remains active. Any ideas or suggestions?
Amy, I feel kind of silly giving advice because you are much more experienced than I, I'm sure, but, If it was me I would just wait and see what happens. If you don't already I would get some vitamins to put in the chicks water too. Or do you all ready have some? Anyway, I would guess there is not much else to do!
Thank you! I have not tried vitamins - but I will right away.
All hatchery chicks are malnurished, some are worse than others. If you have some free ranged birds, boil their eggs and feed them to chickies. That should help a little. When they get bigger, try to get them out on the ground. Fresh grass does wanders for the little guys vitamin wise.
Hi. I just got several chicks from a poultry show and one of them is pretty weak. It displays the same symptoms--the neck turned to one side and it occasionally has tremors. Mine seems to be weaker than yours and it can't stand up too well. If I didn't offer it food and water of which it eats very little it would be worse off. I am wondering what is wrong with it also. The other 5 chicks are just fine. I had to set this aside under a heat lamp because the others were trampling it. We are giving them water with vitamins. I hope mine survives.
Amy, I too am not an expert, but this condition may be serious. I would take initial precaution by isolating the sick chick from the others. You may want to ask your hatchery for advice. A vaccination program is also worth the efforts and expense. Good Luck:)
Unfortunately, the chick died today. I looked up the symptoms in one of my chicken books and it seems that when a chick is sick like this the problem might be either a vitamin deficiency, a virus (which usually affects chicks after a week who are otherwise born healthy ), or a hatching injury or a recessive genetic defect(if the chick was born with the symptoms). The best advice is what you guys/gals have already reported--give the chicks vitamins and isolate the sick chick to prevent the spread of disease if it is indeed sick and also to protect the chick from being trampeled.
Thank you.
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