Hi, first off I don't know what all info will help you out so I'm including everything I can think of. Sorry if it's too much.
This evening I received eleven Araucana chicks by mail (4 dead in box) that hatched on Monday and were mailed to me Tuesday. We picked them up tonight and the live ones were cold in the box--the USPS had them in air conditioning--with the 4 dead ones piled on one side of the box and the others congregated at the far end. They were packed with some straw and there were no visible droppings on it, tho 3 of the babies were pasted fairly badly.
Of the 11 survivors, one seems weak and slightly smaller than the rest. (He's not one of the pasted ones.) We rigged up a mini-brooder with a heat lamp for the 4 hour trip home and I monitored the temp all the way--it stayed between 88 and 95. We gave them all sugar-water every hour on the trip and again when they went into the home brooder before giving them medicated chick crumbles. This little weak one seems to be choking or having trouble swallowing it.
It pecks for a while, then stops, closes its eyes, and sort of rears and arches--it really looks like a rooster about to crow--and gapes its beak open. This is repeated over and over. It's breathing all right, but it's clearly trying to swallow and not able to. It's also only chirped once since I've been helping it and watching it--almost an hour now. I've also "unplugged" it 3 or 4 times with a blunted swizzle stick. It sort of hacks up crumbles to the back of its throat and I scoop them out of the back of its mouth with the stick. Every time I clear it out, I've dribbled several drops of sugar water into its mouth and make sure it swallows.
It walks around fine and seems very interested in pecking, but I haven't seen it get its own drink of water yet. I've dipped its beak several times and it swallows that fine, but when I let it go, it doesn't continue drinking like the others do. It's also the only one who's stopped exploring the new brooder so far--it's gone to the warmest corner and is sleeping now.
I'm really, really concerned. Is this chick just too weak to eat and drink? I don't know because it's moving around all right and apart from being the first to go to sleep, doesn't seem otherwise listless. What should I do to help it? Do I need to give it special food or more water? Am I just being paranoid? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
This evening I received eleven Araucana chicks by mail (4 dead in box) that hatched on Monday and were mailed to me Tuesday. We picked them up tonight and the live ones were cold in the box--the USPS had them in air conditioning--with the 4 dead ones piled on one side of the box and the others congregated at the far end. They were packed with some straw and there were no visible droppings on it, tho 3 of the babies were pasted fairly badly.
Of the 11 survivors, one seems weak and slightly smaller than the rest. (He's not one of the pasted ones.) We rigged up a mini-brooder with a heat lamp for the 4 hour trip home and I monitored the temp all the way--it stayed between 88 and 95. We gave them all sugar-water every hour on the trip and again when they went into the home brooder before giving them medicated chick crumbles. This little weak one seems to be choking or having trouble swallowing it.
It pecks for a while, then stops, closes its eyes, and sort of rears and arches--it really looks like a rooster about to crow--and gapes its beak open. This is repeated over and over. It's breathing all right, but it's clearly trying to swallow and not able to. It's also only chirped once since I've been helping it and watching it--almost an hour now. I've also "unplugged" it 3 or 4 times with a blunted swizzle stick. It sort of hacks up crumbles to the back of its throat and I scoop them out of the back of its mouth with the stick. Every time I clear it out, I've dribbled several drops of sugar water into its mouth and make sure it swallows.
It walks around fine and seems very interested in pecking, but I haven't seen it get its own drink of water yet. I've dipped its beak several times and it swallows that fine, but when I let it go, it doesn't continue drinking like the others do. It's also the only one who's stopped exploring the new brooder so far--it's gone to the warmest corner and is sleeping now.
I'm really, really concerned. Is this chick just too weak to eat and drink? I don't know because it's moving around all right and apart from being the first to go to sleep, doesn't seem otherwise listless. What should I do to help it? Do I need to give it special food or more water? Am I just being paranoid? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
