Baby maran just not 'thriving'

Sorry about your chick. We lost two the first day and that was hard enough but the one we hand feed and watered for three days was killer sad. One day she was good the next day bad then good again. They are so sturdy when they are well and suddenly so delicate when they are sick.

We have a tiny Buff Orpington. Half the size of our other chicks all around 8 weeks old. Someone suggested that it might be because she (he?) is a commercial hatchery chick and likely mixed breeds another thought is that the smaller one, who is extremely obnoxious and busy is a roo.
 
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Thanks everyone for your kind responses.
Since Hurra just took off and grew as soon as I put them in their little room and Sugar didn't, I really was beginning to think that there was something about her metabolism or the way that she processed her food. I posted a picture somewhere of her poo - it looked like it had bits of chick starter in it. Which makes me think that even though she pecked at the feeder a lot, the only food she was actually able to digest was the liquid that I was giving her a couple of time a day. And feed 2x daily is not enough to suport a growing chick.

I wonder if I'm the only person whe has actually had 'chicken math' work against. My plan all along had been to get 6 chicks. I came home with 8. One got an impacted crop right off the bat and Sugar just never was able to grow. So now I've got 6 healthy chicks - the Cane Sisters!
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can't say that it's worked against me, but just seems to happen that 13 is my lucky number... my first chicks last year, i wanted a dozen, got 13. first hatch from shipped eggs, 13. nearly every hatch since then has been 13 at a time it seems. (sometimes spread over a couple days but still...)

this last hatch was also 13. tho i lost one at 2 days old. now granted i have no idea how many chickens i actually have now, but i'm sure it's not a multiple of 13 (tho my sandhill chicks, i got 26 in the mail...)

i've lost a few here and there, sold some, acquired others. lost one cockerel yesterday, i think to a broken neck, tho i have no idea how. and another chick drowned in the 'pond' aka kiddie pool they all drink out of - and have been for as long as they've been outside, so no idea what happenned there. and right now my big guy's battling a systemic infection that's gone respiratory, from an abcess on his toe that ruptured (staph). so he's coughing and gurgling in the hospital cage, getting injected twice a day with penicillin.

i'm sorry you lost the baby, after the battle to save her, but sometimes i think it's for the best.

maybe after next weekend i can get an accurate head count. LOL but sometimes free ranging lots of chicks, one or two don't make it back to the house before dark and never come back. hubby calls that clorox for the gene pool. i tend to agree somewhat, even tho i'm battling to save a rooster that most would just have sent to the crockpot... he's not exceptional in any respect, except that he's my primary silver grey dorking roo. the girls don't care for junior as much right now. he hasn't learned the finesse that the big guy has i guess.
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so cross fingers that the big guy starts to turn around and shows interest in food. otherwise the infection is going to win, drugs or not.
 
Thanks Karen. At first I felt like I had been a terrible 'mama' - like surely there was something more I could've done. But after thinking about it a while, I'm sure that she probably had something much more serious going on and I did everything that I could to give her a chance. Sometimes things like that are just out of our control.
"Clorox for the gene pool" that's kinda funny. Makes me think of the "Dwain Awards".



Eowyn2, the original names were : Sugar, Hurra, Candy, Nova, Sola and Raisin. I brought home 2 extra chicks so I was playing with some extra 'Cane' names. I toyed with 'Mexi' and 'Protire' but so far, no body got saddles with either of them. Then one of the silver laced wynadottes started to look like it might be a roo and got stuck with Citizen. If you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.
 
How about lido? (lidocaine). Same thing as Novacaine, but is generic name. There always cocaine... Lol.

Raisin cane is pretty good. :D
 
Could always name a roo Michael Caine.

Cracko is a twist on the cocaine name, and it's making me giggle every time I say it. Clearly I'm easily amused.
 

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