Dehydrated chick?

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Frenchchickens123

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Hi, I have a chick/hen who is 8 weeks old and yesterday she was really healthy and fine today when I let her out she had her tail down and was not happy, when I picked her up she was sooo light like almost half the weight she was yesterday. She went and had a drink and I saw her eat so I didn't panic too much, but she's not her normal self. Now normally I have a huge drinker which is put outside during the day and put in the coop at night, last night however my partner locked em up and I forgot to ask him to put it in.... So for tonight I have brought her in to keep her warm as her weight has plummeted and provided food and water, she is drinking a lot, so much that I have had to take it away as her crop is too full and is coming back up when she tilts down to eat... She has had access to water all day but she has not improved much. she also has extremly loose droppings it's like water. Can someone tell me if this is definately dehydration and how long she would take to recover if she can recover? :-( by the way all my other chickens and chicks are fine and had no problems.
 
hi,

i never shut the hens up with water overnight. they go to bed and in the morning they are out as soon as the light comes up and they go outside for a drink, if she has only had one night without water i would say its something else..
does she have any lice or mites on her? if she has an upset belly keep her seperated from the others incase they can catch it.
also what has she been eating? has she had any scraps? too many scraps can give them the squits! some things are also poisionus like avocardo and rubarb leaves..
 
Hi, they were all treated for mites a couple of weeks ago and I have checked but can't seem to find any. They don't get much in the way of scraps but I do let them free range. She has recently been switched to grain only instead of growers and all the hicks have had loose dropping ls which I think is due to this. The reason I think she's dehydrated is the weight loss and under her eyes have gone very hollow and sunken, she has perked up a bit today and feels more heavy, but still drinking a lot... Maybe she ate something while free ranging which didn't agree with her and lost a lot of fluids through her droppings??
 
hi,

when you say grain what grain do you mean? if she is 8wks old she should ideally be eating growers pellets at least 90% of her diet. if not then layers pellets is second best. these bags of feed have all the right amounts of vitamins and minerals in them to keep birds healthy and should make up most of their diet. kitchens scraps and corn are fine but need to be saved for the afternoon and also not too much of them either.

she also will benifit from oyster shell or grit to help her digest her food.

i would get her diet sorted and give it a week and she hopefully will be on the mend. xx
 
I agree - her diet is wrong - what I do is as from 24 hours after hatching chicks go on chick crumbs, small breeds stay on crumbs until 8 weeks, larger breeds go to chick minipellets as from 2 weeks until they are 8 weeks, I then gradually introduce growers and they stay on growers until they start to lay. I NEVER give any corn, mixed or otherwise until they are 15 - 18 weeks - their digestive system can't cope with it and even then they don't need it as they are getting everything they need from their pellets. Corn is an extra - not a staple food even if they are freeranging, most people use it as a way of getting their birds to come to them as they do love it,but too much makes them fat - which can bring on problems when they start laying.. (as a guide I give my cochins 70g of mixed corn a day at the end of the afternoon), it's also a good warmer for birds that have got wet or in winter when it's cold. My mixed corn has sunflower seeds, linseed, origano , oyster shell and all sorts of other bits in it. I would give your bird some chick crumbs again for a week, then gradually introduce her to growers , mix the two together for a couple of weeks (if you have any left) and cut out the corn.. she is still a chick at 8 weeks and some birds take longer to start to mature - hope she gets better soon
 
At 8 weeks as well as sorting out diet--with sudden weight loss and the squits I would get her and others on some anti-coccy treatment straight away .Just my thought. Ros
 
podstable said:
At 8 weeks as well as sorting out diet--with sudden weight loss and the squits I would get her and others on some anti-coccy treatment straight away .Just my thought. Ros
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good thought too :-)08 :-)17
 
Well great news tonight she's much better been drinking plenty of water and food and is pretty much back to herselfincluding weight which she has now pretty much all put on. I think being free ranging for the afternoon and not drinking much then going to bed and not having water in the evening and morning (I let them out at 9am as I had been out the night before), caused her to become dehydrated. She doesn't eat any corn, the grain she gets is her staple diet like all of my chickens. They have 65% wheat, 25% oats and 10% barley (got it of a website) I don't feed my chickens pellets mash or any other processed food as I like to have my meat and eggs from chickens which haven't got any artificial stuff in it, all natural although it's not organic. I give them seaweed to supplement their vitamins and minerals, they all have access to grit at all times. My chicks were started on chick food and were fully weaned off it about a week ago. None of them have had any problems poop wise and seem to be thriving on their food. I know it's not the norm but here in France it is very difficult to find natural or organic food and cost wise this is far more efficient. My Nan used to keep chickens and back then they didn't even use chick crumbs and they never had any problems. I'm just glad she's better and I will make sure they have more than one drinker to male sure they all get the water they need. Thanks for all the advice xx
 
When I was a child there were not any specially formulated /scientifically nutrient balanced feeds for different stages of life! All ,including chickS, did just as well on ---mainly house hold scraps vegetable peelings mainly and meat bones. A handfull of mixed grain and grut. That is surely a more healthy and natural diet than all the pellets etc now fed?Ros
 
podstable said:
When I was a child there were not any specially formulated /scientifically nutrient balanced feeds for different stages of life! All ,including chickS, did just as well on ---mainly house hold scraps vegetable peelings mainly and meat bones. A handfull of mixed grain and grut. That is surely a more healthy and natural diet than all the pellets etc now fed?Ros
Click to expand...

But do you think the chickens of that day were producing as many eggs? They also often had more free range than these days so could pick up additional protein from worms and insects and vitamins from vegetation.

The old text books also give receipes for making the different rations to get the correct growth rate or egg numbers that you would probably be making if you were a farm or producer. Most contain Fishmeal to increase the protein content of cereal based mash. Cod Liver Oil was also popular as an ingredient.

I wrote a page about feeding here: Chicken Feed: How to Feed Chickens that gives my reasoning on this.

You can't be that old anyway Ros, a spring chicken like you ;)
 
A 'lady' (ha,ha) is not going to reveal her true age!! I could be referred to as a 'Silver Surfer' !! :lol: :lol: Ros
 
Thanks for your support guys I do believe in the more natural diet approach. I do let my chickens free range a lot and they have access to 25 acres so I'm sure they find plenty of nice things! I don't worry about the fox we see as we have a at Bernard which is a great detterant he's always barking at the fields at night and I'm sure it's the fox poking his nose around! I have 7 meat chickens which free range from morning till night and 13 which have a separate coop and run but are also allowed to free range in the afternoon as long as the others are elsewhere, they were originally one flock but meat chickens are males and always try it on the hens which my cockeral is not happy about! And now with 20 new chicks it's expanding fast I was meant to just have 7/10!! But hopefully this weekend it will be the end of the meat chickens as they are ready but it will be nice to let the others free range more as they hate being kept in their run... And it will be nice to taste my first proper free range chicken fed on an all natural diet! :-)
 
I would still not trust Mr. Fox.... I have unfortunately had them come into our garden and into a run when we have a pointer that HATES foxes and will chase them at any opportunity she gets. It seems some don't bother but every now and again there is one that gets cheeky!

It's lovely that they can free range though (the chickens, not the foxes :o )

Ros, I would never ask a Lady her age :oops: ;)
 
Yea I do worry sometimes especially now as it's winter and in need of food which may be a bit scarce an when they have cubs I think that will be another time of year which will bother me. One day we will have a large field with electric fencing for them to free range... My Nan lost her entire flock to the fox so I'm always wary!
 
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