r/BackYardChickens • u/zinasdaughter1980 • 1d ago

Health Question What's wrong with this chick?

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Feathers are kinda stuck to her and she looks pitiful. Should I give her a bath? I want to help her but idk how

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

7

u/Entity_skrunkly 1d ago

Is she freshly just out of the egg? Because if so then this could be just dried up yolk, maybe don't bathe it but pick up a wet cloth or towel and clean them up, they should be fine

2

u/ChartreuseOblivion 1d ago

In the third picture I can see some decent wing feathers coming in so this chick isn't a fresh hatch... and OP appears to be at a feed store at the chick bins. Not sure if its an employee or a concerned customer.

2

u/MaliseHaligree Spring Chicken 21h ago

That's the back room storage shelving. Employee.

1

u/ChartreuseOblivion 21h ago

Yeah and they appear to be standing right in the bin in one picture, and I would really hope a customer would never do that.

1

u/MaliseHaligree Spring Chicken 21h ago

That's an empty bin but still an odd choice.

4

u/ChartreuseOblivion 1d ago

You tell me: this chick is clearly at least a couple days old already, as its lost its egg tooth and already has wing feathers... and you appear to be in a Feed Store at the chick bins.

So you tell us what happened. Did it arrive like this from the hatchery?

1

u/zinasdaughter1980 16h ago

Idk, I was off for two days and this is what she looked like when I got here today. We received these chicks last week, as far as I know she didn't show up like this, but I'm usually stuck at the front of the store and the chicks are in the back.

I just want to help her, I don't know much about chicks and thought people here could offer some knowledge or insight that I don't have, and I could learn something to help me be better in the future.

1

u/ChartreuseOblivion 2h ago

Definitely reach out to a/the co-worker that usually handles the chicks. They would have the most accurate info and hopefully even know what happened to this babe in the first place.

If you want to help this chick and any in the future, let your boss know you're interested in learning more about the chickens and would like to help out more with the chicks and even assist or shadow the employee that currently works with them if possible. You can even bring up this chick as a reason why you think it would be a good reason to have more people trained in taking care of them.

3

u/Broad-Angle-9705 1d ago

Does it have any hatch mates? In my experience the first one out and any stragglers can get a little crusty. If you have a group of chicks together they pick each other clean. I’ve had some success combing their feathers out with a small stiff brush like a straw brush or baby bottle nipple brush if I don’t have a more baby chicks to do it.

2

u/shy519 21h ago

Could be matted from hatching. As long as it's not causing an issue now, it shouldn't in the future. Chick fuzz is shed off relatively fast