Healthy again...

A couple of nights ago I went down to the laundry room to check on our chicks. I was shocked to find one of them looking pretty sick. She was panting and laying her head off to one side. This was an abrupt change from the how she looked in the morning. I quickly sprang into action to do whatever I could to improve her health. The first thing I did was put some garlic powder into their water and a bit of sugar. Both are recommended by a number of books for ailing chickens. I then moved the heat lamp up a bit in case she was too hot for some reason. Then I did a bit of research and found that the number one illness among chicks is called "pasting up". This is when they essentially become clogged with poo at the "exit" site and cannot pass poop. I got a cloth and wipe her firmly with some warm water. A bit of dried poo was removed. Very quickly I noticed that she started passing a LOT of poo. I continued to watch her
for a while and didn't see much improvement. I was really happy to wake up and find her greatly improved. By today she looks completely well! Apparently "pasting up" can be fatal to chicks within 24 hours. It looks like I caught her just in time.