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usually dissipates through pulmonary respiration within 24–48 hours, special care and feeding
assistance will likely be required during this period. Administration of a diuretic, such as furosem-
ide, may be necessary if the edema is severe. The chick may need to have its head slightly elevated
and supported to ensure normal respiration while at rest and during feeding. If the edema in the
head is such that creases are formed on the neck, frequent, gentle massage of these folds seems to
help reduce the swelling more rapidly.

Star-gazing

Three unrelated California Condor chicks presented with opisthotonos, or star-gazing, immedi-
ately following hatching. Their heads were pulling sharply backward at rest and occasionally
chicks would flip over onto their backs. Most of the time, chicks could bring their heads into a
normal posture for a few seconds to a minute, such as for feeding, but would immediately revert to
the head-back position when the effort ended. This condition may be caused by thiamine defi-
ciency in the egg. Each of these chicks was treated with both injectable and oral thiamine in vary-
ing doses within the first 24 hours and all made a full recovery, one within 15 hours and the other
two within a few days. They were able to feed relatively normally during treatment with some
steadying of their heads. Although the cause of the thiamine-deficient eggs could not be deter-
mined, a simple diet change seems to have eliminated the problem. Prior to producing these
affected chicks, adult birds were fed frozen, thawed trout once every 2 weeks. Because condors tear
up their food rather than swallowing it whole, the fish could not be adequately supplemented to
compensate for the deficiency of vitamin E and thiamine, and the presence of thiaminase that is
well documented in frozen, thawed fish (Bernard and Allen 1997). The small proportion of fish in
the overall diet was not harmful to the adults, but the effect on egg formation was not anticipated.
Since the fish was removed from the diet of breeding birds, no further incidences of star-gazing in
chicks have occurred.

Sour Crop
Sour crop is more common in true raptors, but has occurred in large vulture chicks. It may be evi-
dent immediately by a strong, sour odor coming from the chick, or the chick may regurgitate its
malodorous crop contents. The feces are also likely to be strong-smelling. The smell of sour crop is
much stronger than that of normal castings or other regurgitant and is almost unmistakable. It
may be a side effect of systemic infection in which the digestion is otherwise slowed, or it may
result from overfeeding or feeding of spoiled food. Left untreated, crop and gut stasis may follow.
Treatment may be as simple as emptying the crop contents and flushing it with normal saline solu-
tion (Heidenreich 1997). Great care must be taken with these procedures to prevent aspiration of
fluid into the lungs. Additional treatment for systemic infection may also be indicated.

Splayed Legs

Splayed legs can be caused by the chick slipping on a substrate that does not provide enough trac-
tion, such as toweling that is laid flat and smooth. In a normally developing chick, the knee joints
should be vertically aligned with the hock joints and the feet hip-width apart. Failure to promptly
correct splaying will result in permanently deviated legs. An early, mild tendency to splay may be
corrected by keeping the chick tucked into snug folds of the toweling or in a towel-lined, straight-
sided nest bowl for a few days. More severe cases require hobbling the legs in the normal posture.