Poorly treated chick, hoping to rescue. Need help.

[Tyler J Walsh]

Southern, "The cat is going after it" that's a red flag right there. It is not difficult to keep a cat away from chicks. Worst case if you have no room you can put the chick in a closet that has ventilation until it's grown and can go into a coop. Since it is only 1 it should be easier to ensure it doesn't go through the stress of being constantly attacked by a cat. I have two cats that would eat my chicks given the chance. I'm sure to keep them away though. Even if the rest was birth defects, chicks do not handle stress well. I'm not trying to be an ass about it just making an educated guess. I hope he's been treating the chick well but one must expect the worst and hope for the best.
And Wyorp, thank you. I definitely will ask many questions. And I'm thinking if it's as defeathered as the picture shows I may want to keep the heat lamp just as an option for the chick to use if it wants to.
I will definitely go over all of the links you all have provided. Also where I live I can have roosters so it's just a matter of its behavior with my hens concerning it's gender.

 

[Southern by choice]

I hope he's been treating the chick well but one must expect the worst and hope for the best.

Well I think if the person takes the responsibility to list the chick because of the cat and they obviously are treating the bird that right there say they care about it... in my book that isn't poorly treating the bird they are doing what is right for the bird by trying to home it.

You will really like the link from Fl St. it is very comprehensive and has a nice chart at the end. It is a great bookmark. We use to give this link out to all our clients so they could understand why we were so strict on bio security and so they understood why not to bring birds in from all over and so many different sources.

There are many chicken rescues, there may be some in your area. I'd just hate to see you expose your birds to something for trying to help.