Dying Chicks at 3wk

fishbum

In the Brooder
5 Years
Aug 31, 2014
98
12
33
Hi everyone. Hope winter prep is going well.

We have had a serious problem keeping chicks past 3wk this year. We have hatched and sold 100's with no issues or complaints. After we started having issues we even called and checked up on chicks that we had sold and no ones had a problem.

We started having this problem early late spring early summer with some very dry weather. Typically we keep chicks in 2x3ft brooders inside as most do. When chicks started dying inside we thought it was because we are dirty smokers. So we moved the chicks out to a screened in covered porch. We were still losing 1-2 a day at 3wks until there were 3-4 left out of 25-30 chicks. These first birds were not Vaccinated or fed medicated feed. This continues for the next few hatches until I threw in the hat on hatching for a while. Looking back it seemed within a few days of introducing the birds to the yard in the tractor away from the pens it started to happen. I noticed some bloody looking droppings in one of the coops as well during my hatching break and treated all pens with Corid for a wk.

Fast forward a mo or so and we come into a few Orloff chicks from a local guy we had gotten from and traded with before with no issues. We had been trying to get them for a long while. Same thing happens. introduce them to the yard and they start dying. So we try something different and order Orloffs from Ideal. We lost all 56!! This time it was without them touching the ground and fed medicated feed. It was very dry and once in a while you would see a dust cloud flying past the porch the chicks were on frome the hens dust bathing around the house. I start thinking the dreaded M word.

We order 15 more Orloff chicks. This time Mericks vacced. We get the birds and I immediately brought them to a friends house who doesn't have chickens. I brought one of my brooders and subsequent chick raising equipment and a bag of medicated feed. 3 1/2 wk later all 15 are fine and well. Bring them home inside for a few days and start introducing them to the yard and eventually the coop.

The have been here 3wks now and ive lost 3 in 2 days with one in isolation now who doesn't look like it will make through this post. They all have the same symptoms, listless,wings drooping and eventually pasting and death. This particular bird now is showing a new symptom of not being able to stand and stretching its legs out straight.

Im at wits end. I hope someone has had some expeirance with similar.

I currently have 12 chicks with a broody at 3wk and they all seem well even after being out in the yard several times.

Thanks guys,
 
Something else that might help in a diagnosis is that we USED TO HAVE a flock of wild turkeys that would travel through our yard every morning and we had a Marans hen puff up and her comb wattles ect turned a weird crimson color a few weeks ago.
Thanks again
 
What about taking a soil sample to your County Extension Office? Call them and see f they will do a soil sample for you. If not who does. there must be some governmental office which does this for the public for free. Also, contact your local agricultural university and see f they will do a necropsy on the chick for you for free.
Best Regards,
Karen
 
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That's got to be cocci. Your older chickens have built up an immunity to it so they are OK. Keep giving the Corid.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.
Im up on a mountain against state preserve lands. While I do live in the fertile farm lands of the lower Hudson Valley theres not much spraying going on these days. Mostly food awareness and Eagle pops coming back.

I have called the Cornell CoOp extension to have the dead birds tested as many had told me they would.They would not because of the Avian Flu scare and they wanted to send the dept of food and ag out to the house. Many told me not too so I didn't. They said they will just cull my flock. No flock,no problems I guess.

I thought by giving medicated feed I was in turn vaccinating against Cocci?? I did treat all 200+ birds with Corid for a week during the dry weather. Its hard to do that this time of year with a fresh water spring running through the back of their runs as their main source of water. Cant just turn it off you know. Is the medicated feed + any Cocci in the yard an overload?

But now that the ground is not as dry Ive not been having the same problem with this last batch of 30 or so. I put 11 with a broody and left the rest in brooders to see if there was a better survival rate in either situation. So far we have only lost one due to the broody stepping on it. Still feeding medicated feed to chicks and I have a few 1000 doses of Mareks in the fridge just in case.

Thanks!
 
Chickens will not drink water that has Corid in it if they can get to another source of water..

The illness also sounds like coccidia to me.

Medicated feed helps the chicks build up an immunity to coccidiosis. Medicated feed does NOT cause them to "get" coccidiosis.
 

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