What's crippling my chicks?

Garlic is good to use too. I don't believe that the humidity/hatching methods has anything to do with what's going on. I did a little bit of research and found that it is, in fact, dry gangrene and is fatal from day old chicks to weeks' old chicks and could have been caused by frostbite, poor circulation, heart defect, or (as another poster pointed out already) spider bite. For the chicks with feet/legs that have turned black, there is no way to revive this dead tissue. For those that have wounds/sores, they should be treated aggressively with topical antibacterial ointments, if you can get your hands on that. If you don't want to cull the chicks that are showing signs of blackened feet/legs, you can very tightly tie off the area above the black part and it will not only fall off naturally, but also (hopefully) prevent the spread of gangrene up the leg.

peacockfeather said:

Garlic is good to use too. I don't believe that the humidity/hatching methods has anything to do with what's going on. I did a little bit of research and found that it is, in fact, dry gangrene and is fatal from day old chicks to weeks' old chicks and could have been caused by frostbite, poor circulation, heart defect, or (as another poster pointed out already) spider bite. For the chicks with feet/legs that have turned black, there is no way to revive this dead tissue. For those that have wounds/sores, they should be treated aggressively with topical antibacterial ointments, if you can get your hands on that.  If you don't want to cull the chicks that are showing signs of blackened feet/legs, you can very tightly tie off the area above the black part and it will not only fall off naturally, but also (hopefully) prevent the spread of gangrene up the leg.

Click to expand...

Just to clear things up, the chicks leg is naturally black and the same colour as it's good leg, the other chick with yellow legs and brown marks on the leg had propolis applied to the wounds hence the colour change.

Oh! OK, well if it's just swelling of the joints, it could be injury or an infection of the joints caused by trauma or an infection that affects the joints directly. You can give them baby aspirin (and ONLY aspirin, which is safe to use in birds) if you can get your hands on that; if they're 'chewable' you can chip a small piece off and dissolve it in their drinking water. That will take down some of the inflammation and ease the pain - and may even resolve it completely within 2-4 days if due to injury. If it is due to a disease, it will likely not improve without a course of antibiotics. Definitely keep them separate from your thriving chicks and reintegrate only if you see resolution of the issue, and wash your hands between contacting the two groups, because if it is a disease, it will spread otherwise.

Also, the gangrene was directed specifically at the chick whose leg had died and the toes curled. If you haven't culled her already, if she survives what's going on, she will likely be able to adapt and live happily even with one leg.

peacockfeather said:

Oh! OK, well if it's just swelling of the joints, it could be injury or an infection of the joints caused by trauma or an infection that affects the joints directly. You can give them baby aspirin (and ONLY aspirin, which is safe to use in birds) if you can get your hands on that; if they're 'chewable' you can chip a small piece off and dissolve it in their drinking water. That will take down some of the inflammation and ease the pain - and may even resolve it completely within 2-4 days if due to injury. If it is due to a disease, it will likely not improve without a course of antibiotics. Definitely keep them separate from your thriving chicks and reintegrate only if you see resolution of the issue, and wash your hands between contacting the two groups, because if it is a disease, it will spread otherwise.

Click to expand...

You can get aspirin over the counter here so that shouldn't be a problem, I'll try giving small amounts to the 2 affected chicks.

To be honest I'm not sure whether it is a disease or injury, the chick with the dead leg most likely lost function of it's leg due to an injury as it was quite sudden and the swelling only appeared a couple days after it stopped using the leg. The other 2 with swelling (one died a while back) had swelling appear after cuts on their hocks.

I have been making sure there is no cross contamination between these chicks and my other older ones, i am worried it is mycoplasma synoviae as that is highly contagious and can pass to the rest of the flock (although the 6 that is in the brooder seem to be 100% OK so far). I am unfortunately unable to separate as i only have 1 heat lamp but if it is a contagious disease then i guess the 6 thriving ones would already be infected? It's been close to 3 weeks since i saw swelling on the others and they've been together since.

peacockfeather said:

Also, the gangrene was directed specifically at the chick whose leg had died and the toes curled. If you haven't culled her already, if she survives what's going on, she will likely be able to adapt and live happily even with one leg.

Click to expand...

Oh ok i guess it's possible then.

The thing is i most likely won't keep him/her and i can't think anyone that would take it off my hands, i would feel guilty about culling it though as it seems to be getting along alright at the moment, eating drinking etc.

From what you've said it seems like it was just an injury of some sort that affected their legs and the wounds got infected - which would explain the gangrene in your one chick. Also, I believe if it was a disease you would have seen some sort of symptoms present by now, so it's very good that you haven't. I would leave the one with the dead leg be and just see how she does for a couple of weeks - if sh continues to improve or not. How are the affected ones doing overall - any improvement/the same/ getting worse?

peacockfeather said:

From what you've said it seems like it was just an injury of some sort that affected their legs and the wounds got infected - which would explain the gangrene in your one chick. Also, I believe if it was a disease you would have seen some sort of symptoms present by now, so it's very good that you haven't. I would leave the one with the dead leg be and just see how she does for a couple of weeks - if sh continues to improve or not. How are the affected ones doing overall - any improvement/the same/ getting worse?

Click to expand...

Yeah I'm really hoping they were just isolated cases rather than a contagious disease, it's looking good so far but i will "quarantine" them any way for a few more weeks before introducing them to the rest of the flock.

It's been a while since I've seen any changes in the 2 affected ones, the one with the dead leg seems to be growing well while the other one with a swollen hock that can still walk on both legs doesn't seem to be growing well at all, weird huh? The swelling hasn't increased though even though I've stopped giving it epsom salt baths.

The chick with the swollen hock might have slipped tendon? You would feel that upon feeling the leg itself though. Stunted growth could be due to many factors, but if it's not getting worse, that's good.

peacockfeather said:

The chick with the swollen hock might have slipped tendon? You would feel that upon feeling the leg itself though. Stunted growth could be due to many factors, but if it's not getting worse, that's good.

Click to expand...

I don't think so, the swelling appeared after the cuts to the hock, plus it's still using both legs. The one with the possible gangrene however may have originally had a slipped tendon as it just suddenly stopped using one leg although the leg wasn't dead when it 1st happened.