"What's wrong with my baby chick?" Symptoms and their association with nutritional deficiency

post #1 of 6

3/9/12 at 5:22am

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BlazeJester

Location: Pendleton, SC
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Most baby chick issues are not your fault. Nutritional deficiencies in the breeding stock can cause all sorts of deformities in baby chicks. I just found this website and these deficiencies explain every chick problem I've ever had, which are mostly related to the B vitamins.

Vitamin/electrolyte supplementation in the drinking water may help most if not all of these conditions when caught in time. I will be using electrolytes for my very young chicks from now on, and this website to help me diagnose.

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2114&page=49

Example chart (this one goes on for several more pages):

TABLE 7-3 Nutrients Associated with Various Signs of Deficiency in Growing Birds

Deficiency Signs	Descriptions	Species	Associated Nutrients
Skin lesions	Crusting and scab formation around eyes and beak	Chick, poult,	Biotin, pantothenic acid
	Bottoms of feet rough and calloused with hemorrhagic cracks	Chick, poult	Biotin, pantothenic acid
	Scaliness on feet	Chick	Zinc, niacin
	Lesions around eyes, eyelids stuck together	Chick, poult	Vitamin A
	Mouth, inflammation of oral mucosa (chicken black tongue)	Poult, chick	Niacin
Feather abnormalities	Uneven feather growth, abnormally long primary feathers, feathers not lying smoothly	Chick, poult	Protein, amino acid imbalance
	Frizzled and rough	Chick, poult	Zinc, niacin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, lysine
	Black pigmentation in breeds with red and brown feathers	Chick	Vitamin D
	Depigmentation	Chick, poult,	Copper, iron, folacin
Nervous disorders	Convulsions with head retraction	Chick, pigeon	Thiamin
	Convulsions with hyperexcitability	Chick, poult, duckling	Pyridoxine
	Hyperirritability	Chick, poult, duckling	Magnesium, sodium chloride
	Characteristic fright reaction with tetanic spasms	Chick	Chloride
	Spastic cervical paralysis, neck extended with birds appearing to look down	Poult	Folacin
	Curled-toe paralysis, gross enlargement of sciatic and brachial nerves with myelin degeneration	Chick	Riboflavin
	Encephalomalacia, tetanic spasms with head retraction, hemorrhagic lesions in cerebellum	Chick	Vitamin E
Blood and vascular system	Anemia	All poultry
	Macrocytic		Vitamin B₁₂
	Macrocytic, hyperchromic		Folacin
	Microcytic, hypochromic		Iron, copper
	Microcytic		Pyridoxine
	Hemorrhage, intramuscular, subcutaneous, internal from aortic rupture	Chick, poult	Vitamin K, copper
	Exudative diathesis	Chick, poult	Selenium, vitamin E
	Enlarged heart	Chick, poult	Copper
Muscle	Muscular dystrophy, white areas of degeneration in skeletal muscle	Chick, duck, poult	Vitamin E, selenium
	Cardiac myopathy	Poult	Vitamin E, selenium
	Gizzard myopathy	Poult	Vitamin E, selenium
Bone disorders	Soft, easily bent bones and beak (rickets)	All poultry	Vitamin D, calcium or phosphorus deficiency or imbalance
	Hock enlargement	Poult, chick, gosling, duckling	Niacin, zinc
	Perosis	Chick, poult	Biotin, choline, vitamin B₁₂, manganese, zinc, folacin
	Bowed legs	Duck	Niacin
	Shortening and thickening of leg bones	Chick	zinc, manganese
	Curled toes	Chick	Riboflavin

~Meg~
The remaining 6 of my original 7 barred rocks are 3yrs old and happily divided between a friend and my mom.
Laying: 2 Partridge Rocks, 1 Columbian Wyandotte and 2 Black Australorps. 14 weeks: 3 bantam Araucana.
Cowed to chicken math and sharing my bedroom with 8 BBS Ameraucana mixes.

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~Meg~
The remaining 6 of my original 7 barred rocks are 3yrs old and happily divided between a friend and my mom.
Laying: 2 Partridge Rocks, 1 Columbian Wyandotte and 2 Black Australorps. 14 weeks: 3 bantam Araucana.
Cowed to chicken math and sharing my bedroom with 8 BBS Ameraucana mixes.

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post #2 of 6

3/9/12 at 5:26am

tweetysvoice

Location: Lawrence, KS
Joined: 12/2011
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Great page to have handy in the chicken favorites folder! Thanks for sharing that find!

Mommy to BR (Onyx), 2 Delaware (Pearl & Opal), BO (Ruby), Blue Silkie (Amber), Splash Silkie (Raine), 2 Golden Laced Orps (Goldie & Lacey), 2 EE (Bunny & Rabbit) & 2 Blk Javas (Crow & Butterfly)!

Also a Pit/Mastiff mix, an American Bulldog, 1 cat, a guinea pig, a bearded dragon, and a koi pond.

Oh.. can't forget my daughter, granddaughter, step-son, and wonderful husband!

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Mommy to BR (Onyx), 2 Delaware (Pearl & Opal), BO (Ruby), Blue Silkie (Amber), Splash Silkie (Raine), 2 Golden Laced Orps (Goldie & Lacey), 2 EE (Bunny & Rabbit) & 2 Blk Javas (Crow & Butterfly)!

Also a Pit/Mastiff mix, an American Bulldog, 1 cat, a guinea pig, a bearded dragon, and a koi pond.

Oh.. can't forget my daughter, granddaughter, step-son, and wonderful husband!

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post #3 of 6

3/9/12 at 5:54am

chickitty

Location: Mangilao, Guam
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what foods have all these vitamins?

mother of 2 jungle fowls

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mother of 2 jungle fowls

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post #4 of 6

3/9/12 at 8:25am

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BlazeJester

Location: Pendleton, SC
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All major brand poultry feeds should have the correct balance of nutrients, as well as any electrolyte water mix-in for livestock or poultry (Sav-a-chik, PolyViSol, etc).

This is more a diagnostic resource for very young chicks, where contagious illness is not a probable cause. All of mine that have died have had neurological symptoms, and B vitamin deficiencies explain all of those deaths. This would mean that the parents did not have adequate thiamin and niacin in their diets. It may have been something I could correct with B complex supplement if caught in time, or it may be something that the chick will die from regardless, but at least now I know it was beyond my control and not due to negligence on my part.

It helps to have this list of alternative causes to what I only had resources to diagnose as Newcastle or Encephalomyelitis, neither of which made any sense in my situations. The fact that the birds were from breeder stock and therefore a less controlled feed source than hatchery makes more sense to me, though I did have one hatchery chick fall ill with symptoms classic to B vitamin deficiency and recover after a week of isolation with electrolyte water as the only treatment.

~Meg~
The remaining 6 of my original 7 barred rocks are 3yrs old and happily divided between a friend and my mom.
Laying: 2 Partridge Rocks, 1 Columbian Wyandotte and 2 Black Australorps. 14 weeks: 3 bantam Araucana.
Cowed to chicken math and sharing my bedroom with 8 BBS Ameraucana mixes.

Reply

~Meg~
The remaining 6 of my original 7 barred rocks are 3yrs old and happily divided between a friend and my mom.
Laying: 2 Partridge Rocks, 1 Columbian Wyandotte and 2 Black Australorps. 14 weeks: 3 bantam Araucana.
Cowed to chicken math and sharing my bedroom with 8 BBS Ameraucana mixes.

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post #5 of 6

3/13/12 at 6:10pm

featheredroots

Location: Madisonville, KY
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Thank you for posting this. If you don't mind my asking, how many chicks did you lose due to deficiency? I'm losing chicks at an alarming rate, 4 in 5 days and it's not looking good for the last 2. I was worried that it may be a disease or infection, but when I describe the symptoms, which are neurological, and developmental, people tell me it sounds more like a deficiency. I got an electrolyte and vitamin mix from the feed store today, but I'm afraid it may too little too late.

I'm so glad to have this information now, so that I will be able to do better by our next batch of chicks.

Suburban homesteader and wife to 1 amazingly patient man, mom of 2 awesome eclectic homeschoolers, 2 spoiled jack russell chihuahuas, 2 fat russian blue mixes, 1 white ee, and 1 golden comet.

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Suburban homesteader and wife to 1 amazingly patient man, mom of 2 awesome eclectic homeschoolers, 2 spoiled jack russell chihuahuas, 2 fat russian blue mixes, 1 white ee, and 1 golden comet.

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post #6 of 6

3/13/12 at 6:39pm