BABY CHICKS GASPING FOR AIR "HELP"

One of ours did this at 15 days old, gasping non-stop as if she was screaming, but no sound. I'm brand-new to raising chicks, so please do your own research, but this is what we did, and she seems to have recovered. Hope it works the same for a 4-day old, but I really don't know. Mostly they die, apparently. Not sure if it's gape worms or coccidiosis or something else, but here goes.

We made sure our sick chick was extra warm, than gave her the following mixture:

A small clove of garlic, crushed and placed in
About a 1/2 c of water
About a tsp of organic plain yogurt (below the cream layer--chickens are not great with milk products)
Almost a 1/4 cup of organic sugar


Obviously I'm not totally sure about those cup measurements, didn't actually measure. It tasted sweet and garlicky-- but not so garlicky that it burned, when I tasted it (at first it did, but I added a bit more water).

Used an eyedropper which I would press gently to the side of her beak and then barely squeeze-- she would swallow a bit, then rest. It took ages but I got a dropper-full in her, then let her sleep for a couple hours, then repeated. Did this 4-5 times the first day.

The second day, made up some without the yogurt (couldn't put it in the fridge between doses, because it was too cold for her, so omitted the yogurt just because I wasn't sure....)

Today is day #3, and she hasn't gasped at all today, but I put a clove of garlic in the water of all the chicks just to be on the safe side.

Got the garlic idea from a couple of books. It boosts their immune system, and the sulfur helps them get rid of gape worms (which lodge in their throats and basically suffocate them) Apparently gape worms don't like sulfur!

I've also ready that pumpkin seeds are a good natural de-wormer, but our little chick was way too sick to eat pumpkin seeds.

She's eating now, though, and drinking and sitting with her companions. Still seems weak, but we'll dose her again if she gets worse.

Best of luck with yours!! And please don't feel like you did anything wrong if they die-- everything I've read says that some just do. It's very sad for those of us newbies.
Thank you so much for this post! When I woke up yesterday morning, my chick was gasping and so weak she couldn't hold her head up. She just laid on her side with her eyes closed gasping for air. I prayer for her all day, and by dinnertime, she was at least holding up her head and laying with her feet tucked up under her, but she was still not moving and gasping nonstop. Then I found this post. I crushed a clove of garlic in a cup of water and fed about .2mL from a dropper to my gasping chick. Thirty minutes later, she stopped gasping. I repeated the process, and by the time I finished feeding her the second time, she was able to eat her chick feed on her own. I woke up this morning, and she is 100 percent fine!
 

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