The day before yesterday I was hand feeding the chicks as I always do twice a day when I noticed that one was not being the piranha that she and the others always are. She was sitting back and away and not interested in eating in the least. She was also not interested in being caught and kept trying to avoid my efforts of catching her. I went and fed the outside birds and came back to find her being run over by the other chicks so I removed her to the infirmary cage with a white liner to catch any droppings for inspection. We gave her some vitamin E and Poly-visol in a Pedialyte solution.
Within a few minutes, I found a bright yellow urine on the liner so I called and talked to @Casportpony about tubing and medication options. She helped me figure the correct amount of fluids to tube feed a seven week old, 500 gm chick. I then gave the chick 5 ml of fluids and called my vet who said to come on in.
Not having a good stool sample for a fecal float and gram stain, what my vet calls a 'fecal stain', I took the bird with me. The vet was able to squeeze a poo sample and did both tests which came out negative for cocci, worms, or bacteria. The vet also was of the opinion that the bird was not going to make it. Shortly thereafter the chick perked up a bit and the vet gave her a shot for pain and had me tube penicillin. Check that, we gave the meds while we were waiting for the time to pass for the test results.
She gave me two 60 ml syringes of fluid and a butterfly needle catheter and showed me how to hydrate under the skin and told me to do this tonight and in the morning. If the chick did not make it bring her back in for a necropsy. Well, the chick did not survive long enough fo us to get out the door. I waited until the vet had taken care of a couple other patents and we did the necropsy.
The skin, face, and mouth of the bird was very pale and lacking color showing a lack of blood. All parts of the chick were normal not showing any signs of worms. The gizzard was full and functioning. We took a stool sample from the cloca and looked under a microscope for capillary worms and found none.
The only problem area was in the kidneys where there was a very large blood clot. It appears that the blood was cycling into the kidneys and stopping in the clot and not returning to the birds system. We have no idea what could cause this and I am not going to do any more involved tests as the bird is lost, not contagious, and I have invested enough at this point.
I guess the moral of all this is that no matter how good the quality of your care is for your birds, you just can not save them all.
Within a few minutes, I found a bright yellow urine on the liner so I called and talked to @Casportpony about tubing and medication options. She helped me figure the correct amount of fluids to tube feed a seven week old, 500 gm chick. I then gave the chick 5 ml of fluids and called my vet who said to come on in.
Not having a good stool sample for a fecal float and gram stain, what my vet calls a 'fecal stain', I took the bird with me. The vet was able to squeeze a poo sample and did both tests which came out negative for cocci, worms, or bacteria. The vet also was of the opinion that the bird was not going to make it. Shortly thereafter the chick perked up a bit and the vet gave her a shot for pain and had me tube penicillin. Check that, we gave the meds while we were waiting for the time to pass for the test results.
She gave me two 60 ml syringes of fluid and a butterfly needle catheter and showed me how to hydrate under the skin and told me to do this tonight and in the morning. If the chick did not make it bring her back in for a necropsy. Well, the chick did not survive long enough fo us to get out the door. I waited until the vet had taken care of a couple other patents and we did the necropsy.
The skin, face, and mouth of the bird was very pale and lacking color showing a lack of blood. All parts of the chick were normal not showing any signs of worms. The gizzard was full and functioning. We took a stool sample from the cloca and looked under a microscope for capillary worms and found none.
The only problem area was in the kidneys where there was a very large blood clot. It appears that the blood was cycling into the kidneys and stopping in the clot and not returning to the birds system. We have no idea what could cause this and I am not going to do any more involved tests as the bird is lost, not contagious, and I have invested enough at this point.
I guess the moral of all this is that no matter how good the quality of your care is for your birds, you just can not save them all.