1 Month old sick chick, confusing symptoms

[ChickieG'ma]

My baby's poo that I said was tar-y looking looked just like the last poo pic on the right just before the caecal pics. And the ones I thought had blood in them looked more like the middle pic of the shed intestinal lining ones.

What a great page. I'm always wondering (as I look at chicken poop) what this or that means. Now I don't have to wonder anymore.

The baby is still hanging in there. Not sneezing much anymore but her eye is still really watery. She spreads droplets when she shakes her head. No coughing and no more gasping. I was able to get a drop of oil of oregano in her last night but it was a fight. I tried it in her water first but she refused to dring it. Can't say I blame her since I have trouble keeping it in my mouth very long myself. At least she seems to be making slow improvement.

 

[casportpony]

The poo page is wrong, IMNSHO, a few of the pictures are not normal! A chick's poop should look like this the majority of the time.





-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

My baby's poo that I said was tar-y looking looked just like the last poo pic on the right just before the caecal pics. And the ones I thought had blood in them looked more like the middle pic of the shed intestinal lining ones.

What a great page. I'm always wondering (as I look at chicken poop) what this or that means. Now I don't have to wonder anymore.

The baby is still hanging in there. Not sneezing much anymore but her eye is still really watery. She spreads droplets when she shakes her head. No coughing and no more gasping. I was able to get a drop of oil of oregano in her last night but it was a fight. I tried it in her water first but she refused to dring it. Can't say I blame her since I have trouble keeping it in my mouth very long myself. At least she seems to be making slow improvement.

Weigh her daily on a digital kitchen scale... If she's gaining weight, she's probably getting better, but if she isn't, you should think about modifying your treatment plan.

-Kathy

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: While it's a handy tip, even if the bird's not showing gains I think maybe it wouldn't help to go too much into chopping and changing diet when the chick's not giving good growth records due to illness or whatever. I wouldn't expect any significant weight gain in a chick fighting some ill health until at least three days after it ceased having symptoms, though plenty of them can and will keep growing even if they're dying. Best wishes.

 

[casportpony]

While it's a handy tip, even if the bird's not showing gains I think maybe it wouldn't help to go too much into chopping and changing diet when the chick's not giving good growth records due to illness or whatever. I wouldn't expect any significant weight gain in a chick fighting some ill health until at least three days after it ceased having symptoms, though plenty of them can and will keep growing even if they're dying. Best wishes.

The last year of my life has been dedicated to keeping six peachicks from dying from repeated histomoniasis (blackhead) and e.coli infections, so this is something that I'm very passionate about. In my case, a few got better after being treated for just the histomoniasis, but others continued to lose weight or not gain. Those birds had developed a secondary e. coli infection and required different antibiotics. If I had waited to revise my treatment, they would not have survived.

My limited amount of data shows that once a bird is on the correct treatment plan, it will gain weight in 2-3 days after the treatment starts.

 

[chooks4life]

Been there with the struggle with blackhead. I developed a highly resistant strain of turkey in about 5 generations, the best birds in the lot didn't even show any symptoms while one only recently lost the fight. I had peafowl once, they abandoned me, lol, as everyone reckons they like to do. Why stay in a farm area when there's a forest.... Dunno if this would work for peafowl but it's what I use for blackhead in turkeys: wait until the bird's fasting itself and its poop's yellow and green diarrhoea, then give a cup of raw cow's milk, fat skimmed off the top but not homogenized/pasteurized, with a mixed in flat tablespoon of honey. It cured 99% of cases I used it on. Might work with peafowl, I'll be trying it on them when I get some again if they get BH.

In the case of a mystery illness with a chicken chick I wouldn't personally be focused on weight gain per se with a possibly short term and unidentified illness, though it makes sense to weigh in the case of a long term usually slowly acting illness. I'm wasn't saying to not try casportpony's advice, certainly I don't have a better idea right now. With a young chick I would expect to lose it if it's not fixed fairly soon, and fasting is one of the more important aspects of treating many illnesses, but I don't know what's going on with that chick. If the illness drags out, and it has in this case, it would definitely make sense to weigh. It seems that's right for your situation with blackhead in peafowl.

Best wishes to both of you and yours.

 

[casportpony]

Wow, five generations... that would take forever with peafowl, lol. I think I've got a pretty good handle on the blackhead now that I have plenty of metronidazole, Baytril , Clavamox, fenbendazole and tube feeding supplies.