1 week old chick gaping - STILL NEED ADVICE PLEASE-see pg 3 for status

[CheepSunglasses]

We are fighting a respiratory infection in our 3-week olds. We quarantined the ones with symptoms, picked up the temperature, added some sugar to the water if they weren't eating well, switched over to hard boiled egg and used VetRx in the bedding, water and beak tips. We have one with a swollen eye and are using Terramycin to keep it from getting infected. Respiratory infections are lethal and they spread quickly. Most are viral, so antibiotics won't touch them. But if you can keep the birds warm, eating and breathing, they can often fight it off. I have no idea why VetRx works, given the ingredients in it. But we have seen for ourselves that it makes them breathe easier and that will sometimes keep them eating. I appreciate the advice of other posters on this Board because it really did help us to decide on a course of action. The best advice I can give is to immediately quarantine any bird that doesn't look right. Delays can result in the exposure of others, if what they have is contagious.

 

[verlaj]

Norwich - Got your PM - thanks - tried to reply but your inbox is full!

 

[valentinebaby]

I wouldn't cull that chick too soon - sorry! As I said in a previous post, I had one chick that did the gaping thing for about a week. I separated her from the flock, put antibiotics in her water (and the flocks - followed advice from the feed store) and didn't expect her to live. However, after 2 days of this and not seeing any other symptoms, I finally contacted the breeder who felt it was due to her getting piled on the bottom of the chick pile and that she was just trying to take in more air. Even when I removed her from the flock, she still did the gaping thing.

So, I decided to follow my motherly instincts: I removed the antibiotics, put her back in with the flock and today she is my friendliest chicken - a tiny bit smaller than the others, but healthy in every way. I did start using vitamins for the whole flock about this time and that could have helped her. I now wonder if her lungs just weren't fully developed (kinda like a preemie) and she just needed a bit of time to catch up. I call her Billie - after Bill O'Reilly - cuz like the name of his book, she is the boldest and least fearful of all the 12 chicks I have!

 

[verlaj]

Thanks for your encouraging words. This chick is eating, growing, active - just has a really stuffed up nose! You can barely make out the nostrils. Now there is some redness over the left sinus - previously it was the right. I feel quite sure that the gaping is solely because her nose is plugged. Most of the time the problem is not noticeable. The cockerel buddy still is well. I have continued with the tetracycline - by dropper, because I did not think she was drinking much with the drug in the water, swabbing the nostrils with warmed water/VetRx, and periodically giving her a spa treatment in a steamy bathroom. I really keep expecting the nose to open up - but so far, no dice!

I will change over to a different antibiotic if there is no further improvement after 1 week on tetracyline - maybe to erythromycin. I can't believe that it is anything contagious since no other chick has gotten the same signs, but I am still keeping her and her little roo buddy separated from the others.

 

[valentinebaby]

Oh! Didn't see the part about the stuffy nose - sorry! Sounds like Tetracycline should work - that's what the feed store recommended to me when I thought I needed it. Good luck!

 

[verlaj]

No need to be sorry - I was glad to hear of the chick that gaped and lived!

 

[mw333]

My chicks are now 10 days old. Yesterday morning I awoke to a chick that was very similar to the one described in this thread. Gaping, breathing deeply, wobbly and looking distressed. I too originally thought impacted crop or choking. I gently massaged her throat, felt a little lump in the crop, but the massage didn't help apparently. By late morning she was on her side, legs out, eyes half closed. She could be roused, but she looked like a goner. I separated her from the others (25 buff brahmas, also from Ideal), gave her her own heat lamp, and made up a concoction of buffered vitamin C powder, Vit A, Vit E (I squeezed the contents of gelcaps), B complex and crushed an all natural multi vitamin mineral complex tablet, oil of oregano, and turmeric, and mixed it with warm water. I gave about 1/2 an eye dropper orally every hour or so until bedtime, then I let nature take it's course. This morning, the chick is standing strong, and eating and drinking on her own. I'm pretty confident at this point she will pull through completely. I'm glad I didn't give up on her.

 

[mw333]

Forgot to mention, also added a little honey to the mix for energy...