PennyWars
In the Brooder
Hello,
I'm new as a member of this community, but had often come here when I was looking for answers related to the quail I was hatching. I've now decided to ask for some guidance, as I'm struggling to find information anywhere on this issue.
**GRAPHIC CONTENT IN PHOTOS**
Background: Ordered 13 Hungarian Partridge eggs in July and upgraded the incubator to one with an automatic turner. The eggs arrived without any broken, though a few were rather dirty. I dampened a piece of sponge with hydrogen peroxide and used the corners to remove the caked-on poop from three eggs, being very careful not to rub anywhere else and remove the bloom. I allowed them to rest fat side up overnight while preparing/testing my new incubator. I candled all the eggs before putting them in, and tossed four with air bubbles/obviously detached air cells. A week later, 9 were viable and growing.
Fast forward to Aug 8th, two days prior to hatch date: I candled all the eggs and removed the turners. Aside from some seriously strange looking air cells in a few, all were alive and moving (yay!). By strange, I mean saddled up both sides of the shell, where the membrane had detached but the shadow of the chick could be seen moving around. I set humidity to 75 (up from the 55-60 it was at) and waited. Out of 9, 6 hatched Aug 11th-12th without complications and lived past their first day. Two were malpositioned, one of which was dead and the other I helped out. It then somehow weaseled its way under the hatching grate and drowned in condensation. The last one had pipped and started to hatch, but apparently ripped its yolk sac and died, as the egg was full of yolk when I investigated.
Onto the current situation: Today is Aug 18th, so they would have all been about a week old. Unfortunately, I only have two left. The first one died on Wednesday sometime early in the morning. It was the smallest and walked on tiptoes, so while sad, I wasn't exactly surprised. The second died on Thursday evening...I came in from walking the dog, went to give everyone their snack before bed, and only 4 came out from under the feathery floof I have clipped above a reptile heating mat (stays between 95-98°, rated for use under tanks). The 5th was lying on its side, eyes closed. I felt its crop and noted it was empty, so I figured it just wasn't eating much. I hand-fed it some starter-mush via syringe, it perked up and then started pecking at food with its buddies. A few hours later I checked again on them before I went to bed, and found it dead. It was laid out in the cold on its side, legs stretched out and stiff, though its head and wings were not. After putting it under a heat lamp for 10 mins I determined it really was dead and not chilled, and it went outside to feed a rose bush with the others. Neither it or the other one had anything coming from their nostrils, mouths were clear, but they had runny poop on their legs when they passed. Friday morning (2 days ago) I woke up and checked on them to find another one laying on its side and not coming out for breakfast. It was very lethargic, could stand and walk when I righted it, but fell over when it dozed off and couldn't get back up. I mixed up some honey, water, and starter into a syringe to feed the baby by hand, determined not to lose another. I had been feeding Manna Pro Unmedicated 20% protein plus a pinch of crushed dried mealworms/crickets for extra protein, sprinkled liberally with sifted probiotic chick grit. After seeing yet another baby struggling, I went up to the feed store and got a bag of Kent Farm Fresh Medicated Starter. The only amprolium they had was a huge bottle of Corid, and I was afraid to overdose the chicks seeing as the starter feed bag says to use as the sole source. I mixed up a syringe of new starter with a pinch of poultry pre+probiotic powder and fed that to the weak chick, ground up more and fed to the other three without anything else added to it. I added the probiotic powder to the group water source as well. Once again, chickie perked up after eating but wanted to sleep, and was pooping yellowish water that dried white. It continued to poop that way, though when I fed it there would be little bits of solid brown in the middle. It would poke around the feed with the others but only nibbled before dozing off and getting stepped on, knocked over, etc. It would occasionally drink water on its own. I still had a couple of Bactrim from a sinus infection (Sulfa-based antibiotic) so I shaved off a weensy amount of powder and included that in the syringe feed mixture. I stayed up until 2am and was back every three hours to feed and keep this chick alive, and finally yesterday it seemed to be doing better; running around, eating, still puffed up but not as sleepy. Thinking it must be some sort of infection, I shaved some Bactrim into a container of crushed, dry chick feed and gave them that in a box under a heat lamp while I deep cleaned the Rubbermaid that is their brooder. After disinfecting everything with a 75:25 isopropyl 91%/peroxide 3% solution, air drying and then wiping again with a wet paper towel, everybody got to go back home. I checked again before I went to bed, and woke up at 3am to the weak chick cheeping loudly out in the cold on its side again. Gave it more food via syringe and went back to sleep only to find it dead this morning along with another that was strong and doing well this whole time.
I am so dejected at this point, because I don't know what else to do. I sat down to do a necropsy on both of the chicks today, and the only thing obviously wrong is the color of their livers. It's a strange yellowish-brown with darker, normal color patterning throughout. The lungs were a dark red-pink on the bigger chick, pale on the weak one. Info I can find discusses fatty liver in much older birds, an experiment of adding mycotoxins to broiler feed, and spotty liver caused by Campylobacter. Nothing looks like the livers from my week old chicks.
***BEWARE GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW!!!***
Photos: Each chick opened up, prior to removal of organs, last one is closeup of liver from the stronger chick.
I'm new as a member of this community, but had often come here when I was looking for answers related to the quail I was hatching. I've now decided to ask for some guidance, as I'm struggling to find information anywhere on this issue.
**GRAPHIC CONTENT IN PHOTOS**
Background: Ordered 13 Hungarian Partridge eggs in July and upgraded the incubator to one with an automatic turner. The eggs arrived without any broken, though a few were rather dirty. I dampened a piece of sponge with hydrogen peroxide and used the corners to remove the caked-on poop from three eggs, being very careful not to rub anywhere else and remove the bloom. I allowed them to rest fat side up overnight while preparing/testing my new incubator. I candled all the eggs before putting them in, and tossed four with air bubbles/obviously detached air cells. A week later, 9 were viable and growing.
Fast forward to Aug 8th, two days prior to hatch date: I candled all the eggs and removed the turners. Aside from some seriously strange looking air cells in a few, all were alive and moving (yay!). By strange, I mean saddled up both sides of the shell, where the membrane had detached but the shadow of the chick could be seen moving around. I set humidity to 75 (up from the 55-60 it was at) and waited. Out of 9, 6 hatched Aug 11th-12th without complications and lived past their first day. Two were malpositioned, one of which was dead and the other I helped out. It then somehow weaseled its way under the hatching grate and drowned in condensation. The last one had pipped and started to hatch, but apparently ripped its yolk sac and died, as the egg was full of yolk when I investigated.
Onto the current situation: Today is Aug 18th, so they would have all been about a week old. Unfortunately, I only have two left. The first one died on Wednesday sometime early in the morning. It was the smallest and walked on tiptoes, so while sad, I wasn't exactly surprised. The second died on Thursday evening...I came in from walking the dog, went to give everyone their snack before bed, and only 4 came out from under the feathery floof I have clipped above a reptile heating mat (stays between 95-98°, rated for use under tanks). The 5th was lying on its side, eyes closed. I felt its crop and noted it was empty, so I figured it just wasn't eating much. I hand-fed it some starter-mush via syringe, it perked up and then started pecking at food with its buddies. A few hours later I checked again on them before I went to bed, and found it dead. It was laid out in the cold on its side, legs stretched out and stiff, though its head and wings were not. After putting it under a heat lamp for 10 mins I determined it really was dead and not chilled, and it went outside to feed a rose bush with the others. Neither it or the other one had anything coming from their nostrils, mouths were clear, but they had runny poop on their legs when they passed. Friday morning (2 days ago) I woke up and checked on them to find another one laying on its side and not coming out for breakfast. It was very lethargic, could stand and walk when I righted it, but fell over when it dozed off and couldn't get back up. I mixed up some honey, water, and starter into a syringe to feed the baby by hand, determined not to lose another. I had been feeding Manna Pro Unmedicated 20% protein plus a pinch of crushed dried mealworms/crickets for extra protein, sprinkled liberally with sifted probiotic chick grit. After seeing yet another baby struggling, I went up to the feed store and got a bag of Kent Farm Fresh Medicated Starter. The only amprolium they had was a huge bottle of Corid, and I was afraid to overdose the chicks seeing as the starter feed bag says to use as the sole source. I mixed up a syringe of new starter with a pinch of poultry pre+probiotic powder and fed that to the weak chick, ground up more and fed to the other three without anything else added to it. I added the probiotic powder to the group water source as well. Once again, chickie perked up after eating but wanted to sleep, and was pooping yellowish water that dried white. It continued to poop that way, though when I fed it there would be little bits of solid brown in the middle. It would poke around the feed with the others but only nibbled before dozing off and getting stepped on, knocked over, etc. It would occasionally drink water on its own. I still had a couple of Bactrim from a sinus infection (Sulfa-based antibiotic) so I shaved off a weensy amount of powder and included that in the syringe feed mixture. I stayed up until 2am and was back every three hours to feed and keep this chick alive, and finally yesterday it seemed to be doing better; running around, eating, still puffed up but not as sleepy. Thinking it must be some sort of infection, I shaved some Bactrim into a container of crushed, dry chick feed and gave them that in a box under a heat lamp while I deep cleaned the Rubbermaid that is their brooder. After disinfecting everything with a 75:25 isopropyl 91%/peroxide 3% solution, air drying and then wiping again with a wet paper towel, everybody got to go back home. I checked again before I went to bed, and woke up at 3am to the weak chick cheeping loudly out in the cold on its side again. Gave it more food via syringe and went back to sleep only to find it dead this morning along with another that was strong and doing well this whole time.
I am so dejected at this point, because I don't know what else to do. I sat down to do a necropsy on both of the chicks today, and the only thing obviously wrong is the color of their livers. It's a strange yellowish-brown with darker, normal color patterning throughout. The lungs were a dark red-pink on the bigger chick, pale on the weak one. Info I can find discusses fatty liver in much older birds, an experiment of adding mycotoxins to broiler feed, and spotty liver caused by Campylobacter. Nothing looks like the livers from my week old chicks.
***BEWARE GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW!!!***
Photos: Each chick opened up, prior to removal of organs, last one is closeup of liver from the stronger chick.
I call them cinnamon puffs, because they look like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Lol.
