2 chicks dead, 2 more lethargic, others obviously not well...

[bearz]

4 week old chicks. 2 dead 2 days ago. 2 more in my bathroom right now under a heat lamp. I wasn't able to find anything wrong with the first ones so I assumed they just got too cold. Just now I went in to check on these and found diarrhea with a little blood. Please tell me this isn't coccywhatever.

If it is, how do I treat it? Do I treat all my birds? Can I continue to sell the eggs? Somebody help me here please?!?!?

 

[chickenbottom]

it sounds like cocci sorry

 

[bearz]

I went to the store for yogurt and powered milk. Gave the yogurt to the buff orpington and then tried to get the other one to eat it. When I put it back in it cheeped a couple of times, flapped its wings and died. Just died.

It had pooped a lot of blood and I'm guessing it was just too far gone. The BO looks much better since I fed it and I'll make a mash first thing in the morning for the other babies. I'm afraid it will look like a massacre in there tomorrow.

 

[silkiechicken]

Bloody poo means they have cocci. At this point, get amprol or sulmet in liquid or powder form and dose them according to the package. They will recover within 2-3 days of administration, and treatment is about a week. They will be just fine if you do it quick. It is just a protozoa that is found in all soils and adults are usually immune to it so eggs are just fine, just don't sell eggs from adults you treat if you use sulmet because it is a sulfa drug, from which humans who are alergic to it can react.

 

[threehorses]

Please do not give powdered milk to birds. They can tolerate the yogurt's lactose because of the bacterial action. They can't milk.

Silkiechicken is right - do as she says and you'll do well. Then every day you'll want to replace their good bacteria in their gut because apparently those are compromised. That's what you can use the yogurt for - just not the milk please.

For the yogurt, and babies, I mix a heaping tablespoon with a cup of food, some water, egg yolk mashed in (boiled), to the wetness they'll eat. Start it dry so you can add water. Then take their food up for an hour, replace it with this mixture. make sure they all eat some.

Be glad that it's coccidiosis, actually. It's much easier to manage and treat than bacterial issues.

In the mean time, what are you feeding them? They should still be eating medicated (with amprolium, not antibiotics) crumbles. What's their bedding like? How's the heat in there since that seems to be a concern? My chicks this year liked to poop in their water - is this happening to you, too?

We'll try to get you through this, and I'm sorry for your losses. But when you see blood it's usually very far advanced. But hopefully you can take things in hand now.

By the way, only treat these babies. And incidentally, you'll want to look carefully at their droppings daily. At this age, they should be solidish greenish brownish tan with white urates on top. You'll see occassional chocolate pudding droppings, but they shouldn't be the majority. I get concerned when I see rusty, orangey brown droppings that are not very solid. I also think of cocci first if I see mucusy stringy texture;

People unfortunately have been told that if there's not blood, it's not cocci. Not so. Often cases of coccidiosis can be picked up earlier if we educate ourselves on the fine art of...... poop. I hope this will help you. Please let us know how we can help. Feel free to PM me with any questions about what i've added here.

 

[RachelFromTheBlackLagoon]

This is so sad

I'm sorry about your babies. I hope the survivors get well.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Corid (a brand name for amprolium) does not give chicken dosage on the package. At least it didn't when i bought it. So if you get liquid Amprolium 9.6%, the dosage is 4cc per gallon of water - in their water for 5 days. That should knock it out. For resistant strains, you can use as much as 9cc per gallon.

Thought i'd add dosage information since i had to do a lot of searching when i had the cocci dilemma.

Many blessings. Hope the rest are all o.k. really soon.