- Jun 4, 2011
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We just got our shipment of 37 chicks early Thursday morning. 4 were dead on arrival, a 5th died within 1/2 hour despite being given sugar water. The rest appeared healthy, except for one that seemed to have balance issues. It would stagger crazily and then fall over, right itself and then sit for awhile, before crazily staggering around some more. It seemed to be able to make its way over to the food and kind of fall into it and peck around. I hand fed it soaked bread crumbs and diluted fruit juice, which it seemed to gobble up, for the first day. Then, since the other chicks were knocking it over as they ran around, I placed it in a little box, inside the main pen with food water, and one other chick for company. I decided to stop hand feeding it on Friday, thinking it's issues were either a developmental abnormality or a head/neck injury sustained during transit. Either way, I decided that it needed to be able to drink and peck on its own in order to survive. I did continue to take it to the food and water occasionally throughout the day. It passed away sometime mid-morning today and now one of the chicks that was keeping it company (I rotated them) has the same symptoms. I'm keeping this one by itself. So far it seems to be drinking and eating fine, but it can't stand without falling over. The two chicks with the balance issues look the same (black with yellow spots on top of their heads). But I since I got 5 Silver Cucoo Marans and 2 Dominiques and a Silver Laced Wyandotte (and I think their chicks all look very similar), I'm not sure that these two are in fact the same breed. The other 5 chicks that I lost were not black. Is it possible there is a contagious disease in the bunch? Is there anything I can do?
Thank you! -Evie
Thank you! -Evie
