3-week-old chick very ill, now another one showing signs

[Mominator]

I am hoping someone could offer up some suggestions. My chicks are approx. 4 weeks old. They are all vaccinated, have lived on pellet bedding, have medicated chick mash, and get ACV in their water.

The little black australorp, Daisy, was fine for the first week then quieted down, became lethargic. She would just stand around with her eyes closed, feathers puffed up a little bit, never extending her neck or moving much. She would eat/drink, just without much ambition. One week ago she couldn't stand, and when she tried to she would sortof hobble around. I gave her Poly Vi Sol drops, isolated her, and she would eat out of my hand and drink when brought to water. She rallied for a day and was walking with a limp, but the next day she took a turn for the worst and hasn't been able to stand on her own since. Poop is normal, green/grey and solid. Eats when i get her in front of the food, but not a whole lot. Will drink when i give it to her. I have given her crushed up hard-boiled eggs, plain yogurt, and ProBios sprinked in with her chick mash that i water down. Her legs can move, but she cannot stand and has not been able to for a week.

Now my little GLW, Angie, is showing some of the same early symptoms.

Standing in the corner with her little chin tucked in, eyes closed, feathers kindof puffed up, wings droopy, hardly eating a thing. The only difference is that her poo is tan to clear in color, mucosy, sometimes with specks of blood or globs of red gunk that looks like that shedding intestinal lining business, or something similar. She is able to stand and walk (no limp), but isn't looking very good at all.

Can anyone offer any other suggestions? I am getting desperate, I'm afraid.

Thank you,
Sandy

 

[Blue_Myst]

Were they vaccinated for Merek's? It sounds like a neurological problem to me

Angie seems to be showing symptoms of Coccidiosis, but I don't see how she could have contracted it if she's on the medicated feed....

It sounds like you're taking very good care of them! I hope someone else comes along who can help.

 

[Mominator]

Were they vaccinated for Merek's? It sounds like a neurological problem to me

Yes, they were all vaccinated for Merek's.

I actually took the pair down to the vet today. She did a swab of the fecal from the GLW for cocci and found nothing. But after doing a physical on the BA, Daisy, she found that both of her femurs were quite curved - a sign of Rickets. She said that this is very likely due to a vitamin B12 deficiency because the medication in the feed could be too high. Angie's femurs are only slightly curving at this point, and i am hoping that i can save her.

But Daisy is so extremely thin, she just doesn't stand much of a chance.

I have resumed giving the Poly Vi Sol...it can't hurt.

I am going to try Glenda's recipe for chick mash and add the vitamin B, hoping that i can save her.

I went home and immediately checked out my Silkies and Polish babies. No signs of bony deformities in any of them so far. Feed store is getting nonmedicated chick starter in tomorrow, thank the Lord.

Sandy​

 

[annek]

Don't know if the mash has egg in it but if not, give them boiled eggs mashed up too. It has a lot of protein and they really love it. They like the yellow the best.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
??? If you are talking about amprolium as the medication in the feed, it is a thiamine blocker, and B12 is not thiamine, B1 is thiamine.

Not that vitamins and/or Glenda's recipe are a bad idea, at all.

 

[Rebekah]

My chick is showing similar symptoms, so I'm very interested in how your chick is doing now. Also, how much of the vitamins and electrolyte should I be giving my chick? I bought some organic plain yogurt and hard-boiled some eggs, but I haven't given her any yet.

 

[kittycast]

Last Thursday I had a chick who was acting weird standing still and just staring wasn't eating much or drinking, wierd head twitching and weirder chirping. I fed her Poly vi sol and separated her. I also gave her pedialite with a dropper and dipped her beak in a mix of water and PED. I also read about supplementing VIT E w/selenium and B 12 complex on this web site- THANK YOU ALL - I love this site and the people on it! I bought sublingual liquid B12 and liquid vit E and mixed it with food and a bit of water to make a mash and feed her it. Today she it sooo much better she is eating and more importantly drinking witch she had all but quit doing. I now plan on continuing to mix these with food to combat the vitamin deficiencies that I believe were the root of the problem .

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Medicated food doesn't prevent coccidiosis. It is designed to prevent huge blooms. It actually allows for some cocci as it's supposed to allow birds to develop an immunity without contracting the disease.

However, if conditions are right and a bird's immunity is down, they can and will contact coccidiosis. Then you "treat" with a coccidiostat which means it's designed to actually kill all the cocci it can.

That's what I'd recommend. I'd give Corid if you can get it, Sulmet if you can't. Continue the probiotics daily. You can give either probios or yogurt - both aren't necessary really. (Note: Corid is really just more amprolium, the food used in amprolium medicated feeds. It's at a higher concentration, a coccidiostat concentration.)

Just in case it's a nutritional deficiency, I would do as kittycast did. It won't hurt in this treatment with Corid and might actually help. Two to three drops of polyvisol (without iron) in the beak daily. You can provide extra E vitamins as a drop from a 400 IU capsule daily. You can also crush a B complex vitamin, but Polyvisol contains B vitamins (specifically riboflavin which isn't highly supplemented in bird foods, and is the cause of some walking and paralysis issues when deficient). So I'd just supplement vitamin E at least along with the polyvisol. The probiotics will help the bird by allowing good bacteria to produce B vitamins right inside the bird.

I'm glad the advice helped Kittycast; that's what this board is for.

By the way, the polyvisol (which has D vitamins in an oil form) and the yogurt (rather than Probios) b oth will provide additional D vitamins which helps the bird absorb calcium. Many people think rickets is a calcium deficiency. Well it is, but often it's a calcium deficiency caused by a D3 deficiency. So there's a little info for you.

You'll be healing two birds with one stone - erm, vitamin - hopefully.

On electrolytes, not recommended unless the bird is dehydrated. Vitamin/electrolyte packages aren't as good for A, D, E vitamins because those vitamins require oil to be maintained and absorbed. Vitamin packages designed for water aren't oil based. The Enfamil vitamins are a better more bioavailable source, for Rebekah.

And incidentally, having worked in the vet's lab for a while, I learned that cocci are VERY VERY hard to test for in a fecal swab because the oocysts don't always shed though the animal can be infested. I never trust a fecal unless it's positive for cocci. If it's negative, all the vets I worked for treated symptomatically if there was a good enough reason to. Fecals are best for other parasites, not protazoa. Though I commend you taking her to the vet!

 

[Mominator]

My chick is showing similar symptoms, so I'm very interested in how your chick is doing now. Also, how much of the vitamins and electrolyte should I be giving my chick? I bought some organic plain yogurt and hard-boiled some eggs, but I haven't given her any yet.

Sadly, the GLW chick, Angie, died on the 30th, the day after i brought them to the vet. I wish that there was something more that i could've done. In the end she went quickly, and for that i am very grateful. All of the other chicks are doing well.

On a much more positive note, Daisy, the sweet little Australorp chick, has had an absolutely remarkable comeback.

She went from being near death to where she now is standing up and able to walk. I mean, 3 days ago she was able to stand for a few seconds if she leaned up against the side of her box, 2 days ago she stood unassisted for maybe 20 seconds at a time with her wings on the ground for balance, yesterday she was able to stand up and eat (a major accomplishment), and today she started to walk.

She can even perch on my finger now where before she couldn't even move her left leg at all. I actually think that her leg bones might have straightened out a bit, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I have been giving her Poly Vi Sol twice a day, 2 drops on the beak, along with her chick crumbles and eggs which she loves. I wish that she would eat the yogurt, but she will have NONE of it! I'll continue to try, though. And incidentally, i had been given more information from another source (a poultry researcher at the local university) that the nutritional deficiency was not likely caused by too much medication in the feed but instead from a problem with the nutrition of the hen that the chick came from.

Regardless, she is getting better!

Threehorses, thanks so much for all of your information. I have actually saved some of your old posts in a file for quick reference, and I have learned so much from you and the other Wise Chicken People here!

I'll let you know how things are going...​

 

[Rebekah]

thank you so much for the update... it gives me hope for my little chick that goes by the same name "Daisy"