6 day old chick barely stands

[gymangel812]

i lifted up the heating plate this evening and one of the chicks didn't get up. i picked her up and she didn't try to jump from my hand, just laid there. she is breathing heavily (but not open mouth panting). when i picked her up and put her by the food she did eat but laying down. she will take a few steps but mostly just lays there, slightly to one side. i don't see anything wrong with her leg. she has been limping a bit on and off since i got her but yesterday (and maybe this morning) she was moving around fine. i tried giving her nutri drench poultry but she wouldn't eat it right from the dropper. i also tried some scrambled egg yolk. i've seperated her with a buddy in a seperate tub with nutri drench in the grain and water. she did poop once and it looked normal. she's in a plastic tub with shavings.

what can i do for her?

 

[clickchicks]

How is your chick doing today?

I was having a similar issue with one of mine. I ended up treating with corid for coccidiosis. The chick that was showing lameness/weakness never had bloody poop, but I found some from the other chick’s in the brooder. It seems to have worked and the chick is doing better.

Good luck. I hope your chick is doing ok.

 

[Mellowmalt]

did you actually manage to get any scrambled egg down it?
Food + water + vitamins + extra warmth.
Weak chicks benefit from more heat so in the first week I would keep it at 90-95F. I don't think there is much more you can do but be patient. It will either gain strength or it will go downhill instead.
I am slightly worried that it seemingly happened overnight but as long as it is just this one then it's most likely failing to thrive and just needs vitamins and time to recover.

 

[gymangel812]

unfortunately she died. i got her to eat a bit of feed with a teeny bit if vitamin mixed in this morning but she wouldn't drink at all. couldn't get her to eat the egg either. already attached at 6 days so it's hard

 

[TheAlarmCluck]

The same happened to mine, and she died too. Coincidentally mine was the same breed as yours. It could have been a disease like Coccidiosis.

 

[clickchicks]

unfortunately she died. i got her to eat a bit of feed with a teeny bit if vitamin mixed in this morning but she wouldn't drink at all. couldn't get her to eat the egg either. already attached at 6 days so it's hard

I'm so sorry. It is really hard. I'm sure you'll be keeping a close eye on the others and if you notice anyone else acting strange, might not be a bad idea to have some corid on hand to dose the rest of them just in case.

 

[gymangel812]

I'm so sorry. It is really hard. I'm sure you'll be keeping a close eye on the others and if you notice anyone else acting strange, might not be a bad idea to have some corid on hand to dose the rest of them just in case.

the chicks were vaccinated before shipping, do i still need to worry about Coccidiosis? if so, i'm only seeing this version of corid at tsc (~45 mins drive to get one in stock):
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/corid-20-amprolium-soluble-powder-10-oz?cm_vc=-10011
rural king appears to have the liquid but the nearest store that has it is a 90 min drive.

i'm going to keep dosing the water with nutri drench for at least the next week. one of the chicks is a bit small but seems to move around just fine. i could try offering her some scrambled egg but i'm guessing she won't eat it.

edit: i just realized they were vaccinated for marek's so i should be feeding medicated feed right? i was feeding organic purina starter.

 

[Mellowmalt]

sorry to hear it didn't make it.
My philosophy is that if they are hatched from egg they won't need it but from a store I would use medicated feed and yes it is completely different to maereks so I would get some medicated feed just to be on the safe side

 

[gymangel812]

another chick (same breed) has the exact problem. i treated the water with corid starting friday. she was doing ok thurs, started going downhill friday. i started giving her yolk thursday and making sure she was eating every few hours. yesterday she could stand and move and today she's laying on her side. i gave her a drop of corid last night. she pecked at a bit of feed today. i also tried giving her electrolytes, nutri drench, and probiotics this morning (i know you're supposed to stop when using corid but the corid isn't helping at all and i feel like i need to try something). sometimes she opens her mouth (like she's trying to peep). she pooped and it looked normal.

 

[clickchicks]

I wish I could offer more advice, but I'm really a novice myself. I can only share what I did and what happened with my sick chick with similar symptoms.

I did a full 7 day treatment with corid in the water, and the first 3 days I also did an oral drench to the sickest chick. I stopped everything else, no vitamins/etc. I mixed some of the corid water in with the food, the chick seemed to prefer eating the food soft like that.

After about 4 days the chick seemed to be normalizing. The chick is still alive and seems to be doing ok, its growing but is still smaller/weaker than the others.

Since all this happened I've been reading more about coccidiosis. Other people on this forum have said that chicks this young can't really show symptoms for it because it takes weeks to start developing to the point of symptoms... on the other hand, lots and lots of threads here advise people with very young chicks to start corid and often times it does seem to help.

I wish I knew more. At this stage, if it were me, I would just pick one thing and stick to it. Sometimes changing too much all at once can make things worse. Or if things do improve, there's no way to know what thing actually was helping (in case you have to treat the other chicks down the line).

Good luck. Your little chick has held on this long, hopefully that's a good sign.