About to give up!

[SunAngel]

Is it just me or has anyone else had a really rough time with their chicks this Spring?

I started getting chicks from TSC, 8-10 each time I made a trip in there and then I got my order from Ideal (34) and also hatched out 20 or so myself. By the time TSC was out of chicks, I had around 100 here. Which was fine, I wanted enough to make sure I was left with some of the colors/breeds I wanted after all the roos were thinned out.

Somewhere along the line I must have gotten a bad set of chicks from TSC or something. I have had nothing but troubles. I had them mostly separated, bantams in one brooder, standards in another. Several chicks in each one started showing signs of being sick. Being lethargic, sleeping more than the others, breast bone sticking out, til they just wasted away. I have lost probably 10-15...all 4 of my Polish and some bantams, plus a couple I hatched. I added Corid to their water as soon as I noticed the symptoms, but it didn't seem to help, maybe they were too far gone. I never did see any blood in their poo though. I added dry milk to their feed hoping to help their little digestive systems. I still have a few that are not as perky as the others, but are hanging in there. Some totally seemed unaffected and are growing like crazy.

Now I am noticing a couple of the bantams having a rattle when they breathe. I have put some Duramycin in their water and am crossing my fingers. One of them is my last remaining Barred Cochin. I even have one White Leghorn that was fine one day and the next day couldn't open its eye...treating that with Terramycin ointment.

If I didn't have so much money and time invested in these little guys and waited so long for the Ideal shipment, I would cull them all and start over. Although I doubt I could even get chicks now.

Everytime I start to relax and think they are all going to make it, one of them seems to start fading away. I never had any problems with any of my chicks from McMurray last Spring. Never dealt with health issues, except needing Sulmet for some juvies added later.

I just don't know why these chicks are having so many problems. I clean their brooders constantly, they have the right temps, big brooders, clean water and food, etc. I am afraid to pick favorites or get attached to any of them, cause I keep expecting to find them dead. I guess I am getting out of the danger zone with some of them, they are over a month old now and getting much bigger. I am just frustrated and overwhelmed with all the problems, I wasn't expecting any of this. The only upside is the ones that might have had Cocci and survived will hopefully be immune to it when they get to go outside.

Sorry this is long and its probably not as bad as it sounds, 15 out of 100 isn't bad I guess, its just most of the ones I lost were early favorites. I was sure I was losing both of my Faverolles also and they are hanging in there now, one even had some weird bubble on the outside of its leg and couldn't walk, now its strangely healed on its own.

Thank goodness this kind of stuff didn't happen with my first chicks or I probably would have given up chicken raising before I got started.

 

[MandyH]

Could it be that the ones that are dying are the smaller ones and they aren't getting enought to eat? How old are they? Are they ingesting the bedding?

 

[SunAngel]

A lot of the ones I lost started out really vigorous and feisty, as most of them were bantams. You probably know how they are, even the tiny ones don't take anything from another chick lol.

They would keep eating, sometimes it even seemed like more than normal, but then I noticed their wings hanging lower and they seemed really light. I would make them drink because of the meds in the water and watch to make sure they ate, but they would fade away anyways. I am pretty sure they weren't eating the shavings.

The last 2 I lost...one was probably a 3-4 week old bantam and the other was from the last batch I got at TSC 2 weeks ago, but was a tiny bantam.

The only thing I can think of is somehow one or a couple chicks I brought home must have had Cocci and only some of the chicks ate their poo or however its transmitted. Because some have been totally unaffected.

Its just the one weird thing after another thats so frustrating. Mostly they all seemed to be doing ok the last week or so, except for those 2, but now the rattling/clicking sound when a few of them breathe, where the heck did that come from????

ETA: My order from Ideal was also 36 chicks, came home with 34 and continued to lose chicks til I was down to 27, due to an apparent rough 2 day shipment and cold weather...luckily I haven't lost any of them to the Cocci. One of them does have that rattle now though.

 

[bargain]

I'm sorry for your problems. Have you isolated the sickest of the chicks.

Yes, it sounds as if you have ill chicks that you have gotten and that something is spreading rapidly.

Do you have a state funded bird locale that will do a necropscy.

I'm thinking you have Mareks with this light weight issue. Were you baby chicks on Medicated Feed? If not, I would definitely put them on it.

Well, I'm praying for your chicks and you and hope that they are soon healed.

 

[SunAngel]

Thank you bargain

The ones from Ideal I had vaccinated for Mareks, but I doubt the ones from TSC were. Which makes it suspicious that I haven't lost any of the Ideal ones to whatever this is. I haven't noticed the other signs of Mareks though, like the leg thing, but two of the chicks seemed ok one day, a little sleepy and then seemed to have neurological issues. Flopping around, couldn't stand, shaking, then just dying. They are the only two I saw that in and they were ones I hatched, that I added the TSC chicks in with. They don't get better when they have Mareks though do they?

I disposed of the ones that died already, but I don't know where I would get a necropsy done on such a little chick.

Today was the first time I saw medicated feed in my TSC. I almost bought some, but changed my mind at the last minute. I might go back tomorrow and get some.

If I get medicated feed, do I need to stop all the meds they have been getting, Corid and Duramycin?

Just wanted to add, I haven't had them all on Corid for 3 or 4 weeks, one week it was one brooder, then the other, then I stopped it and they have only had plain water with a little ACV added one day. Until today when I put the Durmycin in with the sick 2.

 

[NotTheMomma]

What kind of bedding do you have them on?

What size brooder are you using?

If you put your nose close to the bedding, are you smelling ammonia?

How often are you changing the bedding?

What are you feeding them?

ANything added to the water?

They shouldn't have cocci at that age unless you have older chicks that they have been around, or you've had them on the ground.

I'm wondering about what they are breathing since you mentioned the current ones with wheezing/rattling.

Are they getting too hot?

We've gotten 32 from TSC and a local feed store, who I believe all got their chicks from Mt. Healthy, and the only one I lost was due to my dog killing one.

 

[EricShane]

Im so aggervated, im so depressed.. I feel like im about to give up on everything, and just go to bed.. hang black sheets over the windows and never come out..

 

[NotTheMomma]

Also, are they outside yet, or still in the house? How must dust are they creating that they could be breathing in?

Maybe ask a moderator to move this thread to the emergency, sick chicken forum and see if you don't get more answers.

Best of luck to the remaining ones, and prayers to you.

HUGS!

 

[NotTheMomma]

Quote:
HUGE HUGGLES!

What's going on?

 

[SunAngel]

Pine shavings

Big wire cages inside, they were just recently moved to huge 4ft wide brooders out in my big coop. But all their problems started inside.

Nope no ammonia smell or any weird smells cept chick poo lol.

Bedding has been changed daily in the brooder with the 4 chicks that aren't doing as well, the rest get changed every 4 days or so.

They are eating Dumor 20% chick starter from TSC.

Only added Corrid to the water for a week. Then some electrolytes and ACV one day each, a few days apart. Duramycin is in the water with the rattling sounding ones now.

I didn't think they should have Cocci either, but the symptoms they had seemed to match it. And who knows where the chicks from TSC had been.

They aren't breathing anything but normal air as far as I know.

It has been in the 80s during the day and the coop does get warm, but I have been turning off their brooder lamps when it gets too warm and I notice them on the opposite side of the brooder. I haven't noticed any panting, except in the two with the rattle sound.

I guess whats driving me nuts is that not all the chicks are sick. A couple seem sick, they die slowly, despite my best efforts...then all seem ok for days. Then another one or two get sick. I have never had these sort of problems and I can not think of a single thing that we have done differently than all the other chicks I have raised over the last year, except for buying some from TSC.