ADR Baby Chick, Watery Poop, Lethargic, Any Suggestions?

[jywel417]

Suppose most people don't know what ADR is. At the vet I work for we use ADR for "Ain't Doin' Right", just our general sick animal terminology

Anyway on Monday I went to one of the smaller feed stores in a much more rural part of the area to get game bird starter (the one store I have found so far that carries it) and they had just received a shipment of chicks in. They had 3 rather sick looking guinea hens, one chick who was getting trampled, one with a large eye, and then one who seemed okay but I liked the coloration of. The five sick ones they gave me and the other one I purchased. I set them up in different brooders in my room with the one really sick guinea in with the two sicker chicks (my "sick" box) and the one chick in with the two seemingly healthy but kind of lethargic guinea keets.

I posted last night about the guinea keets, I lost all 3 of them to some weird neurological thing. The trampled chick I lost yesterday during the day, she had been doing better but I think was just beyond recovery and the one with the very enlarged eye I lost last night as well. Neither of these two chickens had neurological signs like the guinea keets, none of the twitching, spasming/seizuring, etc.

Tonight the remaining chick, the one who seemed healthy but had the different coloration, is just not right. It feels thinner than I think it should and is sleeping alot, lack of balance (more like it is weak and stumbling than the total loss of control the guineas seemed to have)

I had some organic, made with human ingredients 95% chicken (yeah i know but I needed something) high grade canned dog food in my cabinet that I opened and gave the baby some of that and some yogurt since I used up all my canned cat/kitten food on the other sick ones, time to replenish my stock. I also had water and antibiotics in the water for the chicks before the other 5 died. I took the waterer out and completely rinsed/washed it, rinsed again several times and gave this chick some gatorade/water mix, left out the vitamins and also syringe fed it some sugar water to see if it helped perk it up. It is a little perkier now than it was earlier but still ADR. I hadn't seen it poop but once it ingested some more food/water it is pooping and nothing seems to be coming out besides pure clear/yellow water. I have not seen any traces of blood.

I have kept these chicks totally separate from all my other chicks, keets, and teenagers. Separate room, I wash up VERY VERY well before messing with anyone else, in fact I am trying to just mess with the older ones after I take showers unless I absolutely have to do something just in case there is some cross contamination factor going on here. I have cleaned one of the boxes I used yesterday for my sick box very well and currently am actually running it thru the dishwasher so that I can get this chick a totally new set up since it did share bedding with 2 of the guinea keets. I am not totally convinced that what the chickens and guineas have/had is the same thing since they seem to have different symptoms but does anyone have any suggestions for the last remaining chick? I am hoping that maybe this chick needed a little TLC and in my drama with loosing the other 5 in about 18 hrs I just neglected this one a bit assuming it didn't need a bit of extra TLC. Anyways, any suggestions or ideas on what might be going on would be great. I will add a couple pictures of this remaining chick to see if there is something about its appearance that means something to the more experienced chicken raisers. Thanks again, this board really is a life saver! I may have 8 years as a vet tech under my wing but man, small domestic animals are TOTALLY different from poultry!


Its chest is a little matted looking from the syringe feeding, I just don't want to clean it and get it wet/chilled atm

 

[NotTheMomma]

First, get back to feeding it chick food, and nothing else. It can't digest other things yet.

Second, clean, fresh water, with nothing in it. If it's lethargic, give DROPS of sugar water, by letting the drop hit the side of it's beak, and it will swallow. As long as it's able to eat and drink on it's own, you're best letting it do so. You don't want to syringe feed unless you absolutely have no other choice.

Dip it's beak in the water so it knows how to drink, and sprinkle a bit of the chick starter on it's floor if you need to. Just a few sprinkles, about a teaspoon worth will be enough to get it started, and it will go to the bowl and eat as soon as it knows what food is.

Keep it with a heat lamp, and in a large enough area thta it can move away from the heat if it gets too hot, but not large enough that you can't keep it's area warm. For one chick, you could use a 75 or 100 watt lightbulb instead of a heat lamp.

You want to make sure it's not TOO hot! If it's breathing fast, wings out, trying to get the farthest away from the light, etc., then it's way too hot, and can die. Watch the behavior and you'll know. If in doubt, post here and ask! Take a pic if you need to!

HUGS for trying to save the others. Heartbreaking experience but ones which you'll learn by.

 

[NotTheMomma]

Oh, and keep an eye out for pasty butt!

You can watch it's crop to see if it's eating enough on it's own. Give it an hour or so. Please be careful with the syringe feeding. You can kill one easily by getting the fluids or food into the lungs.

Yes the vets use canned cat food on the wild birds. I've raised a few myself that way, but dont' use it on the chick.

 

[cobrien]

wish I had some great words of wisdom, but this sounds urgent so I'll throw some thoughts out.

is baby eating on her own? is starter food available and she's just not eating, and that's why you're trying dog food? how is the crop?

if not eating and you think she may die, I would also try the syringe feeding but there is a danger of them aspirating which freaks me out. if you know a bird expert who could teach you to tube feed it is much better but this is not something to learn by written instruciton.

I would add a little sugar + electrolyte / vitamins to the water. available at feed stores.

has baby been vaccinated for mareks? could this be mareks? don't know the answer.

good luck nursing this baby, and sorry for the loss of the others. it was very kind of you to try to save them. i am a kindred spirit, taking home sick babies from the feedstore!! good luck!

 

[jywel417]

Tube feeding isn't anything I thought about before, I do know how to do that tho, have done it with many a stubborn puppy who didn't want to eat . . .

The chick just died on me. It did not get neurological like the guineas did but def did was not 100% stable. I was offering the yogurt and dog food in place of cat food mainly b/c it wasn't wanting to eat the chick starter, I did finally get it to eat some soaked starter after getting it to eat some of the yogurt. Upon examination of the baby after it died it has a rather distended abdomen. . .

Just weird. I took them in and didn't expect a couple of them to make it but to loose all of them just makes me wonder if they had some kind of virus. I have been super careful about washing up and such before handling anyone else but paranoia is still there. We read up on Mareks today at work and we didn't think the guineas really matched the symptoms that were listed in their avian book but then again still wondered. It had a 2x3 pen and was able to move under the heat lamp/away from it.

Taking in this batch of 6 sick chickens makes my survival rate drop drastically tho. The only one I had lost previously to this outbreak was another chick I was given that had its beak pecked, chick was 1 day old, and we think it was cracked up under the skin. All the other 28odd chickens (knock on wood) all raised up well with no problems and no fatalities . . . . .The doctor I work for gave me her log in info for the veterinary web resource info so I am going to log in there and see if there are any replies to the thread we started earlier asking about the guineas. Earlier there weren't any replies. I sure hope it doesn't transmit to my others. . . I really have tried to keep it from spreading.