At least one sick chick**HELP** I'm a brand new chick mom**

[JenMT]

Okay, From the information that I've gathered on this site, I think that I'm doing everything that I can up to this point. My girls are 25 days old and I think that I have at least one that is sick. I have seen her sneeze twice now in the last 3 days, I've noticed a little "mouth breathing" but no panting, raspy noises, or other breathing difficulties. I think that her chirp may be hoarse though. She is eating and drinking good but this morning I see a tiny bit of crust in her left eye and nostril. I'm housing them inside my house in the laundry room. When I picked her up to move her to another room ( I didn't isolate her till today) she seemed to be "warmer on her underside than the others that I've held. Nobody else seems ill, but I do see a couple of them doing the "mouth breathing" thing before they fall asleep. Today is the first day that I have isolated the main sick girl, because she has been acting totally normal and active....now that I see the crusties I feel so stupid. Did I infect everyone? What does she have? (Oh I forgot to say that everyone has normal poo.) On instruction from folks here yesterday, I removed all the heat except for the 60 watt bulb (some people thought that they were just too hot with the red heat lamp), I gave everyone a bit of yogurt, added some apple cider vinegar to all the water, continued the electrolyte/vitamin mix and watched everything closely. I feed them non-med feed because they were immunized for Cocci and Mareks at the hatchery. (Does that mean that they won't get Coccidoisis now?) IS NOW THE TIME TO START THE TERAMYACIN AND 4 IN ONE NASAL SPRAYS? SHOULD I SEPARATE EVERYONE THAT I SEE ANY SYMPTOMS IN OR DO I JUST TREAT EVERBODY AT THIS POINT? I need some advice!

 

[raindrop]

I agree, it sounds like you are doing everything right.

Last spring I raised a bunch of chicks, one of the Salmon Favorelles had a crusty eye from about 1-5 weeks of age. She never acted sick, no one else was affected so I just ended up putting her back with the rest after a week of separation. She is fine today. Good luck.

Edited to add: You could give her some terramycin I suppose, I wouldn't worry about nasal spray unless she is having real trouble. Make sure she has humidity. I wouldn't medicate the others unless they develop clinical signs. This may not even be bacterial, could be viral (quite likely) so supportive care is your best medicine. Antibiotics won't work without supportive care and a terramycin won't work without a somewhat functioning immune system.

 

[JenMT]

Thank you for the reply. Have you ever heard of anyone putting hand warmers in with a sick girl. You know those things that you put inside your gloves when you go skiing that keep producing heat for 8 hours or so. Maybe I could give her one of those since I don't have an extra heat lamp.
Jen

 

[LynneP]

Another option is to offer her one of those rubber hot water bottles, you'd have to refill it but you'd be able to tell if she prefers it pretty quickly...

I think the hand warmer would be fine so long as it's sealed up in something.

 

[silkiechicken]

If it's just one or two, and they are still babies, just let them be. Not all chicks develop right on the inside so some fail to thrive. If you have the space, put the "sick" ones in a brooder so they don't get run over.

If they have not been exposed to the soil, they can't get cocci. The vaccine only helps build immunities.

As for treating with antibacterial drugs, if you don't know if it is bacteria, it is 99% of the time worse than it is good. They kill both good and bad bacteria indiscriminately. Could be viral, or at such a young age, just failure to thrive. Treating as a precaution just makes antibiotics useless for both them and you when it is really needed due to injury.

Mouth breathing is just fine. They do that when they are hot too and too lazy to move to a cooler spot. 60W inside is just fine. Two sneezes in a few days is not an issue. Two sneezes every few minutes every hour is more like a problem.

If they are eating, drinking, running around, I bet they'll be fine.

Just expose them to a dirt dust bath from their run earlier rather than later so they can have something to build an immunity to.

 

[JenMT]

I put her back in with everyone else this evening. I haven't heard her sneeze all day. The crusty eye and nose aren't doing anything now either, maybe I was seeing things. It's hard to not be paranoid when you read some of our posts. She was getting lonely being by herself, even though she got really attatched to me.

 

[silkiechicken]

Sounds good!

Perhaps the crusty eye and nose was really just water and food stuck to their little piggy faces? I've seen a few of birds eat so much after a drink they walk around with feed clumps at the outside corners of their mouths. Like mutton chops! They were meat birds though...

Try not to worry too much. They are tougher than you think. The idea was reinforced when I saw a broody happily tote out her day old chick into the rain in misty high 30's low 40's, peck though the mud, run through wet grass and it grew up just fine! Granted, that's not something I'd recommend anyone to do to their chicks, since we can't literally sit on them as soon as it's cold 24/7. LOL

 

[JenMT]

I have decided that the crusty stuff was dried yogurt....go figure! I gave them some more last night and they all had the stuff stuck and dried on their bodies and faces this morning. Oh well, live and learn, right?

 

[LynneP]

You gave me a chuckle, Jen, thank you for sharing the yogurt scenario!

Glad they're fine.