Autopsy of a little chick. Autopsy pictures caution. Please help!

[aart]

I wonder do they have a heat lamp or something to help keep them warm?

 

[Ramouila]

I use desert sand, and never had any problems with it.

That's the same temperature for all groups, about 88 F degrees. Look how the elders pull together "the sick ones". I have to keep them very hot otherwise they strangle each other. No matter what I do, they stay weak and do not gain weight.

 

[Kiki]

From home, My own chicken herd. They are healthy sometimes have colds.

Is there a way you can have your birds tested to find out what respiratory disease they carry?

 

[Kiki]

I use desert sand, and never had any problems with it.

That's the same temperature for all groups, about 88 F degrees. Look how the elders pull together "the sick ones". I have to keep them very hot otherwise they strangle each other. No matter what I do, they stay weak and do not gain weight.

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Have you ever had to treat for Coccidiosis in the past?

Is this pasty butt?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

The necropsied chic was severely emaciated. If the other chicks are also so underweight, then the emaciation alone will cause the chicks to be unable to maintain their body heat. Therefore, I think that whatever is causing the emaciation is the primary problem. The huddling behavior is just a symptom of the poor body condition. If you could submit a few dead chicks to your diagnostic lab, sending on cold packs by mail of necessary, that would greatly help in finding the cause of the condition. If they are eating but not absorbing the nutrients from their feed, then GI conditions, like coccidiosis, will be high on your list of differentials. Expert diagnostic testing would greatly help you in figuring this out... Best of luck with your chicks!

 

[casportpony]

I would wonder about coccidiosis or enteritis.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Is this pasty butt?

Good eye!

@Ramouila, so sorry you're going through this.
If these were my chicks I would:

1. .Get them off of the sand and on towels and change the towels out at least once a day. I say this because it's possible they are ingesting too much sand, which you can confirm by slicing open the gizzard.
2. Inspect each one and remove poop from butts.
3. Use heat lamps in the brooder.
   
   
   
4. Start coccidiosis treatment with amprolium, a sulfa drug, or toltrazuril.

@Akrnaf2 is in Isreal, maybe he can offer some advice.

 

[aart]

I use desert sand, and never had any problems with it.

Gathered hot each day? Not sure that's enough.

 

[Cyprus]

OP is in Isreal. Perhaps we should be considering what diseases are prominent over there.

I'm not sure how common Cocci is there. And this doesn't seem all too typical of Coccidiosis given the lack of bloody stools.

We don't know how often the whole brooder box is sanitized or if they are sanitizing the sand they use. I have heard of cases of animals picking up disease from organisms that had been lying dormant in the sand.

Mycoplasmas, for example.

 

[Kiki]

Cy, you should know that cocci is not the same as Coccidiosis and that only one strain of Coccidiosis causes bloody stool.

Coccidia are all over the world.

 

[2 many chickens]

Gathered hot each day? Not sure that's enough.

Yeah, those chicks look like they're cold. Sand isn't going to cut it. A cold dirty box isn't the best option for a brooder. Not trying to be rude or anything. They need a better source of heat and housing.