Baby chick- discharge and sleeps forever

[chickensandhappiness]

Yesterday 5 new chicks came to my little chicken farm in Connecticut. 1 little chick arrived lethargic. We thought it was just a weak chick, and after an hour, it passed away. Today another one of our chicks is doing the same thing. Wherever we place her, she plops down and sleeps. She won’t open her eyes much and she has a wierd discharge coming from her vent. What should I do?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I'm sorry you are having losses. How old are the chicks? Obviously, have you checked your temps and ventilation? Be sure food and water are not under the heat lamp if you are artificially heating.

if I assume just a couple of days old, then the most common cause of transition stress is nutritional deficiency from hatch. If they were moved too many times with inappropriate heat or for too long a travel, you can see stress losses. (Long distance travel is hard on chicks).

Providing Chick Saver type vitamins and minerals in the water can help perk up nutritionally or travel stressed chicks. If that is the cause, generally they perk within a few hours, definitely within a day or two. Even eye droppering sugar water with a pinch of salt will help get necessary energy and electrolytes into their systems.

Because you have a chick with discharge (and any watery vent discharge is abnormal...chick poo contains the urates in solid form...chicks don't "pee"), look closely at the stomach area and vent. If the abdomen feels squishy and the vent looks swollen, protruding, or red, then it is highly likely the chick is suffering from omphalitis which is basically infected naval/vent. Latent bacterial infection is the number one cause of loss in early chicks. Most hatcheries work very hard to avoid bacterial build up in their incubators, but it does still happen in the right circumstances.

During hatch the remaining yolk sac literally draws into the body cavity and seals at the naval. Sometimes the seal is not complete when the chick pips which allows bacteria to enter. The naval can then enclose bacteria into the rich abdominal cavity that is filled with the egg yolk remains...the chick's nutrition for the first few days of life.

Results are squishy abdomen, lethargic chick, or failure to thrive.

In these situations, it is essential to supply antibiotics quickly to the chick if you wish to save it. It is harder to get antibiotics now from feed stores, so many use fish mox (amoxicillin)....not ideal, but it does work. The sulpha drugs (formerly Sulmet) were especially effective for this kind of situation, but you can't get those over the counter any more.

Post on the disease section if you suspicion illness vs. travel or nutritional stress.

Hopefully some TLC, checking your environment, and vitamins/electrolytes will set the rest right.

Sometimes their systems are simply not strong enough for travel stress.

LofMc