Chicks dying can't figure out why PLEASE HELP!!!

[blitz1027]

Please anyone that has any idea I need advice. I got 25 bantams from Ideal in October so they are now 2 months old. About a month ago one of my chicks would stumble and fall every time
it tried to walk and it would keep it's head down. It finally got so bad that I had to cull the chick because it got to the point where it couldn't stand at all anymore. About a week after that another chick started acting the same way and then another. I had talked with a guy who works at TSC and raises chickens and he said it could be coccidiosis. He sold me some medicine to put in they're water called tetracycline. Well here we are about month after I started medicating they're water and I had to get rid of 3 more chicks that died through the night and I have 2 others that aren't looking good.

If anyone has any idea what could be killing my chicks PLEASE HELP

 

[Southernbelle]

It could be cocci; it's present in most soils everywhere. I lost almost 75% of a group of chicks to a bad case of cocci once, but mine tended to huddle down, feather's ruffled and heads tucked. If you picked them up, they were thin and there were bloody stools. Tetracycline won't affect cocci, it's not a bacteria or virus, it's an oocyte. You need either Corid or Sulmet in their water and to keep their living area as clean and dry as possible.

The "head down" and listlessness you're describing could be cocci. I'd try treating with a proper Cocci med. Once I treated mine with Corid, the sickest ones still died (they were too far gone), but the rest got better. Now I feed medicated chick starter to help fend Cocci off before it starts.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
x2! Its an easy fix if you catch it in time-early on....

 

[blitz1027]

Yeah thats how they are acting. they've gotten lethargic with they're heads tucked in and feathers ruffled. I haven't noticed any blood in the stools but I have been having to clean poop off of they butts alot lately. It just seems to cake on there.

 

[eggdd]

well, if you're treating for cocci, and it's been a month, then i'd say obviously your issue isn't cocci.

you have a vitamin deficiency. what are you feeding them? please be specific.

it sounds exactly like a b vitamin issue. i didn't know a drunk chick was a symptom of cocci to begin with.

anyway, again, it sounds like you have vitamin issues (probably b). if you post what you are feeding them, we all can assist.

eta: also botulism has those symptoms.

 

[GreenMeadows]

I would also say vitimans and mainly E. I was loosing them left and right and thought cocci and brought 2 in the the lab for tests and it was lack of vitiman E. They were drunk or could not stand. I hit with vitimans and every now and then I have to give a vitiman E shot to a few that get it. good luck!
Quote:

 

[blitz1027]

I'm feeding them Dumor chick starter. Also they didn't all get sick at once just one or two at a time and they will get around for a couple of days then they get where they can't stand and just flop onto they're sides.

 

[eggdd]

yep, E will cause the same issue.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
nope she was treating with an antibiotic for a month not corrid or sulmet....still sounds like cocci the drunkeness is weakness in the chick-

 

[eggdd]

isn't dumor getting recalled. i think i just read that.

where are you keeping your chicks?