Chicks dying, got one sick one now. What the heck is this illness?

[threehorses]

Mekasmom wrote: "Septimycin (sp) in the water works. Injected tylan works, but it doesn't absorb well in the gut, so it has to be injected."


LS50 is a very good source of septimycin as it also contains Lincomycin, which is great stuff. I also love Tylan, but I do always do injectible although I have seen the powdered. I didn't know it didn't do well in the gut, but I guess I do now. Thank you for that bit of information! Good to know.

 

[Sappy]

Hi folks,
For clarity let me remind everybody I've posted to this thread as myself "Sappy" and under my wife's login as well "Shura".

Some ppl asked for an update:

Well, sadly, the little guy who was ailing when I started this thread died, not sure if I mentioned that before, but I think I did.

I have been changing the litter every 48 hours, I constructed a pen to let them run outside in the afternoons in spots where there is sun and shade... it's moveable. I took away all antibiotics, stopped giving yogurt (though I'm convinced I could still give it, just haven't been), and have been giving them plain clean water 2 or 3 times a day, and their Nutrena chick starter crumbles. It's been getting cool at night time so I have been running the 250W brooder light and checking that they are comfortable a few times a night, and during the day when it warms up around 10am or so I turn it off.

Yesterday, while they were outside late in the afternoon around 5pm, it was starting to get cooler than they like... I noticed about 1/3 to 1/2 of them bunching together, the rest were running around singly or in pairs and were fine. I noticed one of my little buff orpingtons starting that gasping thing that happens just a few hours before they drop dead. She is 4.5 weeks old, and til this has been a vigorous, healthy, active chick.

I immediately separated her, took her inside, and prepared a small box for her with paper towels in the bottom. I could hear her wheezing and gasping when I put her up to my ear, you could definitely hear it. I got her to drink a bit of gatorade on the advice of a friend, and put her in the box, covered her with some paper towels to keep her warm, and tucked the box in a quiet out of the way place. My friend said to do this to reduce stress, so that all her energy could go into healing and fighting it off. I was skeptical, since all the others have died.

It worked! This morning she was eating a bit, and still gasping just a little bit, but eating half-heartedly. I fed her a little more gatorade, put her back in the box to keep her warm, and went about my chores and stuff. About 2 or 3 hours later I heard a real fuss coming from that box, she had enough energy to be throwing a chick-fit. I got her out, gave her a little more gatorade and some food... and by this time she was ALL about eating... seemed ravenous. She's all better! I've been keeping her close to me, keeping her warm, and playing mamma hen. She lets me know when she wants me to cover her up and warm her a bit. Right now she's walking around about 2 feet away, seems to be happy and healthy as can be.

I'm going to keep her under watch for a few days and baby her... along with my other chick who has some leg issues... but I just thought the folks wanting an update would be interested in this. None of the other chicks have shown any symptoms at this time, but if any do I'll just keep giving them some gatorade every couple hours and keeping them alone in a little box, with a paper towel nest to keep warm in.

 

[threehorses]

That's brilliant news! Sometimes just the basics and basics we tend to forget (sunlight) help. You've taught us all something. Thank you for that.

Hope to hear a few more good updates!!

 

[Sappy]

Another update, for reference in case somebody finds this someday who is having a similar problem. Got bad news, good news, and a professional diagnosis this time:

My buff orpington chick who had this problem... and got better... started gasping again last night. I gave her the same treatment that worked last time - gatorade, and a quiet dark place alone. She seemed somewhat better by morning but was still gasping a little.

I've grown very attached to this one now, and to another one that has a gimpy leg, and they both think I'm mamma. I bought these chicks and 48 others from a hatchery in Missouri, and fully 1/3 have died of this problem.... gasping, wheezing all of a sudden, then within hours getting sleepy-like symptoms, growing weak, and dying. I didn't have a mass die-off, over the first 3 weeks it was worst, and I was losing 1 chick a day, sometimes 2, sometimes none. I lost 16 chicks to this problem. On the other hand, I have 12 new babies I got from a farmer in Missouri 1.5 weeks ago, and they are fit as a fiddle and never had a problem, not one of them has had a problem. I manage them the same way, feed and house them the same way, but they've been kept separate, so it's not what i'm feeding my birds or anything I'm doing that's causing the problem.

Since she was still gasping a little this morning, I got fed up... the wife is very attached to this one too, and we decided to go to the Animal Medical Center in Pittsfield, IL and see Dr. Wilke there. He was VERY nice, if any of you are in the area go see him when you have chicken problems, definitely. His diagnosis is....

A bacterial pneumonia problem. It is *not* brooder pneumonia like I thought, according to him, since it is bacterial and not caused by a mold or fungus.

He said it's possible the illness came from the hatchery, but may have come from something else too, one of the chicks may have been a carrier, etc. I also told him that I'd given them Terramycin for a while and it didn't get rid of the problem, and he said sometimes it wouldn't (for reference for someone in the future who might look up this problem). He gave me a tube of some pink antibiotic stuff, I didn't catch the name of it but he may have said it's a sulfa drug, not sure. I give the chicks 1cc of it per gallon of water for the next 5 days and he thinks the problem will disappear. "Lillly" the chick,should make a full recovery. He also gave her an oral while we were there.

In addition to this, he also checked out my chick with the gimpy leg. He said he didn't think it had been broken, and thought it might be a pinched nerve, and gave her a shot.

Cost for two inspections, one oral medication, a shot, and a tube of antibiotic for my other chicks? $20 bucks. I coulda kissed the guy, almost told my wife to!

So if anybody has problems losing a chick or two a day... but not having the others get sick... symptoms are gasping/wheezing to start with, and later very labored breathing, getting weak and sleepy, and dying... your problem may be bacterial pneumonia, and terramycin didn't cut it for treating my birds.

Hope this helps somebody someday to avoid the losses I had from this problem! If I'd known the Vet wasn't going to cost a hundred bucks I would have went out there much sooner, but I'm still used to Los Angeles prices I guess.

 

[threehorses]

Well I'm sorry to hear that your little one regressed. But I'm very glad to hear that your doc did a good job for you and your wife!

Can you do me a favor, please, and try to find out the name of the medicine? It should be on the bottle.

Now you see why I'm just not a big fan of terramycin. It's a shame as it used to be a really useful drug. But I think too many Feed Store Guys just said "bird's sick - give this" and people give it for 2 days and then stop. Then they reformulated it because there was a mess about what it could do to people who ate the chickens, etc. etc.

Please do also let us know how it goes with these babies as a follow up. And thank you for posting their flock history, etc, here so we can all learn!