Chicks get tired and then they have died within 24hours

[Tj92]

Hi
Looking for advice , we breed chicks and have had a lot of success. We recently bought some 5 austrolorp chicks n 3 leghorn chicks , we kept them isolated from our chicks , but we lost 5 of the chicks we had just bought within a few days.
We kept them quarantined for 2 weeks and they seemed healthy so we put them in with our chicks n now we have lost 3 of ours over about 1 week.
The chicks get tired and drowsy then within 24hrs they are gone . My partners grandfather used to be a chicken farmer n has had a look at the dead chicks and inside they are very healthy.
Does anyone have any ideas what it could be ? ?

 

[dawg53]

Probably cocci. Give ALL your chicks Corid 9.6% liquid solution. Dosage is 9.5cc's per gallon of water for 5-7 days. Make a fresh mixture each day. Dont add anything to the mixture. It can be found in the cattle section at a feed store. No withdrawal.

 

[casportpony]

If you can't find the Corid liquid, get the powder. Powder dose is 1.5 teaspoons per gallon for five to seven days, then 1/3 teaspoon per gallon for another 7 days.

-Kathy

 

[Ridgerunner]

How old are they, the ones that are dying? The way I understand it, it’s your chicks dying, not the newcomers you bought.

Some flocks develop flock immunities. They may be carriers but never come down with symptoms no matter how long you quarantine them. A quarantine is mostly checking for diseases the new chickens may have been exposed to in the recent past, not stuff they are immune to. It’s possible your old chickens could infect the new ones if they have a flock immunity, but that does not sound like the case for you. What you did is the traditional quarantine you always read about, but to me a true quarantine would involve picking a potentially sacrificial member of your existing flock and keeping it with the newcomers to see if either get sick.

Coccidiosis is a great example of this. Chicks normally develop immunity to cocci within three weeks of being exposed. As long as the number of cocci bugs in their guts does not get out of control, you don’t even know they are present. Because of the life cycle of that bug, as long as the conditions are fairly dry and you change water often, they normally do not exhibit any signs. But with certain strains they still can even if conditions are dry.

I agree with the others. It sounds like it could easily be cocci brought in by your new chickens, especially if your conditions are a little wet. I’d start treating them immediately.

Some people believe that a chick has to poop blood for it to have cocci. That’s not true at all. There are different strains of the cocci bug that set up in different parts of their digestive tract. Certain strains set up where they can cause them to poop blood, so if you are seeing bloody pops that is a strong sign it is cocci. But other strains can still be dangerous and not cause them to poop blood.

 

[seminolewind]

I would treat for cocci.