Chicks with droopy feathers and dying

[chickenarmy]

We lost one of our older hens today (3 years old). She was laying on the side in the coup and was unable to stand up.

We have 40+ chicks that are about two months old. We have about a dozen that have really droopy wings and some are unable to stand. One chick died. The run is quite muddy and we just laid down some hay to help counter that. Our outside temperature is about 7C. The chicks stay in the coup outside at night and are out in the run during the day. We have brought the droopy-winged chicks inside.

The chicks don't seem to want to drink although they have water available. The chicks are eating.

The chicks are kept separate from the laying hens.

The hen that died was a Barred Rock and most of the affected chicks are Barred.

The chicks came from our own eggs that we incubated.

 

[centrarchid]

Owing to circumstances described cocciodosis would be first guess without being able to look at feces. Transition to free range setting with high loading of coccidia spores potentially occured too fast for chicks to adapt. If correct, then to cut losses begin application of medicated feed or use a more aggressive treatment in water. The addition of electrolytes to water will help reduce losses during treatment period. Consult dawg53 for more details and better explainations.


Also with birds with droopy wings, effort to keep them warm as their ability to thermoregulate maybe compromised. Chicks not stressed by cold will also eat better which promotes medication intake.

 

[chickenarmy]

Thank-you. We are looking at the possible treatments for this. The only thing is that we cannot find any blood and wondering if this is a characteristic symptom?

 

[centrarchid]

Blood is not always evident. In my limited experience, blood in feces indicates severe damage to gut lining and death typically occured very shortly thereafter, often without the typical wasting away.