Congested cornish X's? WATER BELLY!!!!!!!

[MissDeb]

Hi everyone!

I have about 11 Cornish X that are about 6 weeks old. Today when I came home I had one of them that was laying with its head down, he was blue in color and gasping for air. He was also cold to the touch, we decided we would butcher him, when we did, nothing but a clear liquid came out of him when he was cut open. Does it help to mention there was no fat on this bird?

Now, I have a few of the others who sound "congested". Their color is good from what I can tell. Since we live in Alaska I thought I would go ahead and give them a heat lamp in case they are getting too cold at night. I'm not sure what else to do. Any other suggestions or ideas? I thought chickens couldn't get colds, and if he had a heart attack wouldn't he die quickly? Can I give them anything? Does this sound like anything anyone has dealt with?

Thank you!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Chickens don't get colds but they do get diseases that appear to
be colds. Those symptoms sound strange to me. What is the
night time temps there? 6 week old cornish need 70 degrees or
higher.

What are you feeding them? Could they have gotten into bad feed
or something toxic?

 

[MissDeb]

They still need 70 degrees?? Hummm that might be where I have messed up. For the last 4 days they have been out at 40-50 its been raining on and off as well but they have a dry coop to sleep in. I figured since they were fully feathered they would be fine. It was a slow transition though, It wasn't like I just dumped them with no heat. I added heat again tonight, I hope I'm not too late.

They have good clean feed and I take it away at night.

 

[PurpleChicken]

If they had no fat then I'd leave the feed in all the time. With a
light they will want to eat often.

Cornish are little meat factories and need their energy to grow,
not keep warm. Plus they don't feather out well like normal chickens
do.

Keep us posted. Hope it works out for you.

 

[MissDeb]

So you think they may be using up their energy trying to keep warm so no fat? And could be getting ill because of this?

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
I'm hoping and guessing that is the case.
I think the no fat has a lot to do with taking away the feed at night.
The blue combs and sneezing could be side effects of being chilled.

At 6 weeks medicating them is out of the question so heat them up and
fatten them up by feeding them a lot. The light being on will cause them
to eat more too. You can also start giving them some scratch at night.
This will increase their temps and energy levels. It may help with the fat
content too.

 

[MissDeb]

Ok thank you. I just noticed my younger cornish cross are making the same sound. They are in with slower growing meat birds, barred rocks and NH's but they aren't making strange noises. These guys are all still in a heated insulated coop separated from the older ones.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Cornish are more susceptible to disease than standards.

These two pages have a lot of good info:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pwhjQ6Yng877iz_JNiCN1IQ

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=9241

 

[MissDeb]

I am pretty sure we have got to the bottom of our problem. The only thing I don't see is how to treat it. Since I put heat out there they seem to be a lot more active.

"Water belly"

http://www.apppa.org/APPPA/articles/mortality.htm

 

[PurpleChicken]

That info was very interesting. Good Find!!!

I learned something on this thread.