Crippled/ sick 5 day old chick??

[Wyorp Rock]

How is your chick doing?
How old is she?
Do you know what breed she is?

Chicks that have been shipped/moved around/handled and sorted can suffer from shipping stress.

Give her some poultry vitamins - you can direct dose her with a couple of drops of something like Poultry Nutri-Drench, then offer the mixed water free choice. Getting her hydrated is priority. You can also offer wet chick starter once you are satisfied she is hydrated.

You mention she pulls her head over to the side - this could be an indication of Wry Neck - poultry vitamins with E may help with that as well.

Chicks normally don't develop symptoms of cocci until they are a few weeks old.

If she doesn't improve with supportive care, a few other things to consider would be head trauma/injury (these chicks were shipped(?) so we don't know how they have been handled), genetic/neurological/developmental disorders or even "failure to thrive".

 

[amanning0924]

She is a barred rock and is a week old give or take a day. They arrived Friday so I am assuming she hatched last Wednesday. They came from Ideal Hatchery. She is still doing her commando crawl and still falls over if she tries to go too fast or stands up too tall. She is eating and drinking on her own and just sort of sits and watches all the others run around. I have noticed some of the others with dirreah this morning so I started Corid this morning. Went to TSC last night and they were out. We did electrolytes on Fri. and Sat. Did some probiotic yesterday evening but wasn't sure about giving both Corid and probiotic together today. She can use her feet and legs to do her little crawl and is learning too balance using her wings. When we pick her up and hold her it's like her feet are limp. If you put her feet your finger they don't grip right away. She can grip somewhat but not like a normal chick and her left foot/leg is worse than the right. I had considered wry neck but with all the other issues wither her feet/legs I just thought it might be something more. I have considered culling her but I'm a softy and that's very hard for me to do. If she was lethargic and dwindling I would do that but she is still eating and learning to get around so I just don't know what to do. If there is something I can do within reason I'd like to try. I guess I lean more towards a neuroligical/ genetic defect with her feet being like they are. We obviously have some gut issues going on but IMO no more than we had witth the last batch of hatchery chicks. But you couldn't tell a difference between her and the others til Sunday so I'm puzzled....

 

[amanning0924]

the feathering on her left wing is different than all the other chick and different than her right. (I don't know how to get out what I'm tying to say)

Her neck pulls to the right and chest looks to be to the left a little. It's probably hard to tell but it's not just the way she's sitting. And this is the poo she's got. She just had what I would consider a normal poo and then we had this one :/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She is a barred rock and is a week old give or take a day. They arrived Friday so I am assuming she hatched last Wednesday. They came from Ideal Hatchery. She is still doing her commando crawl and still falls over if she tries to go too fast or stands up too tall. She is eating and drinking on her own and just sort of sits and watches all the others run around. I have noticed some of the others with dirreah this morning so I started Corid this morning. Went to TSC last night and they were out.

We did electrolytes on Fri. and Sat. Did some probiotic yesterday evening but wasn't sure about giving both Corid and probiotic together today. She can use her feet and legs to do her little crawl and is learning too balance using her wings. When we pick her up and hold her it's like her feet are limp. If you put her feet your finger they don't grip right away. She can grip somewhat but not like a normal chick and her left foot/leg is worse than the right. I had considered wry neck but with all the other issues wither her feet/legs I just thought it might be something more. I have considered culling her but I'm a softy and that's very hard for me to do. If she was lethargic and dwindling I would do that but she is still eating and learning to get around so I just don't know what to do. If there is something I can do within reason I'd like to try. I guess I lean more towards a neuroligical/ genetic defect with her feet being like they are. We obviously have some gut issues going on but IMO no more than we had witth the last batch of hatchery chicks. But you couldn't tell a difference between her and the others til Sunday so I'm puzzled.... Corid won't hurt, but since she's been like this since you got her and it seems to be more of a leg issue and she has lasted this long - she's not lethargic, going off feed/water and doesn't seem to be declining - I would lean more toward genetic/neurological disorder or possibly vitamin deficiency - Vitamin E, Selenium and B2(Riboflavin).

Are the legs splayed? Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) is essential in leg development.

It's hard to know which route to take - Corid is a Thiamine(B1) blocker, so usually it's not recommended to give vitamins while treating with Corid. Most poultry vitamins contain B vitamins, so...

You have a couple of choices and this is solely up to you:

• Try treating with Corid for the 5-7day period. If after that time she hasn't improved or stays the same, then focus on Vitamin/nutrition therapy to see if it makes a difference. (AFTER Corid is finished - offer vitamins and probiotics).
• The other choice, of course, would be try Vitamin/nutrition therapy first (poultry vitamins containing B2, E and Selenium - you can also give some hard boiled egg and/or tuna in addition to her chick starter to help with Selenium), then if she starts to decline, start the Corid.

If you have a video of her actions that may be helpful. Hopefully someone else will chime in with their thoughts as well.


FWIW Corid dosage is 1 1/2 teaspoons Corid powder per gallon or 2 teaspoons of 9.6% Corid liquid per gallon.
Give for 5-7 days - make sure this is the ONLY water available during that time period. Mix a fresh batch at least once a day.

Here's more info on leg problems:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/leg-foot-and-toe-issues-in-poultry-of-all-ages
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry


You may also want to see if she may benefit from a "chick chair", this will get her up off her hocks for a while:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ick-with-leg-issues-help-please#post_18138443
https://sites.google.com/a/larsencreek.com/chicken-orthopedics/

 

[amanning0924]

Thanks for the info! ok, I still don't know what to do. haha I started them on the Corid this morning ( and gave $16 for it :/) so maybe I will give that a day or two and see what happens. If there is no change would it be ok to stop the Corid mid dose to try the vitamins or should I finish out the 5-7 days.? and If it is a vitamin defeciency and I wait 5 days will it even help then? She was a normal chick running around like everybody else til Sunday. Her legs aren't splayed at all. They stay under the body. I have a feeling that the left leg is the weaker and she pushes more with the right to stay upright so that is what is making her head look like it pulls to the right. I have some videos but I'm not all that techie and can't figure out how to get anything more than a pic uploaded to BYC. I'll fool around later and see if i can figure it out. Thanks again for all the help!!!

 

[amanning0924]

Ok im slow but i think i figured it out. Here she is eating and hanging out with the gang.

 

[amanning0924]

This is a video of when she gets on her side. Seems to always be to the right.

 

[Kiki]

Girl, this (to me) is not going to be helped by Corid.
The poor thing can't possible be "moving" like that because of coccidia.

I would try the vitamins.

 

[Kiki]

The videos show/paint a completely different picture for me.
There is something "off" with her.
Do the others pick at her?

 

[amanning0924]

Umm. I swear I'm not trying to be rude , so please don't take this wrong, but yeah that what I've been trying to say from the start. That something is "off". I don't think I ever really painted a picture any different. I honestly wondered what in my original post would cause someone to think that gut issues would be the cause of her particular set of issues. But since I myself am no chicken expert either, I considered that it could possibly be a cause. The others don't bully her that I have seen. I'm not sitting and staring at them all the time but I am home all day and do keep a check regularly and I have never noticed any aggressive behavior towards her. She eats with them and drinks with them. She does get knocked over because the others don't know she's "off" and that they shouldn't jostle her. I'm pretty sure that it's probably something with her feet but I thought I'd try what you suggested on the off chance that I was wrong.