Day old chicks dying of goo clogging airway! Losing chicks fast! Won't respond to treatment! Help!

[RussianChickens]

I had an order of 12 day old chicks come today. 1 was DOA in the box. Another was nearly and I had been trying to nurse her back to health but she passed. I tried to clear the goo but there was just too much too fast and she suffocated. The others all looked good. I just went back to the brooder and found one of my spitshaubens fresh dead from the same goo! He was fine an hour ago!

Now I have 2 more birds exhibiting the same symptoms of full but squishy crop, not eating or drinking any more and sleepy.

I'm not sure if its building up in the crop and coming out or what. But the chicks begin to vomit and aspirate the goo. I fed yogurt and save a chick water to them and no luck. They are hardly 24 hours old and are on medicated feed. I noticed that the one pooped a clear yellow with white in it. The rest seam to have green poop from in the shipping box?!?

Shipping was less than 12 hours from hatch so it should not be shipping stress as I had my last order take 3 days and everyone was perfect and survived to this day.

These chicks were vaccinated. Could the vaccinate have punctured something on these chicks that would cause this? Could it have made them sick?

This can't be sour crop at such a young age could it? Even for the 2 who did not eat? The vomit/goo is clear or slightly milky and the consistency of snot.

Has any one experienced this before? Can anything be done about it? What the heck is this?

If I don't do something fast I'm going to lose half or more of my order before the night is over! Eeeek!

 

[RussianChickens]

Anyone please! It's getting very very late and I need to sleep but I need to know what to do with the chicks if anything or just let nature take its course.

Thanks

 

[chooks4life]

Raw freshly minced garlic. Sounds crazy but it's proven its worth time and time again.

Since the Allicin in garlic (among its 34-odd other antibiotic compounds) is made up from a dynamic enzyme reaction, it is nigh impossible for viruses and bad bacteria etc to become immune to it. They use it in some hospitals for food poisoning and viruses that even the strongest man made antibiotics can't defeat, since they are stabilized therefore easily overcome by changing/adapting viruses, etc.

One clove of raw garlic saved my life from a very aggressive bacterial and fungal and viral combination infection that did the rounds and killed some folks, putting others in comas. It only attacked those 'in their prime' not the old or young, this one had a lot of news coverage. One clove killed it for me. I went from normal weight to a skeleton in 48 hours of fever and once I recovered the lung infection quietly continued to grow until I realized it was going to kill me if I didn't do something. So I ate one clove, intending to eat more, but in 15 minutes the infection was dead and my body was expelling it, whereas there had been no coughing before it for over a week.

I feed all my chooks raw garlic from hatching onwards and have never seen coccidiosis. It wipes it off the map permanently. Highly recommend everyone suspend their skepticism long enough to try it. How can a decent trial hurt? All around the world, less commercial pharmaceutical dominated countries use garlic as an antibiotic; it's not called 'Russian Penicillin' for nothing. It is proven. Getting a good strain is the biggest challenge concerning it though. But most will have some trace of their ancestral strength.

Quote: Vaccines all run a risk of both side and direct effects that are harmful. It's an imperfect medicine. Bad batches occur, unscrupulous individuals do their bit for global suffering and distrust, etc... I don't use vaccines due to the havoc they wreak far too often for my liking; I find it hard to keep a vaccinated animal healthy compared to a non vaccinated one. They tend to need special treatment from a young age onwards.

Some will accuse me of lying for saying vaccines are unsafe, but the very manufactures, vets, doctors etc will tell you the same. Most of them anyway, and as for the others, it's shocking how very few of them vaccinate their own pets and kids... Just sayin'.

Anyway best wishes to you and your flock. Whatever you believe is the right way to go to help them, I hope it works.

 

[RussianChickens]

Ok i will give that a try. Cant hurt! All the rest seam good for now, their crops cleared and are now full of food. No clue on what happened to the others.

Thanks for your input

I personally like vacinations. Ive had good luck with them. I was just thinking perhaps an amature might have put the needle too deep or some such thing. All my previous orders of chicks have been fabulous, vacinated and even loooong time shipping. Of course there could always be a bad batch of vacinations animal or not.

 

[RussianChickens]

Does any one know what happened to them though or what else could possibly be done should this ever happen again? Just so i have some future references

 

[Eggcessive]

Did they have anything in their box to eat such as Grogel, the blue-green nutrients mixed with water that you can give to baby chicks? Or some wet feed?Other than that I wonder if they were dehydrated because I wouldn't think it would be safe to ship at that age without water.

 

[RussianChickens]

Not that i know of. If they did they ate it all. They were hatchery chicks. I've had 25 shipped over 3 days without water and they all were fine. This is the first time I had any die actually. The yolk is suppose to support them for 72 hours. They ship as soon as they hatch.

The odd part was they were unable to keep water down. Usually dehydrated will still drink. They were only in shipping for less than one day.

My guess was digestive defect or virus. I can't think of anything else that would cause the vomiting mucus and crop that won't empty. Can't be sour crop if they haven't ate. The worst ones were my Australorp hens and then one Spitshauben died a Very sudden and unexpected death by the same mucus in his mouth.
When I was trying to clear the airway of the first chick it just kept coming up and was thick like snot. She finally suffocated after taking a big lung full of snot. I prevented her from suffocating 3 times previous to the last. I feel really bad but I pretty much knew when I opened the box she wasn't going to make it. She couldn't stand or set up. Had she not been my last hope for an australorp hen this year I probably would have culled to spare her the suffering. Towards the end her breathing got very labored and her chest started to click. I've noticed all the other chicks chest do that a little too with exertion like trying to wiggle out of your hand but are behaving completely normal running and playing and eating and drinking. Not sure what that is. I was worried something was broken in them but they all seam to do it to some degree with exertion and aren't looking sick. Keeping fingers crossed they all stay well!

I did think maybe the box got tossed about or something and ribs broke and punctured lungs/organs? But the survivors don't seam in any discomfort.

If I had the time I would autopsy the dead ones to see if anything was wrong internally because I would really like to know what this is. But I buried them today as I am too busy.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: There would have been blood in the mucus if lungs were punctured, as far as I know. It sounds like one of the nastier viruses to me. A chick that's been smashed sits down and rests, and in half an hour it's good to go, they heal insanely quick; but I've not tried store bought chicks, they don't look great, so I bet they'd take longer to heal.


Quote: Have you tried without them?

Each to their own, best wishes with your flock.

 

[RussianChickens]

I would think so. Unless it hit something else but that doesnt seam the case any how. Got to be virus or deformity in my book.

Yes i have! Ive had non vac and vac. Never had a vac chick have a problem.

For me i always get vac too. And im amazingly healthy. However i usually skip flu as its not a bad virus to start and a nucence for me to get as i never get the flu anyway. But i have goten all the major things like pox and menij ext... I do avoid new things untill they have been arround a while as there is always chance for error and then effects are more likely to show up.

 

[chooks4life]

I agree it sounds like a virus. If you can afford it getting a proper lab diagnosis may be worthwhile. Or it may come back with a destruction notice if it's one of those notifiable/declarable diseases. Maybe the hatchery would reimburse you for the duds.

I've only had bad experiences with all vacc'd animals --- but Australia buys chemicals and vaccines and foodstuffs that are banned in other countries and uses them on humans and animals alike, so that's hardly a surprise. Those vaccines you're wisely holding out on while watching for side effects will be sold to Australia if side effects are found.

Personally I don't get sick until all the vaccinated folks get vacc'd. Then I might catch whatever they just got vacc'd for. And somehow they say those that are 'protected' by vaccines are threatened by those that aren't...lol. The folks who die of diseases going around are almost always vaccinated, same with my stock and pets; any that I got as vaccinated animals don't thrive and never make it to old age. Whereas the unvacc'd stock are as healthy as anything, still producing into old age.

This has been my experience with it, but obviously yours is different. It's amazing the differences between countries, simple things you think would be universal truths just aren't.