Dead chick

[ksguy]

Hi, I'm new to the chicken thing. I got ten chicks 2 weeks ago tomorrow. At the time they were about a week old. Last night I noticed that one of my chicks was just sort of crouched down in the corner of the brooder, looked a bit fluffy, but in my ignorance, I thought nothing of it. Figured she was tired or resting - it had been a hot day. Later on I removed their feeder to clean it, and put a dish of food down for them. Looked back a couple minutes later and this chick was crouched down in the middle of the feed, but ran off when I reached in with the cleaned feeder.

This morning when I did the morning head count and got fresh water, everyone was moving around. I just got a message from my wife that she checked 'em and the one that was acting strange yesterday was belly up, dead. Checked for pasty butt, vent was clean. Looked up Cocci, and now that I know the symptoms, she seems to have had them - crouched down, isolating itself, looking unkempt, fluffed up.

Wife said there was no bloody poop in the brooder.

I was giving medicated feed and let them out probably every other day for the last week or so, to spend about an hour in the garden. I use DE in the wood chips in the brooder to keep odor down - I think that would also help prevent any potential mite problems, but I could be wrong.

My question is, based on the symptoms the dead one exhibited, should I go ahead and give Corid to the rest of the chicks as a preventive measure? I leave work in about an hour and a half so I could stop at Orscheln or TSC on my way home.

 

[GitaBooks]

I'm sorry to hear about your chick.

I heard that if they were given a shot against cocci and then given medication they canceled each other out. Not sure if this is true, but it could be the problem.

Were there any symptoms of leg problems? Did it ever twist its neck in an odd way? Was it having trouble breathing?

I hope the others remain healthy!

 

[ksguy]

I confirmed with the breeder prior to purchasing that they were not vaccinated, so that's out. After getting home and looking I saw that there were 2 other birds that seemed to be exhibiting symptoms - isolation, walking oddly, lethargy, just an overall sick look to them, and one of them was having trouble standing or sitting normally - so I immediately put them on the "severe" dosage of Corid as per Kathy's post, here. Not only did I give them the water, but I removed their feeder and gave them a tray of feed that had been dampened with the medicated water (which they all devoured like I'd never fed them before! These animals can be weird). The next morning everyone was looking at least a little better and within 24 hours of initially providing the medicine they were all acting completely normally. I'm maintaining the dose until Wednesday night and will give a short duration dose in 2 weeks.

For anyone interested, the chick that was having trouble standing or sitting normally looked pretty much like the one at the 1:10 mark of this video (graphic). I'm thanking my stars I was able to get them turned around. What kind/brand of probiotic or vitamin supplements should I give them afterward?

So glad for all the great info here.