Five day old chick needs help!

Tricorn

In the Brooder
8 Years
Oct 15, 2011
96
1
39
Sorry, a bit long.

I received 25 assorted chicks on Friday. As seems to be my luck, there was one little one who seemed just a bit slower then the others. I figured I'd keep and eye on it and let things be. By the afternoon it was trying to nap with his head all funny, and made 'gaping' motions every so often, so I separated it from the others and went to bed. In the morning it was not looking good. Gasping all the time and crackling noises in its chest. I'm my usual morning incompetence I simply added duramycin to the water and left, assuming it would drink and get at least a little bit better. When I returned from morning chores it was flat out limp-as-a-noodle unconscious. No response to noise or pain. Breathing through the mouth with a loud pop and crackle for every breath.

I know the smart thing to do would have been to give up and let it go, but I've had four birds die on me in the past week. No more dying is allowed. So I stuck a q-tip down its throat. Came up with a ton of mucus. Did that a few times and it could breath though it's nose again. Did that every five minutes for 4 hours straight. Finally there was no more mucus. One check I found it flipped over, I thought the worst, but when I went to pick it up there was a twitch! Soon after there was a pain response, then a noise response, then one of the best half-a-second-long stinkeyes I've ever seen.

Right now it's sleeping, breathing well though still crackling. Can't stay awake for more then a few seconds though. When it does have enough strength to stay awake I try to get some food into it. Not much luck on that front though.


I did my best not to but I ended up giving it a name, so everyone, please think good thoughts for Sterling.

If anyone has any home remedies that will help clear up respiratory infections I would love to hear them. I have no transportation until Thursday so the Duramycin and Sulmet are the only antibiotics are all I have.

And because pics are mandatory in this situation:

On Friday:
109376_cimg_2730.jpg


During unconscious phase: (The tissue is so it would stop breathing in shavings)
109376_img_2735.jpg
 
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Hi! I'm not sure how to treat respiratory illnesses in chickens but when our 3 week old rouen duck started gasping 4 days ago I gave her some osha root herbal complex and some homeopathic mold/yeast/dust remedy plus rescue remedy on her feet and neck and she went from looking half dead to looking much better. We did all that 3 times a day. Yesterday we went ahead and tried the tetracycline and she's still doing better. The osha root complex was one drop in a half teaspoon of water and we dipped her beak in it just to wet her mouth.
The other night our perfectly healthy 2 year old dog went into some sort of epileptic seizure and I didn't know what to do so I put rescue remedy cream in his ears and gave him some mold/yeast/dust homeopathic drops and some belladonna homeopathic and he immediately snapped out of it just like nothing ever happened. Maybe it was some sort of allergic reaction he was having. We always use natural remedies first. We are fixing to try colloidal silver on our little duck and the chickens (they've just come up with mucus). The thing you did with the q tip is amazing! I hope your baby gets better. Best to you and yours. Let us know how things go.
Your little chick is so pretty! And I like your name, we painted the hall bathroom Tricorn Black and it's the prettiest color of black I've ever seen. Happy smiles to you!
 
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Thanks very much,
Honestly I was scared about the q-tip, but it seemed that death was immanent at that point- and I was surprised when it helped!
We've got a pile of homeopathic remedies in the cupboard- but all cold/flu stuff, nothing I can think of that would help. I did add rescue remedy to the mash he's getting, as well as some garlic. Anything else from around the house that you would reccomend?
 
Tell me about the homeopathic cold and flu remedies you have, maybe there is something that would help. I have a Boericke Manual here and you can probably get it online maybe as well.
Does this site have a live chat?
 
I'm guessing these updates will be hourly, and probably all night.

Sterling just stood up! No eyes open, but standing. Also pooped! And there was actually poop, not just liquids. It's far to green for my likeing, but it's the first poop all day, so I'll take it.

On a more worrying note, just spit up about 0.2 ml of clear liquid. There was also liquid on the neck/chest. I don't know if it's clear or brown tinted, but it's all liquid and no particulates. I'm feeding gruel, does food/water separate in the crop? It did seem a little thick for water, so I'm wondering if it was from the lungs?? That much liquid seems like a bit much. Also worrying is that there is a preferance for standing vertical, propped up against the wall. I'm thinking this is because of breathing issues.

In other news, sticking a q-tip down the throat of an unconscious chick is much easier then when it's awake and squirming!
 
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I don't think so, I'm not sure this computer could handle it.

I did managed to find the box of homeopathic stuff though, but I'm just realizing how many of these don't have lables or the lables are damaged past reading...

What I can read:
Engystol,
Nux vomica Homaccord

And these I'm guessing:
Kali. Phos.
Reckeweg R49

Annd there's about 50 of the rectangular vials that have had the lables taken off and are numbered with sharpie. I'm assuming my mother has a list somewhere, but I have no idea and she's not answering the phone
he.gif


Any chance any of the above are useful? I'm trying to look them up but the new google 'insta-search' is killing my computer and I don't know how to turn it off...
 
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