Gapeworm not responding to Safe-Guard in chicks

[Eggcessive]

Many chickens with a respiratory disease with gaping and swallow as the chick is doing in the video. Head shaking, watery eyes, eye bubbles, and crackles when breathing are other sounds. You said that one had conjunctivitis, and so I would guess this might be mycoplasma gallisepticum or MG. It is a chronic disease, and symptoms can be treated with certain antibiotics. Tylosin, oxytetracycline, Denagard, doxycycline, or enrofloxacin are some that may treat it. Some of those may be found online for pigeons. Testing can be done on your birds, and if you should lose little Bojangles, I would try to get a necropsy done with testing by your state poultry vet. Here is a good article about MG:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext... Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) Infecti....pdf

 

[mmr1443]

@frostic @dawg53 I'll go ahead and call the vet then. I was thinking not respiratory because there are no other respiratory symptoms?? But regardless the vet will be able to give me a confirmation of something with a fecal exam. Thanks for y'alls help. Is there anything I can do for them until then? I've already been doing the VetRx under wing and around face just in case.

 

[mmr1443]

@Eggcessive Thanks so much for your reply. There is no sign of crackling while breathing, no eye bubbles, no runny noses or nasal discharge, and their watery/swollen eyes have all cleared up with the antibiotic eye drops, so no watery eyes either. I did look at symptoms of MG, but since they only shared so few I did not consider it. Do you still think that it's possible?

Also, Bo and Dinkle have been showing the gaping/gasping symptom since about 10 days ago since when I got them. This has progressed very slowly and the others didn't start showing symptoms until about 3-5 days ago. I don't know if that helps with diagnosis or not.

 

[frostic]

@frostic @dawg53 I'll go ahead and call the vet then. I was thinking not respiratory because there are no other respiratory symptoms?? But regardless the vet will be able to give me a confirmation of something with a fecal exam. Thanks for y'alls help. Is there anything I can do for them until then? I've already been doing the VetRx under wing and around face just in case.

I'd say just listen to @Eggcessive <---- they are a total expert and they have taught me lots and lots about chickens. and @Wyorp Rock and @Kiki give the best advice you can get.

 

[mmr1443]

@frostic @dawg53 @Eggcessive
I was just googling and people have lots of opinions on what should be in chick's water. We are currently doing the following in a gallon of water:

1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 oz of "chicken elixer" vitamins
1 packet of electrolytes

All of these were recommended to us by the breeder, who in retrospect I think is pretty bad. Oh except for the electrolytes. We added that because everyone was struggling to eat or drink enough and had diarrhea when they had coccidiosis. But since that's over maybe I should remove it.

Any way I got worried maybe there's too much stuff in their water or maybe the breeder was wrong. I just gave them some plain water too. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

 

[frostic]

@frostic @dawg53 @Eggcessive
I was just googling and people have lots of opinions on what should be in chick's water. We are currently doing the following in a gallon of water:

1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 oz of "chicken elixer" vitamins
1 packet of electrolytes

All of these were recommended to us by the breeder, who in retrospect I think is pretty bad. Oh except for the electrolytes. We added that because everyone was struggling to eat or drink enough and had diarrhea when they had coccidiosis. But since that's over maybe I should remove it.

Any way I got worried maybe there's too much stuff in their water or maybe the breeder was wrong. I just gave them some plain water too. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

I only give my chickens strait water. however once a month I'll add some probiotics
and apple cider vinegar. I also use all flock crumbles feed with amprolium from purina.
I do put cooked garlic in their treats such as eggs once a week. but not more than that.
I try to not to give supplements unless I think they need it.

 

[dawg53]

@frostic @dawg53 @Eggcessive
I was just googling and people have lots of opinions on what should be in chick's water. We are currently doing the following in a gallon of water:

1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 oz of "chicken elixer" vitamins
1 packet of electrolytes

All of these were recommended to us by the breeder, who in retrospect I think is pretty bad. Oh except for the electrolytes. We added that because everyone was struggling to eat or drink enough and had diarrhea when they had coccidiosis. But since that's over maybe I should remove it.

Any way I got worried maybe there's too much stuff in their water or maybe the breeder was wrong. I just gave them some plain water too. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

Too much of a good thing can have adverse effects in chickens. Just go with the vitamins and stop the rest of the stuff.

 

[Kiki]

@frostic @dawg53 @Eggcessive
I was just googling and people have lots of opinions on what should be in chick's water. We are currently doing the following in a gallon of water:

1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 oz of "chicken elixer" vitamins
1 packet of electrolytes

All of these were recommended to us by the breeder, who in retrospect I think is pretty bad. Oh except for the electrolytes. We added that because everyone was struggling to eat or drink enough and had diarrhea when they had coccidiosis. But since that's over maybe I should remove it.

Any way I got worried maybe there's too much stuff in their water or maybe the breeder was wrong. I just gave them some plain water too. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

I'd stop all this extra immediately.
Plain fresh water is best.

 

[Kiki]

Garlic is toxic to birds.
Stop immediately.

 

[frostic]

something else i do once a month is I apply VetRX chicken aid under their wings to keep them from having respiratory issues. the box should tell you how to use it. I warm it up and apply it.
be warned though it smells like vicks vapor rub and can burn your eyes if you apply to much
to an indoor chicken LOL