Gasping peachick (2 weeks old)

[casportpony]

Thanks for that guidance on dosage. I may still apply Tylan (is it better than Corid in your opinion?).

Tylan is for mycoplasma and necrotic enteritis, Corid is for coccidiosis.

 

[casportpony]

Well a trip to the vet just now was worth the $116 it cost me, and the little baby even produced a stool sample for me, so the doc could slide it under the microscope. Ready for this?

Diagnosis: round worm. Inside the intestine of a 2 week old peachick.

Dr. recommended I use a dewormer (approved my Safeguard to use) orally with .10CC dosage per day. Doc never said for how long to do this and I forgot to ask, dang it. He did not prescribe me any Albon, which I was hoping he would. Said my Corid antibiotic is sufficient.

I know we believe that a 2 week chick is too young to get worms but there's more to the story. This chick was hatched by a frizzle chicken, so it's been in contact with Gallus gallus since birth. This frizzle hen is not even mine. I asked a friend (owner of said frizzle) if I could set pea eggs under her. I was going to let the frizzle raise the chicks at her place but my friend got worried about the number of critters that are preying on her birds so she let me borrow mama to brood the babies over at my house since I'm predator safe (chain link fence surrounded by strands of electric fence), and netting on top to protect from hawks. So, sigh, that's the story.

Thanks for sharing your experience, and I am so happy you were able to see a vet. So from this day forward I will never say that two weeks old is too young for worms.

 

[KsKingBee]

Thanks for sharing your experience, and I am so happy you were able to see a vet. So from this day forward I will never say that two weeks old is too young for worms.

I am dumbfounded. So the chick had to have eaten a worm capable of expelling eggs that the vet saw on the slide... We know that eggs that survive deworming will hatch within ten days but how long does it take for the worm to start laying eggs of its own? This is just amazing to me.

Chicks eat poo so if there was a worm in the poo then that is how this happened. Thank you for sharing this really important information.

 

[Chicken Keith]

I am dumbfounded. So the chick had to have eaten a worm capable of expelling eggs that the vet saw on the slide... We know that eggs that survive deworming will hatch within ten days but how long does it take for the worm to start laying eggs of its own? This is just amazing to me.

Chicks eat poo so if there was a worm in the poo then that is how this happened. Thank you for sharing this really important information.

I guess I'm dumbfounded too based on what you've laid forth. I'm guessing mama frizzle had worms and the chick ate her poo? Is that possible? And would that result in worms? The chick was born on or around July 4th. Today's visit was July 20th, so 16 days or 2ish weeks.

 

[Chicken Keith]

Tylan is for mycoplasma and necrotic enteritis, Corid is for coccidiosis.

Is Albon for coccidiosis also? And dang it, I forgot to ask the vet for a prescription today. Any way to purchase Albon or Sulfamethoxodine without one?

 

[Chicken Keith]

Last question, what is a reasonable dosage for a dewormer, say SafeGuard if administered to mommy frizzle hen? She's a bantam, btw, so I wouldn't expect her to weigh more than 40 oz.

 

[KsKingBee]

Last question, what is a reasonable dosage for a dewormer, say SafeGuard if administered to mommy frizzle hen? She's a bantam, btw, so I wouldn't expect her to weigh more than 40 oz.

One ml should work on a small chicken.

 

[KsKingBee]

I guess I'm dumbfounded too based on what you've laid forth. I'm guessing mama frizzle had worms and the chick ate her poo? Is that possible? And would that result in worms? The chick was born on or around July 4th. Today's visit was July 20th, so 16 days or 2ish weeks.

Yeah, the only choices are that the chick ate mature worms or is expelling worm eggs that it ate. I would think the former is the most logical.

 

[Chicken Keith]

KsKing, I'm sorry to be a drain on you, but I gotta seek your thoughts on a topic. This whole antibiotic thing has got be in a tizzy. Yep, I understand Corid = Amprolium, which is also in the medicated feed I'm giving to my peachicks now. Flash back a year ago, you were so kind to me when my peachicks were dying from cocci. You (I think it was you) told me then that medicated feed is the way to go, but my plight was likely too late, as the babies (8 weeks at the time) were too far gone, listless, lethargic etc. That memory burns hot still in my head and it was an emotional pain I don't want to repeat with these birds this year.

That said, I would ideally like to have some Albon--yeah I know that's for cocci, but am I sufficiently protecting/posturing for cocci? It's available by prescription and like a dummy, I forgot to ask my vet for it. You mentioned the Tylan 200 as it best targets respiratory ailments. In this case with this chick, there is no bodily fluid discharge from eyes or beak or nostrils--so I'm second guessing again. It's as if something is in its trachea. Is this worms wiggingly around? Dunno. Is it something it ate and it went down the wrong way? Again, dunno. The vet found roundworms in the stool yesterday, and fortuitously (??) or not the chick stopped gasping in front of the doc and pooped the healthiest firmest poop you ever did see!

So, sorry for the novel, I guess it boils down to your thoughts on a couple things swirling in my head:
1. Is Amprol fortified feed adequate to fight cocci, while I use another antibiotic (Tylan 200) to fight this gasping/gaping symptom?
2. If amprol in the feed isn't enough, should I use corid or another sulfamethoxidine based med like Albon in the drinking water?
3. If using a dewormer dosage direct down the gullet of the bird, how many days should this be repeated? 1 day? 5 days? 10 days?

Sorry to be a basket case on you. I just really seek the knowledge of somebody who might've walked this path. You and Kathy seem to be the ones who know my plight better. Thanks again.

 

[Chicken Keith]

One other thing, I need to kinda footstomp. This gasping chick displays all outward signs of being very healthy, flies around the pen with mom, has a healthy fear of me (as you'd expect of a baby pea raised by a mommy bird). It has an decent appetite--it just gasps for air with each breath. Still. A day after the vet.