Help 1 week old silkies keep dying

[TNJEZ]

i an new to raising silkies. i have had a tremendous amount of loss, and i am not sure why. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

i have 6 hens and 3 roos. they have their own separate loving quarters. An 8x10 building lined with wood shavings, that has a small door to an enclosed gassy run, they have about 30x60 feet to play in. they get rural king layer mash, unlimited all the time, and also have access to fresh water with vitamins in it. i refresh their water every day. they get hard boiled egg whites, crushed egg shells, scratch grains, and lots of table scraps as treats.

when i put eggs in to the incubator, they are not more than 10 days old, and i make sure i turn them twice a day prior to putting them in. My incubator is a brinsea octagon 20 that has the auto turn cradle. the incubator is in a quiet non breezy area in my dining room.

once they hatch i put them into a cage with a white heat lamp, in my spare bathroom, they have fresh water with vitamins and medicated chick crumbles from rural king. i give them the yolk to a hard boiled egg about 3xs a day. i given them just enough that they eat it in a few minutes. they love it. (usually one egg yolk per day) they have newspaper for bedding, which i change out daily.

the issue that i am having is that they appear to be happy and healthy babies till abut day 5, they they start dropping like flys. it starts with a lethargic chick, who gets to the point where it cannot stand anymore, it will eat and drink if i help it, but eventually will just lay down, go through a hard/fast breathing stage and then die.

batch 1: 18 eggs in, 15 hatched. were happy and healthy till day 5, then they started just dying, i currently have 4 remaining from that batch they are 3 weeks old.

batch 2: 15 in 12 hatched. on day 7 i lost 4 with in 36 hours and lost another one today. I'm currently down to 7 living, they are 11 days old.

batch 3: hatching now. 30 in and 23 hatched (one still peeping) i really want to avoid losing 1/2 my clutch.

batch 4: still in incubator, 10 eggs in, all 10 are growing.

please help!

 

[Deerling]

Are you making sure to sanatize everything before you reuse it? The incubator, the feeders and waterers, the brooder, etc? It could be cocci - you can put Corid in their water if you see one getting lethargic. This is our first year having chickens, though, so I would wait for other answers or someone to confirm this first.

 

[realsis]

I was also thinking coccidosis
. remember with cocci you DON'T have to have bloody poo. look for the signs; lethargy; tiredness; ruffled feathers ; inactivity; not eating too much. eyes closed. Corid is the only medicine that kills all 9 strains of cocci. if it is cocci Corid should help. check your tempatures in your brooder. make sure you have a warm and cool spot
decreasing temp by 5 degrees each week week 1 start at 95 degrees. hope this helps out and hope they do better. good luck

 

[TNJEZ]

i thought it was cocci also, but the feed is medicated for cocci, so i ruled that out. ill look into getting some extra meds for cocci. i really don't want to lost anymore.


oh and yes i am cleaning everything between batches. i have been washing and then letting the sun air dry it for the afternoon.

 

[Deerling]

No, that doesn't rule it out. Medicated feed is supposed to help your chicks deal with Cocci, but it does not prevent it. I would definitely try Corid if any start seeming lethargic, and I would also try using Oxine (you have to order it online) to make sure you're getting rid of any germs. Oxine is really wonderful (get it WITHOUT the citric acid) and can even be used to help chickens with respiratory diseases. You can also put it in the water in the incubator during lockdown to help it from getting smelly.

I hope everything starts improving for you! Another thing to do is get some probiotics and electrolytes (like Save-A-Chick) and put it in their water for the first week or so, just to give them a head start.

 

[loveourbirds]

I had this problem last year in one of my brooders. I would put 50 chicks in and lose 40. I used a medicated chick starter (19%), cleaned water every day, and refreshed bedding every 3 or so days (more often if needed) I tried multiple things with lights, sanitation (bleach and water, and acv and water). corid did help, but the next batch of chicks would still get it. (maybe from nearby brooders?) here is what I did to cure it, im not sure if it will work for you, and someone else may have a better idea.

move chicks to clean temporary brooder. I used plastic totes with a little bedding. 16 gallon tote with about 10 chicks should work, more may be ok depending on size.
started corid in their water in the temp. brooder.
clean your brooder thoroughly wash it with antibacterial soap and bleach solution. make it extra strong, and take a breather if you need to.
rinse with bleach water solution, and let it dry completely. put a fan on it if you want.
put in bedding (at this point I changed from chopped straw to pine chips). with the pine chips I run it 2-3 inches deep.
put a wood block under waterer if you haven't done so.
I switched to medicated turkey starter after corid treatment was done (I cant remember how long to use the corid). the turkey starter has a different antibiotic that worked for whatever it was I had.

keep that brooder clean, sanitize feeder and waterer every day until the problems stops.

this worked for me, hope you find it useful.

brian

 

[TNJEZ]

im going to get some cocci treatment after work today. even though i cleaned out the brooder and let it sun dry all afternoon, i think i will change the brooder as suggested above. ill let you know how this batch turns out. i had 24 silkie chicks hatch saturday as of today, monday morning, it all looks good. this morning they were up and running around. even have one with spread legs (band aid added) running around looking funny. thanks for all of the advice.

can i over treat them for cocci? im thinking 3-4 days as directed? or should i do a little longer?

thanks for all the help.

 

[Deerling]

Treat them the recommended amount and then five days later give them a half dose in their water.

 

[loveourbirds]

with medicated feed you can over medicate them, i typically use it 1/2 strength and add some acv to it..... im not sure if im telling you the right thing to do, but it works for me.
of course, if you don't treat them they will probably not make it either. (from what your saying) sometimes you have to experiment around and find what works for you, an overmedicated chick is much better than a dead one.

another thing i failed to mention, when we raise our silkies here we have learned not to mix them with standard sized chicks. im not sure if you are doing this, but the larger chicks will pick on them usually making them weak, droopy, pasty butt, then death.

of course what works for me may not work for you, so im interested in hearing what you do and how it works, keep us updated.

brian

 

[seminolewind]

I'm thinking is your heat so that they can get under it, or get away from it? Do they stay in the warm side or the cool side more?
Are they really eating the crumbles? Or just looking like they do? I grind mine down because several times in the past, I realized at day 5 or 6 that they werent' really eating the crumbles. When I ground them down, they went crazy. Do you see them drink? Make sure they know how.

I love silkies. But they are dumber than dumb. I know if I moved their food 2 feet, they had a problem finding it, LOL.

Check your temps, grind the feed down, and do not give them anything else. And make sure they are drinking.

One other thing. I dont know much about respiratory ailments, but isn't there one or two that's carried in the egg and kills them at 4-6 days? It might be one of the ones they test for., like Pullorum.

Where did you get the silkies from?