HELP!!! Dont want my sons chick to die.

[Shannondevereaux]

We have a new baby polish about 1 month old and 3 days after bringing her home she started to seem sick. Labored breathing runny nose. I gave some fish mox I had on hand from our older chickens and she seemed better. Left for 2 days to take care of my dad after surgery and communicated with my son while I was away. He said it was a bit runny but she was ok. When I checked on her later she was not. It looked like bloody discharge from her eyes. She was however up and eating and drinking. I used some eye ointment as I read it could help and then she got worse again. I gave electrolytes and vet rx that day. Didn't seem to help and I feared she would not make it through the night. Read everything I could. Figured I needed some Tylan 50 so went next day to buy. I brought her with me so they could see her size. I believe they sold me a needle that was too big. A 22 gauge. I gave her an eighth of the medicine in her thigh and unfortunately she bled when I removed the needle. I think I must have hit something bad as she almost immediately wouldnt use her leg. My friend who was helping me said she would be fine it just hurts. But now it has been 3 days and she wont use it at all. She did seem to get better her eyes opened and brighter spirits except she couldnt move around. I would hold her and she'll drink water and eats food laying down. Now though she seems to be taking a turn for the worse again. Open mouth breathing mixed with a weird looking like she is swallowing without taking anything in and barely moving. Please help if you can. I dont know what else to do and now I feel horribly guilty I have really hurt her. I have also had 2 other chicks with similar discharge and swollen shut eyes. She is such a sweet girl. Her name is sugar and my son has waited for a polish chick..he is so worried. I dont want mommy to be the reason she died.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

We have a new baby polish about 1 month old and 3 days after bringing her home she started to seem sick. Labored breathing runny nose. I gave some fish mox I had on hand from our older chickens and she seemed better. Left for 2 days to take care of my dad after surgery and communicated with my son while I was away. He said it was a bit runny but she was ok. When I checked on her later she was not. It looked like bloody discharge from her eyes. She was however up and eating and drinking. I used some eye ointment as I read it could help and then she got worse again. I gave electrolytes and vet rx that day. Didn't seem to help and I feared she would not make it through the night. Read everything I could. Figured I needed some Tylan 50 so went next day to buy. I brought her with me so they could see her size. I believe they sold me a needle that was too big. A 22 gauge. I gave her an eighth of the medicine in her thigh and unfortunately she bled when I removed the needle. I think I must have hit something bad as she almost immediately wouldnt use her leg. My friend who was helping me said she would be fine it just hurts. But now it has been 3 days and she wont use it at all. She did seem to get better her eyes opened and brighter spirits except she couldnt move around. I would hold her and she'll drink water and eats food laying down. Now though she seems to be taking a turn for the worse again. Open mouth breathing mixed with a weird looking like she is swallowing without taking anything in and barely moving. Please help if you can. I dont know what else to do and now I feel horribly guilty I have really hurt her. I have also had 2 other chicks with similar discharge and swollen shut eyes. She is such a sweet girl. Her name is sugar and my son has waited for a polish chick..he is so worried. I dont want mommy to be the reason she died.

Honestly at this point I would get to an avian vet. It sounds like you've tried a lot of things already, and she may not have time to throw more treatments at her. She likely needs sub q fluids, warmth and more intensive treatments that you can't do at home. So sorry you're going through this.

 

[Shannondevereaux]

Honestly at this point I would get to an avian vet. It sounds like you've tried a lot of things already, and she may not have time to throw more treatments at her. She likely needs sub q fluids, warmth and more intensive treatments that you can't do at home. So sorry you're going through this.

Thank you. I am just so skeptical as we took our baby bunny to the emergency vet and everything they told me was ridiculous. She was falling over backwards and I knew she wasnt right. Long story short the first vet admitted she was no specialist so the next day I drove her 2 hours away to clearwater to the specialist and after hundreds of dollars, an in person exam and tests they told me she was neurologically fine. Next step was x rays for broken bones but common sense could tell she was not injured in that way. When I got home the next day I sent a video of her...then all of the sudden they were very concerned but still had no other suggestions. It is so hard and I want whats best for her but I do not always trust the book smarts of vets compared to someone who is around this all the time.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

Thank you. I am just so skeptical as we took our baby bunny to the emergency vet and everything they told me was ridiculous. She was falling over backwards and I knew she wasnt right. Long story short the first vet admitted she was no specialist so the next day I drove her 2 hours away to clearwater to the specialist and after hundreds of dollars, an in person exam and tests they told me she was neurologically fine. Next step was x rays for broken bones but common sense could tell she was not injured in that way. When I got home the next day I sent a video of her...then all of the sudden they were very concerned but still had no other suggestions. It is so hard and I want whats best for her but I do not always trust the book smarts of vets compared to someone who is around this all the time.

I understand how you feel, but at this point it sounds like she's dying. There isn't a lot you can do at home for this. If antibiotics and everything else you've done are not helping it's likely she needs something more serious. From the pictures she looks gravely ill. I can tag a few others here to help, but you really do need a professional here.

@Eggcessive
@sourland
@Isaac 0

 

[Mellowmalt]

It is not worth spending hundreds of dollars on a sick chick. Sad as it is, nobody ever wants a chick to die but sometimes not all will make it. I personally would never bother with silkie's as I seem to think they are more fragile but that's just my observation.

What I want to know is how old was it when it was bought?
Was it just bought recently at a month old? Cause it sounds like if that were the case then the chick already had whatever is ailing it and was not going to make it at the store or at yours.

I know when things go wrong we think we need to do something but the truth is chickens feed and look after themselves, all we can do it provide all their needs for them. If something goes wrong there is rarely much that can be done.
Like for example a car normally drives and drives and all we need to do it top up the petrol but if the car breaks down we don't start thinking of pushing the car to do it's job for it, we take it to the mechanic to be fixed and if the repair cost is too high we scrap it.

That's how this situation has to be viewed imo, hard as it is.

Maybe the leg can be fixed, maybe blood seeping out its eyes can too but I wouldn't know where to start and would not even think there was anything I could do to get that chicken in perfect health again. Maybe I'm wrong and it makes the hobby harder, not knowing if there is more that can be done but also not worth dwelling on it too much and get healthy birds so there are less heartaches in future.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

is not worth spending hundreds of dollars on a sick

I agree with everything you said, with the possible exception of your first sentence. It is true that chickens are classified as livestock, & it is even true that many/most agree with your first sentence. However, some DO value their chickens same as they would a sick dog, cat, parrot, horse, rabbit, ferret, etc etc etc. To those inviduals, it certainly IS worth it to try and save their pet. OP, your chick does look very sick. I understand your reluctance to take her to a vet, especially since some people on this forum know more about chicken health than most veterarians. You didnt do anything wrong in trying to treat her, so dont feel bad about that. The responder in post 3 already tagged some people who may be able to help you. Since they havent responded yet, i will tag some more. Whatever they say, you can trust their advice. @azygous , @Wyorp Rock , @casportpony , can you help this person?

 

[Mamatomany123]

Tylan is supposed to be injected in the breast, not the leg. I also wouldnt have even injected, I give it orally. It will take more than 1 dose. I'm not sure what you could have done to her leg.

 

[azygous]

The general appearance of the chick doesn't bode well for its prognosis. I'm afraid damage was done by injecting the Tylan into the thigh. Most of us do not inject Tylan in any age chicken due to the risk of tissue necrosis caused by the Tylan itself being an extremely caustic substance.

That aside, the chick appears to be very sick. You can continue to give it around .2ml of Tylan by oral syringe directly into the beak twice a day. But if the chick reaches the point where it shuts its eyes, lies down on its side and won't drink or eat, that would indicate the chick is near death and probably nothing will make a difference.

 

[Shannondevereaux]

Thank you to everyone so far for your insights. I did reach out to an avian vet right after the first response and they said they were too busy to see us. They gave me the names of 2 other vets. One did not open until 7 as they were an after care. So I took her to a local bird shop nearby just to see if they could offer me any other advice. We gave her some baby bird food with added nutrients. She was still eating on her own but I figured maybe it would be a bit easier for her to digest while whatever else is going on. When I called the vet at 7pm they told me the 2 doctors the avian specialist told me to ask for were not there. The dr they did have on call did not feel comfortable treating(at least they were honest rather than charging me to treat what they did not know about). The other vet was not reachable. So here we are. She is still alive and at this point eating and drinking on her own but also seeming tired. I read a bit more and decided to try some baby aspirin thinking she may be acting like this from pain...Id hate to think that. I gave her a quarter of a baby aspirin so approx 20mg. She drank it willingly. I will watch and update. Any advice or alternative suggestions are welcome.

Also to answer the questions from above. I got her from a friend who ordered them and had delivered at like a day old. She said the polish chicks are very hard to raise and her and another breeder had lost a lot between them. My girl was about a month old. I did see her very spunky jumping and very active. I had only had her 3 days so I assumed the stress of the move may have been too much. The only other option is that my original flock outside has a sickness a couple months before I got the chicks where they had bubbly eyes. So maybe they had the disease where it never goes away and as careful as I was to wash hands and the chicks are inside the house I may have transferred something on my hair or shoes inside?? I hope not and the babies had different symptoms no bubbles but completely swollen shut eyes and bloody looking discharge. I know we are only here for as long as intended but I want to try my best for them and felt really horrible I caused her this secondary trauma. If Id had known how Tylan could have done this I would have never given at all. But a lot of blogs really said good things and at that point I felt I was going to lose her anyway. I have learned a lot...hopefully not at her expense!

 

[Mamatomany123]

Thank you to everyone so far for your insights. I did reach out to an avian vet right after the first response and they said they were too busy to see us. They gave me the names of 2 other vets. One did not open until 7 as they were an after care. So I took her to a local bird shop nearby just to see if they could offer me any other advice. We gave her some baby bird food with added nutrients. She was still eating on her own but I figured maybe it would be a bit easier for her to digest while whatever else is going on. When I called the vet at 7pm they told me the 2 doctors the avian specialist told me to ask for were not there. The dr they did have on call did not feel comfortable treating(at least they were honest rather than charging me to treat what they did not know about). The other vet was not reachable. So here we are. She is still alive and at this point eating and drinking on her own but also seeming tired. I read a bit more and decided to try some baby aspirin thinking she may be acting like this from pain...Id hate to think that. I gave her a quarter of a baby aspirin so approx 20mg. She drank it willingly. I will watch and update. Any advice or alternative suggestions are welcome.

Also to answer the questions from above. I got her from a friend who ordered them and had delivered at like a day old. She said the polish chicks are very hard to raise and her and another breeder had lost a lot between them. My girl was about a month old. I did see her very spunky jumping and very active. I had only had her 3 days so I assumed the stress of the move may have been too much. The only other option is that my original flock outside has a sickness a couple months before I got the chicks where they had bubbly eyes. So maybe they had the disease where it never goes away and as careful as I was to wash hands and the chicks are inside the house I may have transferred something on my hair or shoes inside?? I hope not and the babies had different symptoms no bubbles but completely swollen shut eyes and bloody looking discharge. I know we are only here for as long as intended but I want to try my best for them and felt really horrible I caused her this secondary trauma. If Id had known how Tylan could have done this I would have never given at all. But a lot of blogs really said good things and at that point I felt I was going to lose her anyway. I have learned a lot...hopefully not at her expense!

Yes, bubbly eye is a big indicator of a respiratory disease. Once chickens get respiratory diseases they are carriers for life. Because of this they will infect any birds that come in contact with them, including you tracking it in on your shoes or clothes.