Help identifying this sickness. Lost one last night, more sick..

[CA Bean]

Hi, was there suppose to be a linky here? or did I miss something? sorry..don't understand. Clicked on your blog by accident- cutey kids. My youngest turns 1 tomorrow. Boy they grow quick.

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[tfpets]

Boy they are so infested it is awful..I can see them running rampant near their eyes an everything..they even crawled on my hand. EWWW!
Thank goodness they are not in a coop yet! Otherwise that would be a nightmare! They are in a plastic brooder container with shavings and some stall dry mixed in...better clean em out.

Please take everything out of the tub, shavings and all, and put them on paper towels for now til you know you have their bug issue under control. Those bugs will jump off and then back on! Start completely fresh and clean! Sterile even! Treat them with the Poultry powder, try not to let them breathe it, but I honestly believe they're going to die anyways if you dont use the permethin powder or some kind of bug remover, and this may be the main problem you have.
Their systems are being so depleted of nutrients by having their blood and skin sucked dry/dehydrated. The skin is the largest organ of the body. If it does not function properly, the rest of the body begins to suffer and shut down.
Dont put the birds back in to the tub they are going to live in until you are certain you have killed the critters on them.....

What a lousy thing to have brought home from the feedstore?? You should let them know what a problem they have caused. Maybe they should give you the powder for the treatment!!

Also give them Vitamins and Electrolytes, I've seen Poly-visol recommended, added to the water (Childrens liquid vitamins) and I use Poultry Drench in a Pinch (Its a water additive for shipped chicks or birds) that gives a super vitamin boost. Cant hurt and may save their lives!

I wish you luck!!


Oh, I dont see any symptoms yet that call for an antibiotic?? You shouldnt unnecessarily use antibiotics or antibacterials, you will build resistance. Get this bug issue under control first.
Tina

 

[steffpeck]

Sorry, I forgot to put the rest in.

Thanks, I think my kids are pretty cute too!!

Signs commonly appear at 7-10 days of age, although they may be present at hatching or delayed for several weeks. The main signs are unsteadiness, sitting on hocks, paresis, and even complete inability to move. Muscular tremors are best seen after exercising the bird; holding the bird on its back in the cupped hand helps in detection.

 

[CA Bean]

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Thank you Tina! I agree with the unecessary use of antibiotics too it is just I have no clue what it could be.. I guess it could just be a overload of mites! I wish I could go back to the feed shop but realistically I think they wouldn't care..they seemed a little shadey unfortunately since they did have some good variety of bantams.
I saw some dead chickies in one stall, then I returned one I thought was sick ( prior) and they just put it back in with the rest!! I even repeated that I thought that one was sick! I won't go back there again. I bummed about the mites! I sure hope they don't live on humans because I feel itchy and my daughter said she did too..but didn't see anything. I figured it could be the DE we handled.
So no shavings then? even with Dry Stall which has DE in it?

 

[CA Bean]

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Hmm, they aren't really sitting on hocks right now but just stand there really sleepy and eyes closed. They didn't seem to have paralysis either. Only hours before the littlest one died it couldn't keep itself up and just lay on its side. Sad because it was the tiniest little red/buff Frizzle. Size of a hummingbird. Our favorite.

 

[mypicklebird]

A severe mite/lice infestation can easily kill a chick via anemia. You wouldn't see true respiratory disease signs like eye crud or sneezing, but when they are dying you would probably see gasping/gaping as they are not moving oxygen well due to the anemia, and they will gasp for air.

DE won't do much if anything fast enough to save your chicks, you need to dust them with pyrethrin powder (poultry dust) from head to toe. Carbaryl works better (sevin), but I don't usually use this on little ones. Some mites live off of the chicken, most live on. Lice live on the bird. Dust all birds well, do it again in 2 weeks. Thoroughly clean all surfaces, change the bedding, dust all cracks in the area. Inspect at night with a flashlight to look for the mites (red) that do not live on the bird.

Definitely tell the feed store you bought them from. They need to know, and if they want you as a repeat customer- they will make it right.

Likely they bought them from a local someone who is hatching eggs and selling them for an extra buck- and that someone also needs to know. Most large hatcheries would not sell birds to a feed store infested like that- they would not stay in business long. Probably a local backyard hatchery/breeder with a mite infested brooder. Ugh.
jess

 

[tfpets]

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Not for a couple of days, til you are CERTAIN they are louse free. I am thinking of the possibility that the critters will jump from the bird, to the shavings, to the bird again, and the cycle starts over....you will see something on a paper towel, and it's easier to pick up in one piece, remove, wipe out, and replace....

Lice and mites dig into crevices and stay hidden away during the day, into the little cracks in wood, ie wood chips if that what there is....they might not like pine shavings, but they can live in it....

Humans have a different kind of lice, but the concept is the same, its hard to get rid of!! You make me itch just thinking about it! (I'm a social worker and we work around critters all the time)

DE is only a preventative...Dry stall is to reduce moisture, I believe, all effective for their purpose, this is not it...you need to treat the problem, which is severe dehydration and vitamin depletion/starvation of essential minerals, and kill the bugs, remove the bugs from the environment, and keep them away from the new environment entirely.

Hope this makes sense and helps. Its all just my opinion, anyone else can chime in here??? Take care, Tina

 

[speckledhen]

Since you got them at the feedstore, do you know where the feedstore gets them? Locally or hatchery? If local, they could have something that is passed down through the egg or just anything. Rarely do chicks from the hatchery that go right into the feedstore brooder have lice or mites. If they get them locally, I'd avoid getting more from there. The local feedstore owner here gets chicks from Ideal most of the year, but lately, she's been taking them home to raise up and sell when they're older. I'll never buy any of those from her since they've been at her place, not knowing the conditions there.

I did buy Hawkeye from a local FFA kid, only grown bird I ever acquired. Sadly, among other issues (thank goodness, none contagious) he had lice all over him. I used DE all over him AND all over the shavings in the dog kennel I was holding him in, after cleaning out the shavings that were in there when I discovered the lice. That did it beautifully. You must dust all under their wings, belly and around the tush area plus put DE all through their bedding for it to work. I cant find poultry dust locally so it was my only option at the time.

 

[CA Bean]

ok so today I went to Petsmart and the only thing they had was lice/mite spray! It was in the ilse for parakeet birds etc. It says for birds. Spray them 2 times at most a week and their bedding etc -not food. I think it had .03 Pyrethrin in it. Is this what you all use? I thought for sure it was a dust/powder. I didn't say anything about small baby birds.
Thanks all for the support!

I guess I will be doing paper towels..for a bit. I am getting discouraged and bit irritated by having to deal with this. SO you don't these mites can pass to humans? What about animals like a little yorkie-she is itching all the time too but I see not one flea. She hasn't been in the brooder or anything but the dust is everywhere in our living room...

Speckled Hen- I think they get their assorted Bantams from Ideal..but they also have adults in pens elsewhere that they breed themselves it looks like. I won't be going back there again! Like I was saying before they just threw sick ones in with healthy ones and some were crawling over some tiny dead baby chicks. I was just so excited that they had some variety oppose to the basic RIR, EE, BR and Cornishx that seem very standard here.

 

[d.k]

* Couple of ideas-- what kind of shavings are you using-- cedar/cedar fumes can be quite toxic to chickens, and may be the cause of their eye problems if you are using it, and it would be worse with the heat of a brooder. The mites may get on you, daughter, dog, etc., and may be a bother for a time, but they are fairly species exclusive and tend to die of people within a couple weeks at most. So, bad news, good news-- sorta. Also, the mite spray you got should work, however, I would also mix a bit of shortning or vaseline with a couple DROPS of baby shampoo/soap and dab it on to smother any mass clusters. That will help save what blood the poor chickees have left.