Help!!!

[Ruppydoo]

Hello everyone. I am looking for some help with my baby chicks. We got them the first week in June making them about 3 weeks. Its a small group of 12. Last week they started getting sick. The symptoms are: droopy wings, unsteady on their feet, lots of stretching of their wings and every now again they open their mouths very wide like they are chocking. They do continue to eat and drink but they look like they are in pain. One has died already and 7 more are afflicted. I've looked up different diseases and found nothing helpful. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[BonDEEroo]

I wonder if they have gotten overheated somehow or eaten something that poisoned them, and you are seeing the after-effects of internal organ damage?

 

[Ruppydoo]

That was what I was thinking too (meaning poisoning.) Unfortunately I'm not sure what. I just watched a chicken have a seizure. Its a slow down hill decline.

 

[BonDEEroo]

It sounds awful. BYC should have plenty of threads on poisoning. I'd be getting them to a vet if possible. Sadly the survivors may be weakened and have a reduced life expectancy.

 

[BonDEEroo]

Soluble vitamins in their water might help (maybe a product to help hens cope with heat stress like Coolchick) or even a vitamin C injection under the skin? It can rescue animals affected by paralysis ticks from death's door - but don't rely on my advice, research research research first!

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

I am sorry about your babies. What is your brooder set up like? Always keep the heat off to one side of the brooder so that there is a cool spot on the other, they need to have a place to cool off. Babies this age don't have the internal mechanisms yet to cool their bodies and rely on outside temperature. Lay the thermometer on the floor directly under the heat source. At 3 weeks, they should be down to about 80 degrees. And use an infra red heat bulb. White is very hot and burns. Never cover the top of tbe brooder with anything but screen or wire as you need good heat and oxygen exchange.

It sounds like they are over heating. Coccidiosis is common at this age, but this doesn't sound like Cocci to me.

Good luck with your babies and Welcome to our roost!!

 

[Kiki]

Treat them for Cocci with Corid!

 

[BonDEEroo]

Please let us know what happens with the chicks, it's a learning curve for us all

 

[Ruppydoo]

Thank you all. I just made a great discovery! I decreased the brooder temp too quickly. I turned the lights back on a couple of hours ago and the temp is back to 82. With the exception of 2 everyone is up and running around, eating and drinking and scratching and being baby chicks. The light was bothering me when I was sleeping so I turned them off. I was thinking they need night and daylight cycle which is true if they were 8 weeks ago. I got ahead of myself. So stupid.

Thanks again for you concerns.

 

[BonDEEroo]

That's great, and probably (hopefully) none of the survivors have suffered permanent organ damage. A heat lamp for reptiles is a really good idea because the red light won't disturb your sleep or the chicks'. They can get hyperactive and aggressive with each other if they are under a normal light all the time.