I think it's happening again! ( possible cocci )

[Haunted55]

From what I can tell, her symptoms seems to fit with the Avian Encephalitis. I emailed the breeder I got her from to see if she has a current outbreak or has any experience with the disease.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can get a necropsy done, unless I could do one myself in which case I probably wouldn't know what I was looking for/at anyways, lol, unless it was something really obvious.

Thank you so much for all of your help with this! I hate really hate feeling like such a noob, but I know we all have to learn somehow.

Since all of the diseases chickens can get seem to be the same it's very hard to 'decide' which one it really is. I had my necropsies done for about 30.00 each and that included the overnight shipping required. I am glad I did it, even though at the time it was a bit of a hardship to pay for them. I now know what I am dealing with and can make the choices needed to keep my chickens healthy and other people's chickens healthy as well. It's a personal choice.

 

[AmberRex]

I have never seen it in one so young but I suppose it could be possible. In Ireland there is a powder you can get, "powder"C"" with treats cocci but i'm not sure how old they should be. I can check if you are interested though.

 

[Egg Yolk]

Ye

The chick won't be over medicated if the proper directions are followed. Cat food is an old recommendation for adult birds in molt. Way too much sodium and calcium for chicks.

yeah I only give them a little but if cat food not too much. And I have just heard horror stories about over medicating so I just like to warm people! Good luck with the chick!

 

[Egg Yolk]

Your birds are your responsibility, no one elses.  You have the right to take care of them anyway you see fit, be it right or wrong.  It's your thing.  The rest of us will take care of our birds as we see fit as well.  I have read post on BYC where people have lost some or all of their chicks because they used cedar shavings.  I have done the research myself and would never consider using them for babies, ever.  I am glad you have never had a problem and hope you continue to have the luck you have had up to now.

I don't quite get the 'over medicated' statement you've made in your posting.  Are you referring to the Amprolium?  Have you ever bothered to look into what the medications are for and how they work inside the body?  Really, I don't understand.  would you explain what you mean?

The feed normally given to chicks has the proper amount of protien in it already and to say that cat food or anything else should be given is false.  The only time I have ever used cat food, canned, was when I had a picking problem with chicks and it was in desperation.  I used 2 small cans of a fish based cat food between 35 chicks over 2 days.  The picking stopped and never resumed.  I would never think to offer my birds canned or dry cat food as a supplement.  As has been pointed out by Michael Apple, it isn't good for them.  Not just the salt and calcium, but the protien as well.  It's way too high for their needs.  Medicinal, as I used it?  Yes, I would do it again if everything else failed to work and only for the problem of picking.

Sometimes we take chances with our own charges, birds, whether out of desperation or ignorance.  Sometimes we get lucky and sometimes not so much. We all have opinions on what we think is right, but there are tried and true methods that have shown themselves to be the 'right' way of handling certain situations.  I urge everyone to do the research on all of the possibilities and the tried and true as well and make their own decisions.

The over medicating thing, I have just heard awful things. A lady I know she gave her chicks too much medicine for the sick babies and they just didnt do so well so I try to warn people to just read the directions and be educated about the medication.

The cedar wood shavings... They were recommended to me so I will do more research about that! Thanks for the warning.

I use wet cat food when my chicks don't eat. I had this sickness going around with my chicks and they didnt eat at all. I went on the internet and from somewhere (I don't remember) and it said to mix wet cat food with chicken feed and that motivated them to eat. It was a while ago so yeah! Hope this makes more sense!

 

[Haunted55]

The over medicating thing, I have just heard awful things. A lady I know she gave her chicks too much medicine for the sick babies and they just didnt do so well so I try to warn people to just read the directions and be educated about the medication.

The cedar wood shavings... They were recommended to me so I will do more research about that! Thanks for the warning.

I use wet cat food when my chicks don't eat. I had this sickness going around with my chicks and they didnt eat at all. I went on the internet and from somewhere (I don't remember) and it said to mix wet cat food with chicken feed and that motivated them to eat. It was a while ago so yeah! Hope this makes more sense!

I hear you on the over medication and it can be easy to do. Someone told me the proper dosing for Duramycin-10 was 1 tbls. per gallon for the 400mg dosage. Someone else very kindly pointed out I was giving my birds the dosage for 800mg.! No wonder they got better so fast, lol! You are right about reading the directions and finding out exactly what the proper dosing for each medicine would be. The Duramycin isn't as bad as some of the drugs out there and I was very lucky.

Please do about the cedar. I've used a half and half mix in my nesting boxes, or should say tried and my chickens refused to use them. In this instance they were smarter than I was. In an older bird, I don't think there's that much of a problem, but in a chick...

Instead of the cat food, see if you can find sardines packed in water with no salt. Not sure if any of the stores near you would carry them but it would be a good thing to have on hand if that's what you want to do. This would be fine. Short term, no extra salt, why not?