I think my chick had brooder pneumonia/aspergillus and she’s healed!

[Apags18]

I wanted to share this because I had a sick chick last week and couldn’t find anything that could help me. The day before Easter (4/8) my chick started breathing more heavily and faster than the other chicks. No one else in my family noticed anything so I figured, being a nurse, I was just over analyzing the chick. On 4/9 she didn’t seem to be breathing worse but I def thought she was still breathing harder than the other chicks. She was still running around with them and eating and drinking. On 4/10 things got worse. She was now gaping with almost every breath (she was a week old at this point). I tried listening to her breathing and there was no sounds coming from her. She was still moving around with the other chicks, eating, and drinking, but def struggling to breath. I tried researching anything I could…I started thinking she had brooder pneumonia as non of the other chicks had any symptoms. I had tried separating her from the others, but she freaked out and started chirping so loudly I thought she’d have a heart attack, so I put her back with them. Anyways, the only thing I found online was from about 12 years ago where someone posted on this site that they crushed up garlic in the chick’s water and her chick got better! I figured I had nothing to lose so I tried that (plus giving electrolytes). I’m telling you that every day after that she got better and better. I started giving the garlic on 4/10 and by 4/12 she was no longer gaping and by 4/15 she wasn’t breathing hard anymore but just a little faster than the others. It’s now been 8 days since I started giving them garlic and she still just slightly breaths a little faster than the other chicks but is acting completely normal and not working hard to breath either. I don’t know is she actually had brooder pneumonia/aspergillus (I am not a vet), or if the garlic was what even worked but something did and she’s better! From everything I read she was going to die. We were going to only give her one more day to see if she got better before deciding if we needed to cull. So glad we waited. Well I’m still keeping an eye out on her, but so far she seems to be doing just fine. I just wanted to put this out there for someone else who finds themselves in a similar situation. Oh I crushed one garlic clove in one gallon of water, just fyi. I used chick electrolytes and a little nutridench in the water as well.

 

[nuthatched]

Hi there, I'm happy to hear that your chick is better.
Can you describe the symptoms, your brooder set up, heat etc?
There are many reason chicks have a hard time breathing.
You're very lucky your chick didn't die from the toxicity or get a burned crop/esophagus from the garlic.

 

[Apags18]

Hi there, I'm happy to hear that your chick is better.
Can you describe the symptoms, your brooder set up, heat etc?
There are many reason chicks have a hard time breathing.
You're very lucky your chick didn't die from the toxicity or get a burned crop/esophagus from the garlic.

We’ve raised chicks and pheasants over the years and have never come across this. My dad has the brooder set up in his barn with pine shavings for the bedding (we’ve also always used these shavings as well). He had just cleaned out everything and placed new shavings just about a week before the chicks arrived. I also only used a small garlic clove in at least a gallon of water. Didn’t want to her to get too much. She was using her whole chest so breath, gaping while breathing, and sometimes shaking her head…almost like she was sneezing. She still ate and drank just fine and would follow the other chicks around the brooder. She never became too lethargic. They have a heat lamp for heat.

 

[nuthatched]

We’ve raised chicks and pheasants over the years and have never come across this. My dad has the brooder set up in his barn with pine shavings for the bedding (we’ve also always used these shavings as well). He had just cleaned out everything and placed new shavings just about a week before the chicks arrived. I also only used a small garlic clove in at least a gallon of water. Didn’t want to her to get too much. She was using her whole chest so breath, gaping while breathing, and sometimes shaking her head…almost like she was sneezing. She still ate and drank just fine and would follow the other chicks around the brooder. She never became too lethargic. They have a heat lamp for heat.

Yes, garlic is toxic to chickens and can cause chemical burns if not diluted (chew a clove of garlic in your mouth, the burning sensation is what I'm referring to) a small clove in a gallon of water wasn't strong enough to hurt her but also likely didn't help either. You offered supportive care and tlc for her to fight it off and that really helped.

 

[randysherry]

I believe from everything I read the garlic probably did it. We were putting electrolytes in the water just a couple of days after they hatched, but they came down brooder pneumonia anyways. Unfortunately we did not pick up on the signs until after loosing 9 chicks out of 23. It happened fast at the end. When they started dying, all mine did do in a 30 minute period. We no idea what was happening! Late that night while still pondering what had happened, I finally found what it was and got rid of the old feed and bought new that was medicated. We believe now it was the feed. They were only 1 week old, and was all hatched in a brand new incubator. Now I'm getting ready to do garlic treatment on the survivors. Not taking anymore chances since they were all exposed to the same food.