Im so confused. I need help with a sick chick

Crystal72384

Hatching
Jan 24, 2023
3
0
7
Collinsville, OK
Hi everyone,

Im hoping you can help me with your expertise. I recently purchased 4 chicks (2 day old BCM and 2 salmon faverolle, one day old and one week old) from a very reputable local breeder. I brought the chicks home, added them to the brooder with some other chicks that I had received from Meyer's and everything was great for the first few days. After having them for 3 or 4 days I noticed that the week old SF was breathing sort of hard. I thought maybe it was having trouble regulating its temperature so I moved that brooder out of the garage and into my craft room inside my home. Maybe a day or two later I noticed that this chick was now sneezing and appeared to be having some trouble breathing. I could hear a crackling sound and could actually feel and hear a popping in its chest. I moved this chick and the other SF to a separate brooder, but in the same room. After doing some research I ordered some tylosin and began treating for 7 days in the water. This chick now appears healthy and the other SF never showed any symptoms. The other chicks it was with initially are also still healthy as of now.

My question is, would you put these chicks back with the others? I have never had any sort of respiratory type issues with my layers or chicks and I'm paranoid that it may infect the others. I moved the others to a bigger brooder in my garage but these are still separated.

I reached out to the breeder and she didn't really have any advice. Her first question was if I had pine flakes in the brooder and she thought if it was in fact some sort of respiratory infection that the others would have gotten it as well. It's really confusing to me since it did get better once given the tylosin but it never had any sort of drainage from eyes or nose and it never stopped eating or drinking.

**I keep my chicks on puppy pads for the first two weeks with a digital thermometer under the heat lamp to make sure that it is kept at the correct temperature. I also change the puppy pads out at least twice a day to keep everything clean.
 
Since the sick chick was with the hatchery chicks for 4 days, they are already exposed, if there is MG. The stress of the move could have caused symptoms. I would place them back together and watch for any other signs of illness. Use the Tylosin again if one shows symptoms. It is only given for 3-5 days. Hopefully, it is not an illness. If you ever lose a chick, the best way to get a diagnosis is to have your state vet do a necropsy where they would also test it. This link has a list of all state vet labs to contact:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html
 
Since the sick chick was with the hatchery chicks for 4 days, they are already exposed, if there is MG. The stress of the move could have caused symptoms. I would place them back together and watch for any other signs of illness. Use the Tylosin again if one shows symptoms. It is only given for 3-5 days. Hopefully, it is not an illness. If you ever lose a chick, the best way to get a diagnosis is to have your state vet do a necropsy where they would also test it. This link has a list of all state vet labs to contact:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html
Do you think that it could be something besides MG? I have tried researching this but respiratory is such a broad term. Is it possible to have these symptoms with something other than MG?
 

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