it was all I could do to walk away from these feed store chicks

[nature nut]

We were away from home today and stopped in at a feed store to look around. They had several brooders filled with chicks from a couple of days old to a couple of weeks old. In one brooder with older chicks they were pecking on each other and there was fresh blood drawn on their backs. There wasn't any food in the troughs. In another there was a mix of bantams and cornish meat birds and the majority of them has tattered looking feathers. One little one was sitting all ruffled and huddled in the middle of the brooder. It was all I could do not to buy it just to try to save it. I really wanted to but then I saw bright red bloody stools in the pan. That scared me. I don't want to bring home something that would make my girls sick. Of course the little one would be living inside for at least a month and they are all outside. I came home bathed, changed clothes and cleaned my shoes with disinfectant before I went out to see the girls. Does that chick sound like it has cocci? Would it be unsafe to get it? Do you think it'll probably die anyway?

Makes me so mad and sad. Poor things.

 

[sammi]

you would have to keep the chick separate from your other chicks..
the way to know if the chick has cocci or not..is to observe it and check it's droppings and behavior.
most likely if any of them have cocci, they all do.
there's no way to know if the chick will survive after you bring it home..

to treat for cocci it needs Corid ASAP...
or Sulmet..whichever you can find..tho Corid is safer..
watch for respiratory symptoms..lowered immune systems and mixed birds pass germs and strains back and forth..
this can happen whenever a new one is introduced to the flock.

it's always sad to see these chicks uncared for at feed stores.
I was at a feed/farm store locally last spring, and didn't much like what I saw..
they had a few ducklings in with the chicks and everything was wet and a mess..
it's a small privately owned store where I go often for meds and supplies for pets and chickens..
I did say something to them about the situation..(the young son was working that day.) I was tempted to bring a few home that day. I just wasn't able to at that time. It's very hard to walk away.

 

[nature nut]

If I gave it Corid and kept it inside isolated from my flock for the 7 weeks or so it'll take to get old enough to go out would that be safe for my girls? and can you keep one bantam with large breed hens? I only have 6: 2 RIR, 1 BO, 1 Ameracauna, 2 Barred Rocks and the group accepted the youngest, the BR during free ranging time as 4 week old chicks and in the house as a few weeks older. They don't feather pick but do give a warning tweak on the neck or tail feathers and then leave each other alone.

 

[elmo]

Yes, that is sad. But think about it another way, too. Do you really want to patronize and support a business that treats animals this way?

You might ask to speak to the owner, and say something like "well, I'd love to buy some chicks and supplies here, but I noticed these things that concerned me..."
Who knows? They may be ignorant, or maybe if they knew their customers cared about these things they'd clean up their act.

There is a pet store down the street from us that keeps baby parrots in filty, small glass aquariums. If we rescued the ones that are there now, they'd just refill the tanks with more poor babies. It wouldn't solve anything.

 

[nature nut]

I think I will talk to the owner about the chicks because if these are sick and the brooder isn't disinfected every batch that comes through there will be sick too. I know that supporting this seller is wrong but all I have thought about all day is going back to at least buy a couple that were really bad off. I am telling myself that it is this batch today and as soon as they are gone there will be another one and if they aren't successful selling this one maybe they'll get the message. I just disgusts me that those poor little ones have to die to show this guy that he needs to clean up his act.

 

[NewHobbyForMe]

Like you said, you would have to quarintine them so you may as well save them as to know they are so cramped and living in bad conditions. Thanks to people like you,

a few may have a chance. So, go get them!
Best of luck.

 

[3KillerBs]

Talking to the management, or to your county's animal control people, is a much better idea than buying trouble.

Paying $$$ for sick animals not only encourages the bad management practices but risks killing all the animals you already have. That's not a risk worth taking.

 

[wombat]

If you point out the sick ones, they may *give* them to you just to take the problem off their hands.