Just watched one of my four week Barred Rocks die, worried about my other chicks.

[tess36]

Hello all, I have lurked for a while in preparing to ne nrw chick owner, but just joined tonight. I have sixteen four week chicks of varying breeds. Yesterday my husband changed their water and fed them as i had worked the night before and he was trying to help me. He did not note anything amiss. Tonight after getting the babies to bed i went out to get my other "babies" and noticed that one of my barred rock chicks roosts down in the bedding, nit moving. After jostling her a bit, she would just settle back down. I finished getting getting them all fresh water and food and sprinkled some chick grit and mealworms, including tossing a few right in front of the barred rock chick. She wouldn't eat them. This was at 8:55.

I came in and called my sister as she has eight chicks about three weeks ahead of mine. While talking to her i watched my chick start to convulse intermittingly over about a one minute period before rolling onto her back and convulsing one last time. I pulled her out of the brooder and looked her over. I can find no obvious injury, she was not emaciated. She looks like a perfectly healthy chicken, other than she is dead.

An internet search revealed a case where a gentleman lost all twenty of his four week chicks within 48hrs (the first 19 within 24hrs). He mentioned another neighbor had the same thing happen with his chicks of the same age. He also mentioned that they had a severe storm the night before the deaths started occurring. Last night we had a very severe, power losing, hour and a half long thunderstorm. The chicks are currently in two large dog crates (eight chicks per crate) sitting on our concrete pad under our carport. They are protected from sun amd rain, but not shaded temperatures or noise. I know the occasional death occurs, it's life, but afyer reading the above story, I am very concerned for the test of my flock.

Is there anything I can do for the rest of my chicks? Does anybody know if this is common? All the other chicks seem fine but I feel so bad for the loss of the one. I was thinking thst if possible for future storms to slide their brooders into the shed portion to help with the noise? Does anybody know if that would help? I am so sorry this is so long, i didnt know what would or would not be relevant. Thank you in advance!

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. I would probably get some Corid (amprollium) from your feed store cattle section in the morning, and start all chicks on Corid in their water for possible coccidoisis. Cocci is very common at this age, and the chicks are not yet immune to it. Dosage is 2 tsp of the liquid, or 1.5 tsp of the powder Corid per gallon of water for 5-7 days. After that give them several days of vitamins and probiotics or buttermilk.

 

[tess36]

Thank you so much for responding so quickly. All of my chicks were immunized for coccidoisis before shipping from Murray McMurray Hatchery. They all shipped together and have not left my fenced yard. They have twice been in the yard in a little run we made for them, the last time was a week ago. Could it still be cocci?

 

[tess36]

Also, I still have some Quik Chick, should I go add that to their water? My sister I know ordered the amprollium because hers were not immunized (different hatchery). I'm sure I can get some from her in am if I need to.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is the Quik Chick a vitamin and electrolyte? If so, then that would be fine. Vitamins would be great to use, since using the amprollium would undo the coccidiosis vaccine. The vaccine helps to prevent the 4 or 5 worst strains of coccidia, but there are 9 or more strains that affect chickens. There also could be vaccine failure, or the chick may have been missed. I'm hoping the other chicks stay healthy. The BR chick could have had some defect that killed it.

 

[tess36]

Thank you for coming back and replying. I went out last night and added the Quik Chik (vitamins and electrolytes) to their water. This am I went out and scooped out all the bedding from that brooder (was worried it may be damp from the storm two nights before). The bedding was dry and still pretty clean, not a lot of poo not malodorous. All the other chicks still appear fine and still no abnormal poo, though I do understand that the absence of such is not really indicative of the absence of disease.

Can a bad storm be the cause of a chicks death? I keep seeing that popping up in internet searches but I would like an anatomically rationale explanation. I wondered from the beginning about a congenital component, though she seemed the picture of health; no lethargy, no emaciating, no obvious signs of being on the bottom of the pecking order.

Long sigh. I guess all I can do is keep being vigilant with my other chicks and wait and see. Thank you all for your responses, I greatly appreciate it.

 

[enola]

If you are using Corid for treating, you should not give them vitamins or probiotics at the same time. Give the probiotics and vitamins after the 5-7 days of Corid treatment.

 

[Eggcessive]

There is nothing published to support the claim by many that giving thiamine to a chicken on Corid will cause harm. A Corid overdose may cause thiamine deficiency. Corid does mimic the thiamine in the coccidia oocyst, and in result causes a thiamine deficiency (in the coccidia.) However the company no where states that it is harmful to give thiamine, and thiamine is in chicken feed. When there is an unkown illness, and the chick could be just dehydrated, I feel personally that offering vitamins in the electrolytes is okay. But when using Corid, it must be the only source of water, so vitamins can always be given in a concentrated form such as with PolyVisol baby vitamins or Nutri-drench. I'm sure that I won't always change everyone's mind about this thiamine issue, since it keeps coming up, and probably will be debated until someone does a study.