Lethargic 3 month old chick. Coccidiosis?

[RosieCat]

Hi everyone.

One of my almost three month old chicks has been acting very lethargic the last week or so. I gave all my chickens a 5 day antibiotic treatment which ended three days ago. It helped one of my other ickens who had a respiratory infection but this chick has not improved. The reason I’m posting now if because one of the other chicks who was about the same age died this morning after exhibiting much of the same symptoms.

Let me tell you a bit more about this chick.

He is a little bit small compared to the others, but he’s also the youngest.
He’s breathing very heavily. We live in the tropics so it could be the heat but the other chicks aren’t acting the same.
Whenever he makes a noise it sounds quite raspy/muccusy. Maybe he’s sneezing a bit but I don’t really know what a sneeze is supposed to sound like.
His crop feels good: soft and a bit grainy (but I just fed them corn kernels)
He is eating but doesn’t have a huge appetite
His most recent poop was a little bit foamy but otherwise normal.
He’s quite lethargic but doesn’t isolate himself too much from the others.

All these symptoms alone aren’t too serious but altogether they make me a bit nervous. Add to that the fact that his brother just died after showing the same symptoms…

Any ideas as to what may be causing it, if it could be something serious or maybe he will just get over it?

Thank you!

 

[azygous]

What is your location? Can you buy a coccidiostat there? What antibiotic were you using and what strength? Can you buy worming meds? This could be either worms or coccidiosis or both. It would be safe to treat for both at the same time if you can access both of these meds. Neither worming meds or coccidiostats are antibiotics, by the way.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. It sounds like you are dealing with a respiratory disease, which could be caused by a virus or bacteria. What antibiotic and dosage did you use? Antibiotics do not work against viruses, but symptoms can go away in a month or so. Can you get a picture of the poop? Long-standing coccidiosis could be a cause of not gaining weight and lethargy, but respiratory diseases may do that as well. Can you get Corid or Amprollium where you live? That can treat coccidiosis. Worming him with fenbendazole, albendazole, or levamisole could also help.

 

[RosieCat]

The antibiotic was called AV-25 and contains penicillin and streptomycin as well as a bunch of vitamins. I don’t really know the dosage, it says that each 100g has 5.000.000 UI of penicillin and 11.890.20 mg of Streptomycin. I put a half teaspoon in their water each day for five days. So I hope that helps? Sorry I don’t really know what dosage

Thank you for the names of those medications. I’ll inquire at my local supplier to see if they have it. Would it be a good idea to treat the whole flock for worms and coccidiosis at the same time or just the affected chick?

I’ll try to get a picture of his poop

Thank you guys!

 

[RosieCat]

Just wanted to give an update on this:

I had a friend come over who is very experienced in chicken care. Since this is my first time with chickens I’m still learning everything.

She said they all had a respiratory infection, some particularly bad. The little chick was VERY sick with it. We gave them antibiotic pills, she prefers this method because you know exactly what each chicken is getting compared to putting it in water.

She also said we needed to deworm them all and feed them more because they were all underweight. All my layers had eye worms (she said to look for bubbling at the eyes).

In the end, most of my flock got better, although we had a few casualties. Including the chick mentioned in this article. Thankfully though we are sickness free now.

I hope this might be able to help someone else not make the same mistakes I made!