Lethargic chick? Please help

[minaayindra]

Oh yes, there does seem to be diarrhea in the brooder but I have no idea who’s having the issue. Would the vinegar make that worse? It has never been so noticeable as today!

 

[Ebony Rose]

Vinegar pretty much keeps your water cleaner, longer (if they're not pooping in it), otherwise its nearly pointless. Have you tried making a soupy mixture of their chick starter + unsweetened yogurt? All of my chicks (and adult chickens) would cross the road for anything with yogurt, seriously! Aside from the probiotics, it's not that good for them, but if it will get them to eat on occasion... I'd give it a try. Have they come in contact with plants or dirt, if so, could be coccidiosis. Have you been giving them 'treats', and if so, do they also have grit or sand? Do they have dirty butts, and if so, wash them GENTLY with warm water (pasty butt). Runny poop can also mean overheating... so do they have room to get away from the heat source if they so desire? What sort of bedding material are you using? Anything with cedar is a no-no. Some chicks just fail to thrive, so regardless of the outcome you need to realize that it's NOT your fault. I'll keep you and your feathered family in my prayers.

 

[minaayindra]

I’ve done everything I’ve found from the helpful advice and finally went to the vet this morning. Two of my 3 will be fine. The last one looks terrible and, while I’m trying to give all this water and vinegar and probiotics and keep up every 30 minutes, I think I’m killing her from handling her so much. She has gotten down some sugar water I injected into her mouth, one dose of probiotic water, but nothing else. She doesn’t seem to be able to walk any more and she is definitely not eating. Devastating- I don’t know if I should just stop putting her through this unless it’s on an every two hour basis and then I don’t know if missing those drops defeats the whole purpose.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Stop vinegar, tastes awful and is added to water primarily to reduce fungal growth (keeps it from turning green so fast). Try to make some little nuggets with chick starter and yogurt, see if you can't pop one or two of them into her mouth, if you've got a bit of chick-grit or sand, add a tiny bit of that to your mix (can't hurt). Most chicks that are sick as lil'uns enjoy the handling, so don't worry about that; just don't squeeze too hard and you should be okay on that.
You're with the chick, day in, day out. You've been valiantly championing her cause. If you feel that it's hopeless, then stop with the palliative care and allow nature to take it's course or euthanize it. If you elect to euthanize, cutting their head off with kitchen shears over the kitchen sink would probably be the safest for you and fastest for your chick.
Praying for you and your feathered family.

 

[minaayindra]

Sadly, she just got worse and worse after I started giving her the water and vet-ordered things. She died in my hand when I picked her up, because it was obvious she was going. It was so sad to watch her last breaths but the rough part for her only seemed to last for 1 minute. As the vet said, I did everything humanly possible- he believes it was some type of congenital defect since she was only 2/3 the size of all the others. I'm burying her under a tree and that will make me feel better, if nothing else. Thanks for the good advice. You could have been a poultry vet!

 

[Ebony Rose]

I am so sorry that she didn't make it. You may want to consider a necropsy. If you wish to send her to the lab for a necropsy, you'll need to refrigerate her (not freeze). Your state's lab website is http://www.padls.org/PADLSSearch.aspx, and after looking it up, the fee is $46.50 plus an $18 fee for accessioning. Some find peace of mind getting a conclusive answer to the question 'Why?'. You should be able to get all the information you need about that on their website.

 

[minaayindra]

Wow, thanks for that info. I will check it out tomorrow and see if it is a viable option. The nagging concern is always if she had something that one or more of the others could catch. They all look great but it would be nice to settle it once and for all. ​

 

[Ebony Rose]

I agree. How much time and trouble is peace of mind worth? I'm no longer in the States, and I don't have access to facilities that perform these lab services, so I'm 'making-do' with do-it-yourself necropsies when necessary. It's not much different than when I process a bird for the freezer, except that I pay much more attention to the innards to find the answer to 'why?'. It's so hard to diagnose which illness a chick has (while living) since most present about the same way... droopy, saggy, lethargic bird/chick... fussy eater if eating at all, reluctant to drink water (or drinking tons of water), poop runny as birds get rid of excess heat with runny poop too, making it even harder to use 'runny' as a diagnostic tool, you're left to decipher if it's fever that's causing heat, brooding that's causing it, or overall temperature, or an outright symptom of the disease itself (etc), head down, fluffy feathers, standoffishness from the others... you can pretty much add all of those symptoms to any avian illness you can think of. Pretty much why you'll see on the forums folks asking for photos if you have them, and asking specific questions to isolate nuances of an illness.

 

[minaayindra]

You just described Norma, during the last 2 days of her life, exactly. That’s what my frustration was after rushing her to the vet- he wasn’t able to isolate it any more than I could from reading all these knowledgeable comments and book information. I’m truly devastated she’s gone but the other chicks seem to have already forgotten her and moved on. I’m going to have to take a lesson from them...

 

[Ebony Rose]