Molasses flushing?....Sick chicks becoming worse! :( Need help ASAP!

[justbugged]

Thank you for the information MotherJean. I really learned from your information. I love this forum for the information. And even though I have had chickens off and on for years, there is still a lot more I need to learn.

 

[MotherJean]

Thank you, justbugged. I like this forum for the same reasons you do. I learn something new just about daily either from the vast repository of personal experiences from other BYC'ers or from questions that peak my interest and prompt scholarly research to find answers. Ain't the Internet grand?

 

[77horses]

Thank you everyone for the information.

I wasn't able to get on after I asked what tetracycline is...thanks for explaining it btw...so I just now read the new posts. The three baby chicks are still hanging on, but the youngest is getting worse by the day. Their poop doesn't have anymore blood in it...and looks more solid rather than diahria...since I gave them the molasses flush. But the youngest one is getting worse everyday. She will eat and drink normally, but is very slow and her wings are drooping even more. She can barely keep her eyes open and will often just stand in one place with both eyes closed, peeping very sadly with her wings drooped and it's just so sad to see.

Poor baby! When I pick her up she feels much more light and bony than usual and she just lies there in my hand, not moving and wriggling around to get free like she usually did. (Baby chicks are always like that at that age...especially when raised with a broody hen...they are much more flighty and skittish than usual. So when she's all the sudden very still when I hold her, I know something is wrong...

) The two others are also pretty slow and their wings are drooping, but not as bad. I just feel so bad for them because they all look so miserable!
Also, I went outside today to put them in for the night...They usually always follow their mother hen up the ramp and into the coop when it gets dark, and I just close everything up. But today I went out there and found that all but one had made it into the coop. Jasmine, the youngest and weakest chick, was curled up under the coop, peeping sadly because she couldn't get up the ramp with the other two and the mother hen. I put her inside and she waddled slowly over to the nest box and snuggled under the mother hen.


So now I'm planning on getting some tetracycline as soon as I can...Tomorrow at the least.

If I get the tetracycline, will I also need to get the activated charcoal or just one or the other?


Also, I'm hoping it's not cocci because isn't cocci highly contagious? Both the rooster and mother hen seem fine and are showing none of the symptoms that the baby chicks have.

Thanks!

 

[77horses]

Also, I found a similar thread on here with almost the same exact problems...Someone commented on it and said, "I would not give antibiotics. You don't know what you are treating, and there are different antibiotics for different purposes. I would continue the PolyViSol vitamins, 2 or 3 drops a day for a week. Feeding boiled egg mashed up for protein is good, add some yogurt (plain unflavored). Wouldn't hurt to add ACV (organic apple cider vinegar) in the water, as well. Be sure the ACV is organic, the kind with the "mother" in it, nondistilled. Maybe she would be interested in some oatmeal mixed in, too. Anything to get her interested in eating is good."


So should I get some Corid and not any tetracycline? Both?

Thanks!

 

[PoultryPedia]

I know ALL ABOUT your chicks' problems if they are from mold!!

I nursed 2 chickens for months with internal fungus problem that came from my feeding them moldy corn.
This is so hard to watch & try to help. I did not know for sure the problem, nor the treatment with my first chicken. I didn't know correct treatment until very late with the second. They both slowly died of starvation.

Unfortunately, the condition is EXTREMELY hard to cure and has a very poor prognosis. It may be even harder on your guys because they are very young.
I will create a web page with information on treating this condition, and send you a link. I will try to post as much as I can get up within the next day.

Meanwhile, some important basic tips:
Carbohydrates and sweets *feed the fungus*, which then does more damage to the chickens' insides plus releases more toxins. Do NOT give any more molasses, sugar, etc.
Proteins are great. Grasshoppers, earwigs, mealworms (though very expensive), freshly hulled nuts other than peanuts (pre-hulled nuts are more likely to have mold on them, as are peanuts), meats of any kind (fish, pork, beef).
It is okay to feed some regular feed, though it has quite a bit of carbs. Also do give other foods to help balance it out, though.
A little unsweetened yogurt is helpful to nourish good bacteria that are getting killed off competing with the fungus. Don't overdo or they will get diarrhea.
Add vitamins and mineral powder to their water. (**Do NOT add this to food. Chickens don't like the taste. They will still drink water fine with it added, but will avoid food if you add it to that.***) Add a little more than the label's directions. A pouch Vi-Tal or similar supplement at a feed store costs only $4. There are electrolytes in those, which means there is some sugar, but hopefully not as much as in Poly-Visol children's vitamins, etc.
Many vegetables are good for chicken's struggling with this--spinach, pumpkin, lettuce (other than iceburg kind). I don't remember for sure about tomatoes... I'll post more info on webpage when I look it up.

I would keep the mom and chick's in a restricted area so they don't have to travel a lot, and so they have ready access to all the food and water they will take in. You might even want to add a low-volt light bulb in a heat lamp in the area, if the chicks have a hard time staying under the hen & seem to get cold. They need as much of their energy saved as possible! The fungus is eating their food, poisoning them, and potentially damaging the walls of their digestive organs.

There is a hard-to-find chemical that helps treat this. I have it, though it might possibly be stored in another city where I can't get it until next week. I can mail to you as soon as I can if you PM or email me your address.

I'll give more info as I have time.
Best wishes!!!

p.s. Since your older chickens had access to the moldy feed, they VERY LIKELY have the condition, too, just are not showing signs as much yet because their systems' are stronger. Give them appropriate diet, too. They probably are okay not being confined as much, though, unless it's cold.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Thank you! Just sent you a PM.

The mother hen and chicks are already in a fairly small area...Everyday when I let them out, since they rarely go into the coop during the day, I put their waterer and feed dish on the ground where they can easily reach it without having to climb up the ramp and into the coop. Their run area is very small and they only share it with my young rooster, Ivory. So they don't need to travel much as it is. Also, I already have (and have had) a small light bulb in their coop nearby the nest box that they all sleep in next to/under the mother hen. Despite how hard it is for all of them to get under her, since they're standard chicks and the mother (foster) hen is a Bantam, they still manage to crawl under or at least halfway under her to keep warm. Plus I think it only goes down to the 50's at the least during the night.
Thanks again!

 

[PoultryPedia]

I'm thinking the tetracycline probably is not helpful for this condition, but I'll have to double-check. I do remember that antibiotics in general are NOT GOOD for treating it, because they kill off good bacteria that helps drive off the bad fungus.

I think the activated charcoal probably WOULD be helpful.

I have info stored on computer at different house, but will try to look up as soon as I'm able.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Thank you! I think I'll get some of the activated charcoal then...how would I use it? In the water?

 

[PoultryPedia]

I think a little oatmeal occasionally is okay, so you could give the way MotherJean described. Or in water, if they will still drink water okay with charcoal in it. Chickens do tend to be pretty accepting of pretty much anything in their water.

BTW--I would not feed bread because it fills up their crops so they probably won't eat as much, and is high-carb.

The thread about my experience with my chickens is at:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=253587&p=2

Note: Riley is the first chicken I tried to treat. I did not know correct treatments while treating her.
Her sister Little I didn't know was ill until right before she died, and I did not get a chance to treat.
I got understanding of problem and correct treatment after their mother Wonder was sick quite a while.

All the chickens were also weakened by Northern Fowl Mites some of the time. I didn't discover that for a while, though I handled some of the chickens a lot. Those mites can be hard to notice.

 

[justbugged]

Speckled Would you use something like Captan? Captan is a fungicide that is used normal on plants in the garden. My Veterinarian suggested it when I was fighting ringworm on my puppies. It has worked on all but 2 of the pups. I found it at a local plant nursery. I have worried that it was overkill for what I am trying to do, but it's been a long time and I don't see any negative effects at all.