My sick chick

[eestep8]

I had 5 chicks hatch a week and a half ago. I am feeding TSC's chick starter. Then the chicks started dying, i did notice some reddish poop and before they died they would get really sleepy and weak for about 12 or so hours. I didn't get medication because I thought the feed was medicated and that maybe they were just to weak to survive. Then I read on here that TSC's feed isn't medicated for cocci, so now I am down to one chick. I went and bought sulmet. He seems okay he has lots of energy and is eating and drinking fine. He occasionaly poops reddish poop. I mixed 1/4 Tablespoon with 16 OZ of water ( i hope thats the right conversion) and gave him a small amount in his water bowl and mixed some in with his crumbles and made a mash. He absolutely LOVES mash lol. He gets so excited when I give it to him. I did remove the dry food so that all he has is the mash.

Any tips or suggestions? I will keep updating this thread.

Yes I will get him a buddy once he is healed and everything is disinfected.

 

[threehorses]

The amprolium in feed is at a dosage level to allow chicks to get be exposed to cocci so that they develop an immunity to it. So it doesn't kill cocci completely nor is it designed to treat cocci blooms, no. It's called a coccidiostat.

You were correct to get a coccidioCIDE, something designed to kill cocciodiosis the illness. Corid is your best choice with babies. It's amprolium in a stronger (coccidiocide) strength. Because it's only strong amprolium, not an antibiotic, it's more gentle on the entire baby's system.

But as you found if you can't find Corid, you can use the Sulmet (or Albon - or sulfamethazine sodium 12.5A%) and use that. Keep him on that for at least 5 days.

In all cases, you'll also want to use a PRObiotic to build back the beneficial bacteria that is supposed to compete against yeast/fungi, protazoa, and bad bacteria and help the babies stay healthy. Their good bacteria is compromised so you need to rebuild them.

You can use either plain yogurt, Probios brand dispersible powder (from the feedstore - the bottle if refrigerated lasts ages and ages), or acidophilis capsules/tablets (emptied or crushed) from the pharmacy or vitamin section of the grocery store.

Mix that in his wet mash. Use only enough wet mash that he'll finish it in 15 minutes. Then he can and should have dry mash the rest of the day. (Wet food sours.)

Good job on the good instincts! I hope this post helps you understand the whole "medicated" thing. Though I'm very sorry you lost the others.