Peachick help needed.

crj

Songster
10 Years
Dec 17, 2009
1,596
38
173
Rocky Point, NC
I have a peachick that is about 3 months old. At 1 month old I saved it from drowning in a horses water bucket. It stunted growth a bit but it's been doing fine. I was shocked when I realized it was a live and gave it mouth to beak after I shook the water out of it.

Now it's doing something very strange and it's 2 siblings aren't doing it. They are healthy and so is the Mom. This chick seems to stretch it's neck and continue to open and close it's mouth. It moves it's head around like a snake going in a circular motion then stops. Almost like it wants to make a sound or swallow.

I have the chick in a cage with food and water and a lamp in my bathroom. It ate the pieces of grapes I gave it so that was good. It has bright eyes, face looks fine and so does the body other then the wings a bit droopy but not much. Very slight. I squished its crop and it was sloshy and gurgly. Very odd. After all the squishing it pooped just a little and it was white with what looked like a corn kernel size thing. It could have been a kernel but it was darkish in the white goop. Breathing wise it does sound a bit raspy.

I gave it some chick starter grower and started the chick on Metronidazole with Praziquantel.

Has anyone had a chick that had these symptoms and if so how did you treat it? Love to know more. I'm hoping what I'm giving the chick will work. If it has a respiratory issue should I give it a shot of penicillin?

I would appreciate any help you can give. Thanks. ~ Chris
 
Hello,
Some of the peapeople here have a lot of experience with this kind of thing, and hopefully they will jump in here with advice.
It would be useful if you could let us know:
Does he have any other symptoms at all? (coughing, sneezing, fluffed up feathers)
It is particularly hot or cold where you are?
Have your peas been outside on the ground, and do you have chickens?

Here are a few possibilities for what might be bothering your chick:
One is that your chick may just have some food a bit stuck on its way down; do they eat anything stringy like grass or greens? Or it might have eaten something it shouldn't have, like a piece of hair or thread.
Another possibility is, as you mention, a respiratory problem. You might take a look at the recent "What medications do you keep on hand" thread for suggestions about what/how much medication to give him. My grown pea had pneumonia and Baytril worked like a miracle cure!
And, the other (bad) possibility is blackhead. If you search you'll find information here about people's experiences with blackhead. This can be the result of peas on the ground with chickens.

Best of luck and please let us know how he is doing.
 
Thank you New 2 Peafowl. This bird is actually my friends bird but I will care for it. It is with chickens but not very much. It does eat grass I'm sure. No other symptoms. I know what blackhead is and one of the reasons I started the Metronidazole with Praziquantel. The bird looks fine other then the very slight droopy wing.

What color is a peachicks tongue suppose to be? I noticed it isn't pink but not sure if that is normal. I just looked at it and it blackish with pink around the edges. It's eating and drinking now but no poop to check yet. I started the chick on medicated starter grower.

I can't look down it's throat to see if it swallowed anything it shouldn't. That's what I've got for now.
 
No problem, cjr. As I said, other peapeople here are more likely to be able to give you experience-based advice, and hopefully they will pop in here. Especially about tongue color!

One other thing I'm only mentioning because I recently had a very unpleasant experience is poisoning.
Two of my guys got into some rat poison (not mine of course), and their symptoms included some head/beak movement and droopy wings.
I imagine that this is not your problem, but I mention it because if there is any chance he got some poison he would need to be treated immediately - the first response is injections of vitamin K for liver support.
 
I had one peachick last year, about the same age as yours, that was doing very similar things, so I took him to the vet. Turned out he had a bacterial throat infection and she gave us Cephalexin and told me to give him 250mg every 12 hours for 14 days.

This year and last year I have had a very bad blackhead problem, so I am also very paranoid and have been told by vets to treat with metronidazole at the rate of 30mg/kg for 5 days and to worm with Safeguard for goats at the rate of .5cc/kg then repeat in ten days. I don't think praziquantil gets cecal worms. She also told me to give all meds orally, not in the water, and to weigh and adjust medications accordingly.

My chicks get weighed every few days and I chart their gains/losses. And when they look "off", they get weighed daily. No weight gain or weight loss 2 days in a row could mean a serious problem.

About the tongue... I also have one with a black tongue, but she seems perfectly healthy. But I should mention that I read an article about tongue color and fungal infections.

Keep in mind that secondary bacterial and fungal infections are very common in chicks with blackhead. A couple of us here have learned that the hard way.

I will be weighing mine today and I'll post their weights so you can have something to compare against. Can you post a picture of the chicks poop? FYI, any yellow or blood would be a major concern.
 
Last edited:
I read your post again and thought I should add that my chick with the throat infection did not have "raspy breathing", but the last one I lost did, and it was a secondary fungal infection that was causing the breathing problems.

Is there any chance that someone could take the chick to a vet?
 
Thank for all the info Casportpony. No way of getting to a vet. The poop was brown this morning and wet. Thicker then water so I figured it was not to bad. I did add Duramycin to the water. The chick is looking a bit better today and I have to say it loves grapes.... lol. I put the powdered Metronidazole with Praziquantel in a grape and not the water. I want to make sure it gets it all.

I looked at the birds vent yesterday and it looked just fine. No dried or yucky poop. No sign of worms in the recent poop. I can't seem to insert a picture. I will try and figure it out another time.
 
I had one peachick last year, about the same age as yours, that was doing very similar things, so I took him to the vet. Turned out he had a bacterial throat infection and she gave us Cephalexin and told me to give him 250mg every 12 hours for 14 days.

This year and last year I have had a very bad blackhead problem, so I am also very paranoid and have been told by vets to treat with metronidazole at the rate of 30mg/kg for 5 days and to worm with Safeguard for goats at the rate of .5cc/kg then repeat in ten days. I don't think praziquantil gets cecal worms. She also told me to give all meds orally, not in the water, and to weigh and adjust medications accordingly.

My chicks get weighed every few days and I chart their gains/losses. And when they look "off", they get weighed daily. No weight gain or weight loss 2 days in a row could mean a serious problem.

About the tongue... I also have one with a black tongue, but she seems perfectly healthy. But I should mention that I read an article about tongue color and fungal infections.

Keep in mind that secondary bacterial and fungal infections are very common in chicks with blackhead. A couple of us here have learned that the hard way.

I will be weighing mine today and I'll post their weights so you can have something to compare against. Can you post a picture of the chicks poop? FYI, any yellow or blood would be a major concern.


Good info. Thanks for posting about bacterial throat infection.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom