Please Help! 2 Dead and 1 VERY Lethargic

[abgarner0303]

I came home to 2 dead chickens this afternoon. They are 5 weeks old. One of the chicks is very lethargic. She is still alive but keeps opening her mouth and doesn't appear to be taking in any liquids. It was pretty warm today and there is 24 chickens in the pen so is it possible she got overheated? I went to the store and got Poly-vi-Sol and mixed it in their water. I mixed some sugar water and a small bit of Poly-Vi-Sol and gave it to the weak chicken via syringe but it appeared to just create a water pocket in her throat. She is opening her mouth like she is gasping so i held her with her head down and gently pushed on the water to get her to throw it back up. It worked but I am concerned that i may have a bigger issue on my hands and i will begin loosing chickens. Any advise?

 

[abgarner0303]

The lethargic chick didnt make it through the night. Checked on the rest of my flock this morning and they all seemed to be perfectly well. I am so scared that I may have an underlying issue. Does anyone have any suggestions? These chicks are 5 weeks old and have been perfectly fine until now. They are outside in a pen with a brooder light (up until yesterday when i turned it off. Lows are 65 degrees here now) in one if the wood enclosed areas. There is another wood enclosed area with no light and a large open (hardware cloth) area. I thought if they got hot they would go out to the open area (it has a roof and is in the shade of a pine tree) to cool off. I really hope my chicks just got overheated yesterday and died from dehydration and there is nothing more going on. It was around 80 degrees. Anyone with any suggestions? Any word of advice as a cautionary measure in case it may be something else? The chicks were vaccinated.

 

[MrsBachbach]

The lethargic chick didnt make it through the night. Checked on the rest of my flock this morning and they all seemed to be perfectly well. I am so scared that I may have an underlying issue. Does anyone have any suggestions? These chicks are 5 weeks old and have been perfectly fine until now. They are outside in a pen with a brooder light (up until yesterday when i turned it off. Lows are 65 degrees here now) in one if the wood enclosed areas. There is another wood enclosed area with no light and a large open (hardware cloth) area. I thought if they got hot they would go out to the open area (it has a roof and is in the shade of a pine tree) to cool off. I really hope my chicks just got overheated yesterday and died from dehydration and there is nothing more going on. It was around 80 degrees. Anyone with any suggestions? Any word of advice as a cautionary measure in case it may be something else? The chicks were vaccinated.

First, you need to make sure the heat lamp is on when the temps get lower than 75 degrees. That means early morning, early evening and at night. Temps are still too cool for 5 wk old chicks to be without a heat source. Afternoons may be fine for them, but still too early for cooler temps. Wait a couple of more weeks before taking the light away.
Second, I would start the rest of them on Corid in their water. I know the liquid Corid dosage is 9.5 ml per gallon of water for severe cases, moderate cases would be half that amount per gallon. If the rest are not showing any symptoms I would at least put them on the moderate dose amount for five days. Your chicks may have contracted coccidiosis. It is common in growing chicks and would be the first thing I would suspect with chicks acting ill. It can kill them quickly, so it is best to prevent it than wait for it to appear and then try to save them.