please help, bloody poop and LEG ISSUE...disease?on med. starter

[sunket77]

I have a 5 week old NN chick. Her legs are not working right, I would not say paralyzed because she can move them. She can not walk, holds them out kind of stiff but when I pick her up she can fold them in. She also has bloody poop it has been getting more and more bloody with each poop. And kind of large for a chick her age. She is on medicated chick starter and water, occasionally I put vitamins in the water. Before I separated her she was in with a bunch of other chicks of varying ages all about the same size in a playpen brooder with pine shavings. If I can't save her I need to know if the others may have a disease, the last few days I have been watching them close and they all see healthy and fine. PLEASE HELP!and THANK YOU!!!

 

[kelar]

She has coccidiosis & needs treatment immediately. It may already be too late as cocci can kill in 24 hours. I would put her on sulmet or some people prefer corid, but sulmet treats more kinds of cocci.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Quote:x2 definitely all the signs.

 

[sunket77]

ok...I was under the impression that medicated chick starter was a preventative of coccidiosis, and is the leg problem normal with it? thanks!

 

[Anianna]

Quote:Medicated feed gives only low doses of Amprolium. It does not keep the chick from getting sick, but can help chicks survive initial exposure. Chicks that survive the infection will be immune to future Coccidiosis infections. Corid is higher doses of Amprolium for treatment of outbreak. However, if your chick is showing such symptoms while on the medicated feed, the strain she has may be resistant to the Amprolium, so I would recommend Sumlet, instead.

 

[sunket77]

I will give it a shot! thanks! should I treat them all since they where all together? could I be dealing with two different things here? a vitamin def. maybe b/c of her legs? I felt her joints and can feel her hip joint pop when moved back and forth. poor thing! just flops around, wrapped her tightly in a towel so she would stop flopping and not drown in her water by accident.

 

[crazyhen]

I would use the sulmet and quickly on all the chicks. The leg issue is probably because she is so weak. When the xment is over then give her yogurt. Milk products during treatment interfers but is great for their irritated inside after treatment. Gloria Jean

 

[Anianna]

Here is a video that shows how a chick with Coccidiosis stumbles and has a hard time standing. It is educational, but may be difficult to watch.

 

[sunket77]

thanks for the link, it does help. I am pretty sure that is what is going on. The one in bad shape stretches her legs out all the way out kind of sitting up on her bottom, until she flops around. I have them all on sulmet now and found a couple of more cases in a couple of other chicks. One is quite thin and weak another is just weak. Since it is so late, I am going to separate them in the morning and clean out the brooder. Now do I need to worry about how I dispose of the shavings? I have m laying flock that free ranges in the yard, they are all full grown, so are they still in danger of catching it?

I think this is the most crowded I have had chicks before, although I have seen much more crowded conditions for chicks. I have got some separating to do and quickly running out of room!

thank you all for your help

 

[kelar]

It's likely that your free range flock is carrying the cocci that infected the chicks. Adults gain some immunity to it, although they can still get very sick and die from it if it overwhelms their systems. The cocci occysts build up in the soil over time. I know you are not supposed to use sulmet on adults, but I still treat my entire flock once a year and do not eat the eggs for a while after. Crowding of chicks really exacerbates the problem, especially if the litter gets damp. When I had a bad outbreak earlier this year, I separated the chicks into postal boxes at night, 2 or 3 to a box inside the house where it's warm so I could keep a close eye on their droppings and change out the bedding daily. During the day, I put them into big rubbermaid tubs which got cleaned out and disinfected before putting them back in the next morning. You should see a quick improvement with the sulmet if it's not too late.