Please help to tube feed my chick

[Snowingamanda]

You said she is eating and drinking? Keep her going over night and tomorrow is a new day. You can assess everything in the morning. Are you tube feeding the Sulfa?

I thought about giving her Sulfa with tube feed but it’s a tab, not soluble powder, so when I try to dissolve it in the water it all settled down and hard to administer. Should I try tomorrow then? Sin it too weak of an antibiotic? Should I look for a stronger one? And which one?

 

[Suedan]

You mentioned you did the Corid for three days. There are a bunch of posts on here to do it for 5 and for severe cases the dose decreases but continues for a certain length of time. I don't know anything about Sulfa but Eggcessive did some responses on it. I hate coccidosis...

 

[Snowingamanda]

Thank you, I’ll look into it. For now I guess tomorrow I’ll give her both, Corid and Sulfa. Thank you for your support!

 

[Suedan]

I think I have seen most people doing corid and if that isn't working they go to sulfa. My understanding is that the Sulfa treats coccidosis and gastric enteritis. I'm not familiar with doing both.

 

[Suedan]

Hang in there, your babies are beautiful!

 

[chickenmomma16]

I normally don’t pop in on medical issues but I seemed to have a persistent strain of coccidiosis in my environment this year. It’s been really mild wet weather all year too. I ended up giving a few of my chicks (around her same age actually) Corid straight. I put a little in a syringe and gave it straight for a few days in a row in addition to the proper water dilution. Might be drastic to some but snapped them right out of it and I didn’t loose any chicks this year to cocci. *Also, make sure your not giving vitamins while treating with Corid.*
Sorry about your chick. Hopefully she’ll get better but it might just be too late. But get right on your other one! Did you move them to a new environment a week or 2 ago? Sometimes that can set off a cocci infection.

 

[Snowingamanda]

I normally don’t pop in on medical issues but I seemed to have a persistent strain of coccidiosis in my environment this year. It’s been really mild wet weather all year too. I ended up giving a few of my chicks (around her same age actually) Corid straight. I put a little in a syringe and gave it straight for a few days in a row in addition to the proper water dilution. Might be drastic to some but snapped them right out of it and I didn’t loose any chicks this year to cocci. *Also, make sure your not giving vitamins while treating with Corid.*
Sorry about your chick. Hopefully she’ll get better but it might just be too late. But get right on your other one! Did you move them to a new environment a week or 2 ago? Sometimes that can set off a cocci infection.

Thank you for the information! I didn’t move them, but I have ducks and they make their run wet, so maybe that’s one reason for it... when I tried to treat this chick with Corid for 3 days I did give it to her in a syringe in her mouth in addition to diluting it in water, it she just didn’t seem to improve one bit. Or maybe Suedsn Ian right and I needed to continue for another 2 days and then lower dose for longer... or maybe Sulfa is the answer, but I wonder if it’s just not strong enough like Flagyl (or whatever that name is) or Baytril or something. I do wish the vet would have tested her

 

[chickenmomma16]

Thank you for the information! I didn’t move them, but I have ducks and they make their run wet, so maybe that’s one reason for it... when I tried to treat this chick with Corid for 3 days I did give it to her in a syringe in her mouth in addition to diluting it in water, it she just didn’t seem to improve one bit. Or maybe Suedsn Ian right and I needed to continue for another 2 days and then lower dose for longer... or maybe Sulfa is the answer, but I wonder if it’s just not strong enough like Flagyl (or whatever that name is) or Baytril or something. I do wish the vet would have tested her

It’s so hard with chickens because they hide illness so well and by the time we notice something is off they are too far gone to be able to fix it. In your veterinarian’s defense (I worked at a small animal hospital in my younger years) they see a lot of death. It’s hard to watch animals suffer for longer then they have too usually because the owner wants to exhaust all options of treatment. This vet seen in your bird that she was suffering a lot and wanted to end it for her sake. They do care, a lot more then people think. If they suggested euthanasia even though you were willing to pay for more treatments you know she’s pretty far gone.
If/when she does pass can you send her in to have a necropsy done? I sent a bird in to the state vet that died and I had others sick, best thing I ever did. Found out exactly what it was and saved the rest of the flock.

 

[2 many chickens]

This screams coccidiosis to me. My birds had it last year, I treated corid in their water for 7 days I believe, made fresh daily. It may have even been 10 days, I can't remember exactly. 3 days doesn't sound long enough to me. I would consider treating all your birds if they have been in close quarters with the bird that's sick.

 

[Snowingamanda]

It’s so hard with chickens because they hide illness so well and by the time we notice something is off they are too far gone to be able to fix it. In your veterinarian’s defense (I worked at a small animal hospital in my younger years) they see a lot of death. It’s hard to watch animals suffer for longer then they have too usually because the owner wants to exhaust all options of treatment. This vet seen in your bird that she was suffering a lot and wanted to end it for her sake. They do care, a lot more then people think. If they suggested euthanasia even though you were willing to pay for more treatments you know she’s pretty far gone.
If/when she does pass can you send her in to have a necropsy done? I sent a bird in to the state vet that died and I had others sick, best thing I ever did. Found out exactly what it was and saved the rest of the flock.

Thank you. You are right, the vet definitely did care and did not want her to suffer. He didn’t offer euthanasia though, and I meant to do it in the morning, when I saw how much worse off she was, so I called a few vets to see what the prices for euthanasia were. But then I read all the stories of tube feeding with happy ending and thought I should try. But I will consider it again in the morning. Thank you for the great idea about the state vet autopsy. I will definitely do that!