Thank you both for your responses. I too, am slow to medicate unnecessarily. I personally don't even take aspirin or other for a headache. Earlier, there was a dire situation involving our mail order chicks. Unfortunately we lost many. Of 25+1 from MM there were 10 DOA, 4 critical, and the other 12 seemed okay. The timing of the shipment was quick IMO. According to MM, hatched, vaccinated and shipped at 10am last Tues. Post office called at noon on Thurs. We lit the brooder and car heat and drove straight there. At the PO we noted the obvious casualties and headed home. Got the active 12 to drink and into the brooder. Isolated the 4 criticals and got them warming. They were still breathing but listless. Tried to administer quik chik electrolyte solution w/sugar with a dropper. Two seemed to aspirate it and none of the 4 lasted another 15 minutes after arriving home (we live only 5 minutes from the PO). The first 18 hours in the brooder all seemed fine. Fri morning we herded all chicks to one end of the brooder and put in a temporary divider so we could inspect them one at a time and make sure again that each was drinking, eating etc. One by one we checked each chick and dipped its beak in the waterer (quik chik solution per instructions). After all were checked we removed the divider. After 45 minutes one chick dropped as if having a seizure, neck craned all the way against its back, loud chirping, and then flopped over onto its back kicking and struggling. Within a couple of minutes 2 others had same symptoms. We decided to try the only poly-vi-sol we could find, which included iron. 1-2 drops per affected chick. 2 died later, followed by 4 more overnight. One of the first 3 that we treated still survives now a week later, although she still shows signs of weakness. So of the 26, we are left with 6. All along, food has been chick starter, supplemented twice per day with hardboiled egg yolk, and quik chik electrolyte powder from MM in the water. I don't know if the poly-vi-sol with iron saved the one chick or not, but I doubt that it killed the others. Most likely just too late to do any good, but as soon as symptoms appeared.
