question about 4 week Cornish X and heart attack?

[blueskylen]

Hi,

i had one 4 week old cornish x with its legs out and breathing hard this morning, did a search but could not bring up "heart attacks" or "flip" .

i am pretty sure that i'll lose this one, but want to see if anyone can tell me how to maybe prevent any more from this. i have been doing the 12 hours on/ 12 hours off feed, flock raiser 21% with a bit of soybean meal added for more protien, not too hot or cold, and lots of fresh water. i have raised Cornish's 3 years now, and have not had any deaths between the first week and the last week, except for this. I usually stop worrying about any dying after the 2nd week.

i have some vitamins with electrolites left over from the first week - would it be helpfull to add some to the water?

any suggestions or thoughts on changing feed,etc?

thanks

 

[AtomicPink]

Cornish X's really have it hard. Its best to butcher them in the 30-45 day range before they start to suffer. Their organs, particularly heart and lungs grow at the same rate as normal chicks, but their muscles and bones are growing so large that its a huge strain. The other problems they encounter is structure imbalance. Their breast is so large that they have an unnatural stance and their whole body is in an awkward alignment so they are in constant discomfort. Sometimes feeding them a higher protein feed helps. There is not really a whole lot you can do when they get in that state other than end their suffering. For a strained respiratory system a vet would put them on IV fluids and Oxygen to make them more comfortable, but that's not realistic for a meat bird. Its best not to feed them any feed that promotes growth. They will suffer less the slower they grow.

 

[blueskylen]

thanks for the reply - she/he is still hanging on, not eating or drinking, altho i did help it drink some water yesterday. if it is not up and moving around by this evening, i guess it would be better to end it's suffering and cull it.

i'm just going to go to feeding 10 hours/ 14 hours off. that might slow down their growth enough for the remaining 4 weeks. not much else I can do, i guess. if i feed much less than that, they might start eating each other:/