ChickenMama308
Songster
- Mar 17, 2018
- 123
- 71
- 101
My 2 year old hen just had 5 chicks with a high mortality rate...
The newborn chick symptoms all came within a day or two of the chicks hatching:
- General weakness, tiredness, dozing off, low energy, limpness, closed eyes
- inability or lack of desire to eat / drink
- consistent yawn-like reflex of opening the mouth wide and up
- small amount of blood crusted on skin of inner eye corners or on the skin below the eyes, as well as a little bit of blood crusted at the bellybutton
- some would regain a bit of energy with sugar, salt, apple cider vinegar, nutri-drench etc water but weakness would set in again in waves getting worse each time for the most part
The first time I saw our hen get out of her nesting box with her newborn baby chicks there was one already dead - poor thing looked as if it was trampled / squished to death under her. There were 3 chicks left, and 2 seemed healthy and chipper but there was one who was alone / couldn't keep up and was dozing off and weak. He was frequently opening his mouth wide in a way that looked like yawning, or some kind of gag-like reflex reaction with opening the mouth wide and up. His eyes were closed the whole time I saw him, and body became fairly limp. There was a small amount of blood crusted on his skin outside the inner corners of his eyes. He wouldn't eat or drink. I brought him inside and tried to google the symptoms but nothing seemed to match or seem completely evident. He died shortly after. The next day it was another chick... All the same symptoms. I tried giving salt and sugar water to them with a dropper, but was never able to give him food. No pasty vent, but I did notice a small amount of crusted blood at the belly button. He went through waves of feeling better and then getting weak / closed eyes / mouth reflexing again etc. They died that evening. Same thing with the chick the next day, even with nutrid-rench and applecider vinegar in the water, and small amounts of yogurt fed. A small amount of blood on the skin under their eyes showed up closer to her death and there was small amounts of crusted blood at the bellybutton. They died as well. The last chick hatched later and I was better equipped and acted faster with her and have gotten her to a place today that though she has had weaker moments here and there, she has seemed so much better in the past 12 or so hours and has been able to eat solids - fresh garlic, yogurt, cooked egg yolk, medicated feed. She still would have slight moments of tiredness that didn't seem 100% normal, and once in a blue moon one of those yawns would come out after she would be sleeping / resting. There were red and black mites present on all of them, the least amount was found on the one i still have living.
The mama hen has had a relatively pale comb for the past months, and one of the other hens out of the 3 in the coop. The mama hen has seemed to have a bit of a loss of appetite recently but she's always been about half the size of the other Rhode Island Reds in comparison and she acted otherwise very normal and seemed healthy. I'm not sure what breed the mom / broody hen is, she was a wild chick I rescued from our property. From searching online though she looks as if she is a legbar or at least part legbar. I am not sure which rooster it was that inseminated her... there are about 4 different possibilities.
However, reading up on what could be happening, I was wondering if it may be Coccidiosis. Heeding all warnings and not wanting to lose her I went and bought Corid and have given her the dosage over the past 8 hours or so. I put Corid in the water for all the chickens, for our raised chickens as well as the wild chickens to drink. But now I'm wondering if I should even be giving Corid to the baby as well as everyone else. It's hard because I just want to make sure the little one makes it and obviously protect everyone else as well but I don't want to do the wrong thing. I'll probably take in a stool sample tomorrow, unfortunately it's an hour drive and it's been hard to juggle my everyday life with all of this. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience or educated guesses as to what is going on as well as if you have any advice at all.
Thank you so much, I look forward to signing in again in the morning.
Some background info; We live in a rural area on an unfenced acre with a range of 10-20 wild chickens that roam our property (with newcomers visiting once in a while) and have personally raised 3 two year old hens in an outdoor fully mesh / open aired coop with sand and wood chip floors, and we began free-ranging them with the other wild chickens about 4 months ago. We live in Hawaii by the ocean - it doesn't get very cold here but it has been raining and some days there is lots of sun.
The newborn chick symptoms all came within a day or two of the chicks hatching:
- General weakness, tiredness, dozing off, low energy, limpness, closed eyes
- inability or lack of desire to eat / drink
- consistent yawn-like reflex of opening the mouth wide and up
- small amount of blood crusted on skin of inner eye corners or on the skin below the eyes, as well as a little bit of blood crusted at the bellybutton
- some would regain a bit of energy with sugar, salt, apple cider vinegar, nutri-drench etc water but weakness would set in again in waves getting worse each time for the most part
The first time I saw our hen get out of her nesting box with her newborn baby chicks there was one already dead - poor thing looked as if it was trampled / squished to death under her. There were 3 chicks left, and 2 seemed healthy and chipper but there was one who was alone / couldn't keep up and was dozing off and weak. He was frequently opening his mouth wide in a way that looked like yawning, or some kind of gag-like reflex reaction with opening the mouth wide and up. His eyes were closed the whole time I saw him, and body became fairly limp. There was a small amount of blood crusted on his skin outside the inner corners of his eyes. He wouldn't eat or drink. I brought him inside and tried to google the symptoms but nothing seemed to match or seem completely evident. He died shortly after. The next day it was another chick... All the same symptoms. I tried giving salt and sugar water to them with a dropper, but was never able to give him food. No pasty vent, but I did notice a small amount of crusted blood at the belly button. He went through waves of feeling better and then getting weak / closed eyes / mouth reflexing again etc. They died that evening. Same thing with the chick the next day, even with nutrid-rench and applecider vinegar in the water, and small amounts of yogurt fed. A small amount of blood on the skin under their eyes showed up closer to her death and there was small amounts of crusted blood at the bellybutton. They died as well. The last chick hatched later and I was better equipped and acted faster with her and have gotten her to a place today that though she has had weaker moments here and there, she has seemed so much better in the past 12 or so hours and has been able to eat solids - fresh garlic, yogurt, cooked egg yolk, medicated feed. She still would have slight moments of tiredness that didn't seem 100% normal, and once in a blue moon one of those yawns would come out after she would be sleeping / resting. There were red and black mites present on all of them, the least amount was found on the one i still have living.
The mama hen has had a relatively pale comb for the past months, and one of the other hens out of the 3 in the coop. The mama hen has seemed to have a bit of a loss of appetite recently but she's always been about half the size of the other Rhode Island Reds in comparison and she acted otherwise very normal and seemed healthy. I'm not sure what breed the mom / broody hen is, she was a wild chick I rescued from our property. From searching online though she looks as if she is a legbar or at least part legbar. I am not sure which rooster it was that inseminated her... there are about 4 different possibilities.
However, reading up on what could be happening, I was wondering if it may be Coccidiosis. Heeding all warnings and not wanting to lose her I went and bought Corid and have given her the dosage over the past 8 hours or so. I put Corid in the water for all the chickens, for our raised chickens as well as the wild chickens to drink. But now I'm wondering if I should even be giving Corid to the baby as well as everyone else. It's hard because I just want to make sure the little one makes it and obviously protect everyone else as well but I don't want to do the wrong thing. I'll probably take in a stool sample tomorrow, unfortunately it's an hour drive and it's been hard to juggle my everyday life with all of this. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience or educated guesses as to what is going on as well as if you have any advice at all.
Thank you so much, I look forward to signing in again in the morning.
Some background info; We live in a rural area on an unfenced acre with a range of 10-20 wild chickens that roam our property (with newcomers visiting once in a while) and have personally raised 3 two year old hens in an outdoor fully mesh / open aired coop with sand and wood chip floors, and we began free-ranging them with the other wild chickens about 4 months ago. We live in Hawaii by the ocean - it doesn't get very cold here but it has been raining and some days there is lots of sun.
