Severe buffalo gnat attack chicks barely alive

[kgilmore1]

Three of my 8 week old silkie chicks (all 3 black) were alive and thriving a few hours ago and when I went to put them up for the night they were limp and almost lifeless. Absolutely covered in buffalo gnats and bleeding. I’m out of sav a chick but I syringed water and corn syrup and brought them in to a heat lamp because they’re cool. What else can I do? They’re obviously in hypovolemic shock and I’m not sure there’s much I can do to bring them back at this point. I’m devastated

 

[mixedUPturk]

Three of my 8 week old silkie chicks (all 3 black) were alive and thriving a few hours ago and when I went to put them up for the night they were limp and almost lifeless. Absolutely covered in buffalo gnats and bleeding. I’m out of sav a chick but I syringed water and corn syrup and brought them in to a heat lamp because they’re cool. What else can I do? They’re obviously in hypovolemic shock and I’m not sure there’s much I can do to bring them back at this point. I’m devastated

I had a hen in pretty bad shape and i gave scrambled eggs to help her get thru it. She didnt want feed and didnt eat alot of eggs but it got her to eat something and keep her metabloism moving. The water u mixed might help and instead of buying sav a chick buy nutridrench tumro itll help too. U should get all the chicks out of there. Have u seen the gnats swarming? I lost 42 birds to the gnats i thought their feathers could protect them but they cant

 

[mixedUPturk]

You have to treat your yard with a permethrin based product. TS carries lots of them in the equine section mostly.

I made a thread about what happend here you can find it undet the predators and pests section titled "gnats killing birds." I had a necropsy done to be 100% sure of the cause of death. There are also links to articles in the news about those terrible things.

 

[mixedUPturk]

And im sorry for your loss, thats tough

 

[BlueChai]

I would really suggest going out to buy electrolytes to give them energy, but if you really can't, your corn syrup mixture or gatorade will work fine. I'm not familiar with buffalo gnats, do they lay eggs on the animals they feed off of? How do you prevent them from coming back?

 

[Kiki]

Nutri-Drench doesn't have to be digested. It's absorbed pretty quickly.

X2 on getting some permethrin to rid and prevent more gnats.

Nutri-Drench

• Kiki
• Aug 27, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-07-20 At 8.58.04 AM

• Kiki
• Aug 3, 2018

Permethrin Concentrate, Martin's on Left - Durvet on right

• Kiki
• Jul 28, 2018
• 2

IMG_20180322_102709

• Kiki
• Mar 22, 2018

Martin's PERMETHRIN spray

• Kiki
• Mar 22, 2018
• 6
• flies lice mites permethrin

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Three of my 8 week old silkie chicks (all 3 black) were alive and thriving a few hours ago and when I went to put them up for the night they were limp and almost lifeless. Absolutely covered in buffalo gnats and bleeding. I’m out of sav a chick but I syringed water and corn syrup and brought them in to a heat lamp because they’re cool. What else can I do? They’re obviously in hypovolemic shock and I’m not sure there’s much I can do to bring them back at this point. I’m devastated

How are they doing now?

 

[mixedUPturk]

I would really suggest going out to buy electrolytes to give them energy, but if you really can't, your corn syrup mixture or gatorade will work fine. I'm not familiar with buffalo gnats, do they lay eggs on the animals they feed off of? How do you prevent them from coming back?

They feed the cause of death is also well defined in my thread. Toxemia is usually what takes them.

 

[Trux]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/gnats-killing-birds.1305726/
theres the link

 

[kgilmore1]

Unfortunately two died last night, but the other is doing okay. Right now we have a fan on them to help. I also put out dryer sheets and vanilla on them since that’s all I had on hand. We live really rural, but after work today I’m going to get nutridrench, electrolytes, and permethrin. I am nervous about using permethrin though since we have a cat.
Thanks for all the responses. I knew the gnats were bad this year but never expected them to take over the chickens so fast. I usually don’t react much to gnats but I’m also covered in whelps so I don’t know if it’s a different variety or what