sick chick lethargic not eating or drinking much

[bruceh]

i have a flock of mixed chicks. 10 cornish x's (for meat) 5 rir, 6 ee, 3 bsl. one of my cornish x's is ill. about 3 days ago the chick got lethargic. laying down and sleeping not wanting move at all. she did eat and drink,
her belly is very warm. she is not growing well at all . she is 4 weeks old and is the size of a 2 week old. when i first noticed her illness it was not as bad but has got worse,the first sign was a very hard crop i treated it veg. oil. her poop was normal. i removed her from the flock today and put her in a brooder by herself. i am giving electrolytes in the water with chick starter. she drinks some but very little food. her poop is of course watery with some green stool. i see no worms. no other chickens have this issue.
i raise them in pen and run with 2 hrs of free range everyday, they are feed scratch, chick starter 20% just added grit, and scrapes of left over dinner.
just not sure of whats going on.
thanks,
bruce

 

[Serbian Cowboy]

Bruce, I am having a similar problem. We purchased a small flock of 20 New Hampshire's and 20 Sussex. We lost 6 within the first week and started giving antibiotics with the water for 5 days. That had pasty tails and we cleaned them twice a day. That seemed to have taken care of that problem. Now we have 3 chicks that are displaying the same symptoms that you described. Being as we mill our own food now I am thinking that it is either the food or we have too many in one brooder? Any assistance in solving this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bruceh]

how are you raising yours, free range,pen, pen and run. any treats for them. where did you get the chicks.

 

[FrenchToast]

If the chicks are warm enough they will get pasty butt.

 

[Serbian Cowboy]

We got ours from a poultry supplier here in Serbia. We just lost 3 more today so we have lost 9 so far. That is 25%. We had them in a brooder I built in the basement. We noticed a mouse and think that the mouse might have been getting into the brooder and contaminating the food. The last 3 we lost had really bad diarrhea that looked more like water. The temp is normal in the brooder, 31-33 degrees Centigrade. I will post a couple of pics of the brooders and chicks tomorrow.

I know my way around cattle and horses (grew up in Texas) but this is the first time I really had anything to do with chickens (except on the plate). Any suggestions are more than welcome.

 

[Serbian Cowboy]

sorry forgot to add that we have a large pen (getting ready to expand it) and a large house that we are going to add on also. Will post some pics if anyone is interested.

 

[bruceh]

@frenchtoast I have checked the vent and checked for mites found nothing wrong. I just don't know. I going to see if they have an all around antibiotic. she is still the same I fed her some hard boiled egg she ate some of that but not much. she still has loose stool. i amt have given her to much veg oil for her crop. she looks depressed..

 

[bruceh]

@serbiancowboy. what kind of chicks, what is there poop like. are you giving them electrolytes and what kind of feed. being you are from europe what fowl illness are there..
here is a link to poop chart.http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk. .
i have never been to europe is it nice.

 

[Serbian Cowboy]

@ Bruceh, we have Sussex and NH Reds, plus we got 6 grown mixes (only God knows what kind). Thanks for the chart. I changed things a little and they seem to be coming around (no more losses) and they seem to be more active since I built another brooder and separated the bigger ones. Now we got 17 in one and 16 in the other. each brooder is about 3 ft x 3 ft and 2ft tall. I cut the grass that was really tall and raked it together. Using that now as bedding and it seems to be working good. Their poop seems to be normal or getting normal (like I know what normal chicken poop looks like - smile). Europe is ok. I lived in Germany for a while after I left the military and ended up here in Serbia. Serbia is great, the only difference between Serbia and Texas is the language.

 

[bruceh]

please keep in touch i may want to visit. also what are you feeding them. are you using electrolytes.