Sick Chick with drooping wings

[SkyWolf]

Sick Chicks

I had two very sick chicks at school. One passed away last night and the other one doesn’t look like she is getting better.

They’re sleeping a lot. Barely walk, and stumbled when they do. Still drink and eat a little but only a little. Wings are drooping all the time. Close eyes a lot. She can lift her head up though. She also pecks at a little food and drinks water a little if it’s close.

They have no runny eyes, nose, or mouth.l and they aren’t raspy. Poop is normal and they poop regularly. No swelling or pale/cold skin. They aren’t getting cold, and they just seem really weak.

They did have Coccidiosis but were treated over four days ago. All the other chicks are great now, except these two. One of them was also dropped by a student, but only one.

They have electrolytes in their water. Are getting applesauce and scrambled eggs as of today for protein. Also got the stuff with iron and nutrients and are giving it to them every few hours. We are getting medicated chick food for her today.

 

[azygous]

How old were the chicks when you treated them for coccidiosis? What did your treatment consist of? What were the symptoms that made you think you needed to treat for coccidiosis? Are you aware there is a five to seven day incubation period for coccidiosis, therefore rare in brand new chicks?

Your brooder, how large is it? How many chicks? How old are they now?

Heat, how hot is it on the floor directly under that heat lamp? Use a thermometer laid under the lamp on the floor of the brooder to take a reading. After that reading, take one at the far end of the brooder.

Behavior, are the chicks hanging out at the far extremes of the brooder or scattered around?

Feed, what is it? List everything you feed the chicks.

 

[SkyWolf]

How old were the chicks when you treated them for coccidiosis? What did your treatment consist of? What were the symptoms that made you think you needed to treat for coccidiosis? Are you aware there is a five to seven day incubation period for coccidiosis, therefore rare in brand new chicks?

Your brooder, how large is it? How many chicks? How old are they now?

Heat, how hot is it on the floor directly under that heat lamp? Use a thermometer laid under the lamp on the floor of the brooder to take a reading. After that reading, take one at the far end of the brooder.

Behavior, are the chicks hanging out at the far extremes of the brooder or scattered around?

Feed, what is it? List everything you feed the chicks.

The chicks were a little over two weeks old I believe. For the treatment we gave them Cord (the medication was for larger animals but we just gave them a small dose in the water is all. The reason we thoughts they had coccidiousis were this. So all the chicks had gotten pretty lethargic. Four of them were doing nothing but sleeping really. The two worse ones were the ones that are sick now. There was also blood spots and what not in their poop. I’m aware that coccidiosis does have a long incubation period. However they all seemed to have all the signs and were getting close to three weeks old. After treating them all, but the two, got better. No longer being lethargic and what not. They are as hyper as ever now.

There were ten chicks originally, one died two days later. We’ve had nine health chicks since then. (Unfortunately it’s eight now). They are in a large animals water trough like thing. It is the size of the metal store ones, just shorter walls and not made of metal. The chicks are a little over three weeks now.

The flower under the lap is warm, it’s not tio hot. The chicks are never panting or anything like that. They also can go to the far end without the lap shining on them and it’s much cooler over there. The sick babies tended to stay near the lap though. I can’t use a thermostat right now because this is at school and it’s the weekend. I took the sick babies home. Currently I can’t take a reading because I’m not home. I could get one by this evening maybe. The chicks will hang out in various places. Mostly the healthy ones are running all around. They sleep closer to the light though. The sick ones stayed close to the light and slept most the time.

They started off on medicated chick food for three days or so. They have been on normal feed ever since (as far as I’m aware). The really sick ones got applesauce mixed with scrambled eggs yesterday. We thought they might be malnourished. The remaining one had chick food Thai morning. We are going to try and grab some medicated chick food today. At one point a student put a flower in there and they ate some of that. I removed the remaining bits of the flower when I found it. The chicks were about a week old when this happened. As far as I know they are nothing else. Though I can’t be certain about students putting stuff in there behind my back.

 

[azygous]

Thanks for the run-down. It was very helpful. You were correct to do the treatment for coccidiosis. You probably should do a followup round if it's been a week since finishing the first.

The droopy chicks sound like failure-to-thrive (FTT). These chicks usually were either underdeveloped at hatch or suffered from untreated shipping stress when you got them.

Since these two are now under your control, give them a cup of warm water with a teaspoon of brown sugar dissolved in it. Give them in addition to their chick starter, (medicated feed won't do anything for them at this stage), crumbled tofu, finely minced hardboiled egg and Poultry Nutri-drench to encourage growth. These two should still have a heat source during the day as well as night, but the healthy three-week olds at school do not need heat during the day, only at night for two more weeks.

It would be helpful to know what plant the flower was from. If it's a poisonous plant, a single nibble can kill a baby chick. If you do manage to identify this plant the flower came from and it turns out it's a toxic plant, if the plant is on school grounds, a child could also die from eating it. Some plants are so poisonous, a child merely touching the flower and then putting their fingers in their mouth can deliver a toxic dose into their system. It needs to be identified and removed if it's toxic.

 

[SkyWolf]

Thanks for the run-down. It was very helpful. You were correct to do the treatment for coccidiosis. You probably should do a followup round if it's been a week since finishing the first.

The droopy chicks sound like failure-to-thrive (FTT). These chicks usually were either underdeveloped at hatch or suffered from untreated shipping stress when you got them.

Since these two are now under your control, give them a cup of warm water with a teaspoon of brown sugar dissolved in it. Give them in addition to their chick starter, (medicated feed won't do anything for them at this stage), crumbled tofu, finely minced hardboiled egg and Poultry Nutri-drench to encourage growth. These two should still have a heat source during the day as well as night, but the healthy three-week olds at school do not need heat during the day, only at night for two more weeks.

It would be helpful to know what plant the flower was from. If it's a poisonous plant, a single nibble can kill a baby chick. If you do manage to identify this plant the flower came from and it turns out it's a toxic plant, if the plant is on school grounds, a child could also die from eating it. Some plants are so poisonous, a child merely touching the flower and then putting their fingers in their mouth can deliver a toxic dose into their system. It needs to be identified and removed if it's toxic.

Thank you so much. I’ll definitely take your advice

As for the flower, we can’t really know. It was around Valentine’s Day and looked like a piece of some store bought flower. It was awhile ago and they all ate some. So I’m thinking it’s probably not the rot cause. Even if it wasn’t poisonous I’m sure the pesticides sprayed on store-bought flowers is bad.

 

[SkyWolf]

Sick Chicks

I had two very sick chicks at school. One passed away last night and the other one doesn’t look like she is getting better.

They’re sleeping a lot. Barely walk, and stumbled when they do. Still drink and eat a little but only a little. Wings are drooping all the time. Close eyes a lot. She can lift her head up though. She also pecks at a little food and drinks water a little if it’s close.

They have no runny eyes, nose, or mouth.l and they aren’t raspy. Poop is normal and they poop regularly. No swelling or pale/cold skin. They aren’t getting cold, and they just seem really weak.

They did have Coccidiosis but were treated over four days ago. All the other chicks are great now, except these two. One of them was also dropped by a student, but only one.

They have electrolytes in their water. Are getting applesauce and scrambled eggs as of today for protein. Also got the stuff with iron and nutrients and are giving it to them every few hours. We are getting medicated chick food for her today.

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UPDATE: Unfortunately both passed away.