Sick Chicks

[kenasie]

Hello! So I have a bit of a problem with some babies and could use some help. I created this timeline and wanted to know where to go from here:

June 18 Two abandoned eggs hatch in a makeshift incubator. One chick is extremely cruel to the other, bleeding her beak and hurting her eye.
June 20 Picked up 3 chicks from a local breeder to help with the evil baby situation
June 25 New chicks are acting weird, puffing up and legthargic. Poop normal, fecal taken to vet and came back negative for coccidosis. One of the three newbies dies.
June 26 Second newbie dies. Third newbie starts pooping red. Corid started at 1.25 tsp powder per gallon.
June 30 Chick still pooping red. Vet called and we were told to keep on the Corid.
July 4 No more blood in poop, stopped corid. Started medicated feed
July 8 Blood in poop again, restarted corid at 1.5 tsp per gallon stopped medicated feed. Third newbie chick now breathes hard when she's sleeping. Clicking sound can be heard. Added sugar to corid water to tempt the chicks into drinking it. Put a drop of vet rx on her head.
July 11 Gave chicks tylan200 at someones suggestion (we dipped their beaks every 12 hours because I dont have the equipment or the ability to to inject and I was told not to put it in the corid water).
July 13 Went to preventative dose of corid and stayed on the regular food.
July 16 chicks are puffy and pooping red again went to 1 tsp of liquid corid per gallon
July 19 stopped dipping beaks in tylan
July 20 more red poop one of the origional chicks is now breathing hard and clicking. Went to two tsp of liquid corid per gallon. Started mixing water based probiotics (ONLY, no vitamins) in with food 2-3x daily as a special treat.

It just seems like a lot of stuff to throw at these baby chicks and I dont know what to do to help them. This can't be good for vitamin absorption. Third newbie isn't even growing feathers other than wing tips at this point. Two pics of poops and a pick of the not-growing clicking chick and all three chicks having a nap to show feather growth of the two origionals

 

[janiedoe]

This sounds a lot like what happened with my little chippy. She was down, not able to walk. I used the corid for 7 days and she seemed to get worse. I read everything I could find. With nothing left to lose, I began giving her scrambled eggs along with a non medicated grower, a drop of infant (no iron) Poly Vi-sol vitamins on her beaks every day. It took almost a week before she was able to move around on her on. By day 10 she was up and running. She is still very tiny, but she is a happy one year old hen now.
I hope you have good luck!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If they aren't responding to the Corid by now, they aren't going to.

Ask your vet for a Sulfa drug (like Smz-Tmp) or for Toltrazuril. If he can't help you, order it online.

Tylan200 for a tiny chick like this is going to be just a couple of drops. Tylan is given orally 3 times a day for 5 days. Likely you have given enough if you gave it twice a day for 8 days.

See that they are drinking and eating well.

Have you ever had respiratory illness in your existing flock?

 

[kenasie]

If they aren't responding to the Corid by now, they aren't going to.

Ask your vet for a Sulfa drug (like Smz-Tmp) or for Toltrazuril. If he can't help you, order it online.

Tylan200 for a tiny chick like this is going to be just a couple of drops. Tylan is given orally 3 times a day for 5 days. Likely you have given enough if you gave it twice a day for 8 days.

See that they are drinking and eating well.

Have you ever had respiratory illness in your existing flock?

Thank you so much for responding! No respiratory in my existing flock and these guys have always been kept our house in our laundry room with good biosecurity between them and the outside. I thought maybe it was too wet in there with the AC system and the washing machine so last night they were moved to a bedroom.

They're eating a drinking pretty well! Just the click breathing freaks me out though. One is struggling with an eye like she has sinus pressure too. The one that is the most sick, wasn't given tylan200 because she had no symptoms of respitory, fluffyness, or bloody poops so of course the second I stop meding the first two girls she gets super sick Should I dip her beak 2-3x daily like I did the other two?

 

[kenasie]

This sounds a lot like what happened with my little chippy. She was down, not able to walk. I used the corid for 7 days and she seemed to get worse. I read everything I could find. With nothing left to lose, I began giving her scrambled eggs along with a non medicated grower, a drop of infant (no iron) Poly Vi-sol vitamins on her beaks every day. It took almost a week before she was able to move around on her on. By day 10 she was up and running. She is still very tiny, but she is a happy one year old hen now.
I hope you have good luck!

Thank you! Google just gives a lot of stories of death and sadness so I appreciate this hope <3 We took all meds away yesterday and put save-a-chick with probiotics as their only water source. I've been feeding chick starter moistened with nutra-drench and some of their vitamin water. So far we are all hanging out but it's struggle for sure. I'll look into poly vi-sol and I'll scramble some eggs too!

 

[janiedoe]

Thank you! Google just gives a lot of stories of death and sadness so I appreciate this hope <3 We took all meds away yesterday and put save-a-chick with probiotics as their only water source. I've been feeding chick starter moistened with nutra-drench and some of their vitamin water. So far we are all hanging out but it's struggle for sure. I'll look into poly vi-sol and I'll scramble some eggs too!

I hope you have great success!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you so much for responding! No respiratory in my existing flock and these guys have always been kept our house in our laundry room with good biosecurity between them and the outside. I thought maybe it was too wet in there with the AC system and the washing machine so last night they were moved to a bedroom.

They're eating a drinking pretty well! Just the click breathing freaks me out though. One is struggling with an eye like she has sinus pressure too. The one that is the most sick, wasn't given tylan200 because she had no symptoms of respitory, fluffyness, or bloody poops so of course the second I stop meding the first two girls she gets super sick Should I dip her beak 2-3x daily like I did the other two?

Can you get a video of her so we can hear the breathing?
Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

You mention one struggling with an eye like sinus pressure? Can you please get some clear photos of the chicks, the eyes, the poop, brooder, etc.?

Clarify dipping the beak 2-3x a day? In what...Tylan water? If you have Tylan200 then give her 2-3 undiluted drops 3X a day. Tylan200 does not get mixed with water.

 

[kenasie]

Can you get a video of her so we can hear the breathing?
Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

You mention one struggling with an eye like sinus pressure? Can you please get some clear photos of the chicks, the eyes, the poop, brooder, etc.?

Clarify dipping the beak 2-3x a day? In what...Tylan water? If you have Tylan200 then give her 2-3 undiluted drops 3X a day. Tylan200 does not get mixed with water.

I got an ok video of storm's (black and white) breathing - my rural internet is not having it so I'll post the link in a second. She only does it when she's sleeping or laying down. When she's laying down it's much worse, beak to the sky and bigger breaths. She also does these big loud sneeze/coughs from time to time that sound awful. Like open beak honk sounds and her whole-body shakes. I tried to get one on camera, but she only does it a handful of times a day. The one with darker feathers and the fancy eye makeup is Lucky. Storm and lucky were the only ones on tylan.

The one I thought was struggling with sinus pressure stopped struggling this morning. Both eyes are open now and she seems much more chipper. She's the light colored chick and the largest one there, her name is Chance. She's still a little puffy and takes a deep breath from time to time but got her energy back! She's the one who pecks the camera in the video. Since she didn't get antibiotics when the other two did, I dipped her beak in tylan200 this morning and she was breathing better a few hours later. They're all the same age (five weeks on saturday), the brown ones are the same breed (EE x legbar), and the grey and black one is an unknown mixed chick with some kind of brahma.

I was taking a tsp with tylan200 straight and dipping their beaks in it. I could tell when they got a taste because they would wipe their beaks on me and shake their heads, lol. I tried to use a dropper, but I get so anxious about aspirating them I couldn't quite get any into her beak.

I've attached pics of the brooder, it's a bunny hutch in my bedroom. It used to be in the laundry room but I was concerned maybe it was too wet in there so I moved it yesterday afternoon. Right now, I've got a heater going in there to keep it between 75/80 since storm doesn't have feathers and I don’t want her to get too cold (the rest of the house is at about 66-68). I change out the bedding daily and disinfect the bottom. Its a layer of paper towels with a small layer of wood chips so they're not laying in their own poop. Their food and water are washed daily and placed on the other side, so they kick less wood chips into them. I change that paper towel out about 3-5x a day. The food they've kicked everywhere is a chick starter with some water and nutridrench mixed in. They think it's a great treat.

 

[kenasie]

Storm breathing:

 

[kenasie]

July 20: Stopped all meds on all chicks. Added sav-a-chick and probiotics to their water. Have them on regular chick feed (nutrina). Giving wet food treat 1-3x daily (food, water, nutridrench, oregano oil).
July 21: All poops looking normal. Wheezing chick given a drop of tylan200 3x daily and seeing visable results 3-5 hours later. Gasping chick still gasping but hanging in there.