sick chicks

[DrDean]

Our chicks are about 2.5 weeks old. This morning several were laying on their sides and cannot stand up. No bloody diarrhea, no trouble breathing. Please help!

 

[KristineY]

Are the on medicated chick starter? Could still be coccidiosis which doesn't always manifest with noticeably bloody stool. Of chicks are on medicated feed they can contract coccidiosis if they are given vitamins (the vitamins counteract that anti-coccidiosis medication somehow. Try treating for coccidia (check this site for the correct dose of Corrrid which is sold at Tractor supply in a packet...doesn't indicate use for chickens but it is)

Good luck!

 

[mithious]

Our chicks are about 2.5 weeks old. This morning several were laying on their sides and cannot stand up. No bloody diarrhea, no trouble breathing. Please help!

Do you have a heat lamp on them? What temp, if so? Could they be too hot? Summer is a very hard time to adjust the temps and my birds didn't need heat at hat age as the ambient temps where just right for them.

Maybe a bit more info would help to figure out what is up? I would pick up some corrid, to keep in your bird med emergency kit anyways, but would also check your temps if you have heat on them? How many do you have, and how many are down? How big is the place you have them? Where do you have them? Inside your house, or outside in garage or coop?

Any way they could've hurt their legs? Got them stuck on or in something? Are they just on the crumbles or do they eat other things and do you feed chick grit if they eat other than just the crumbles?

What kind of birds do you have?

 

[DrDean]

24 total (5 are ill) - Ameraucana, Orpington, Sussex and Welsummer. They are in our garage. Ambient temp is about 80-82F. We do have a heat lamp about 4 feet above them. They have been fed Chick Starter/Grower from Tractor Supply, plus recently occasional grasshoppers/crickets, lettuce and some bread crumbs. They have been a 110 gal livestock watering tank (purchased new), but I have moved the well ones to a separate kiddy pool. I have used pine shavings for their litter and changed it about every 1-1.5 days, and changed their water twice a day.

 

[mithious]

I was reading on the Heritage Large Fowl thread and a poster mentioned they had a bird/birds with symptoms that sound like yours and they thought their issue might be mareks?

Seperating the sick from the not sick is the right thing to do. Watch your "healthy" ones closely too.

Make sure you practice bio-security also!!!

Good luck and sorry you are going through this!!!

 

[Thassa]

Have they had any grit yet? If not, they might be having trouble digesting the food that isn't the chick food.

 

[mithious]

Have they had any grit yet? If not, they might be having trouble digesting the food that isn't the chick food.

TSC sells chick grit, which is smaller than the chicken grit...just and FYI

They really don't need anything more than the crumbles for the first 8 weeks

If Momma chicken was raising them, they would be eating bugs and such, and she would be teaching them to eat the little tiny stones too, but we people need to provide it, if feeding them anything other than the crumbles!