Sick or Injured 3 week old chick - what could the problem be?

[teamkight]

Here is the rundown of my situation!

- 3 1/2 weeks old Easter Egger or Wellsummer, seems to have developed so far normally. Immunized.

- symptoms: laying down constantly, kind of stumbling when she gets up, but can stand on her feet when placed on the floor that way. But then she just lays back down. Not moving around. Not scattering like the others when I reach in the brooder.

- exhibiting symptoms for about 30 hours now

- no other of the flock of 8 showing symptoms, as far as I can tell so far.

- no signs of injury or trauma. nothing unusual happened.

- she is still eating, have been watching to see if she is drinking, but I haven't seen her drink yet.

- eating medicated chick feed

- poop looks normal, though many poops throughout the brooder are slightly greenish.

- Sick (or injured) chick is quarantined. Staff (livestock experts!) at the feed store recommended LS-50 as it didn't sound like cocci to them. I have put it in the brooder and quarantine pen water.

- was in a bathtub with newspaper covered by pine shavings, between 85-90 degrees in the room from a heat lamp, now quarantined in a laundry basket with pine shavings in the same room

What could be wrong with this chick? And should I quarantine it far away from the others or is a separate container in the same room OK? Thanks so much for any help.

 

[iwiw60]

If she's not drinking that you can tell, take an eye dropper and mix a little sugar in her water and give her 1-2 drops at first...should help perk her up maybe...dunno, just thinking.

 

[Eggcessive]

Your brooder temp sounds a little high for 3 1/2 week old chicks. It should be closer to 75-80 degrees F. A sick chick may need more warmth, but the ones showing no symptoms should not need that much heat. Chicks who are on medicated feed can still get coccidiosis. Unless she was showing signs of respiratory disease, I would probably treat for coccidiosis instead of using the LS-50, since that is a common illness at this age. She also could just be a weak chick with some internal problem such as heart, kidney, or liver ailment. Read the symptoms of coccidiosis, and see if any thing sounds familiar: puffing up or hunching, lethargy, poor appetite, ruffled fathers, and diarrhea (with or without blood, since blood is only in 2 out of 9 strains.) Treatment is Corid or amprollium, Ampromed, or Amprol. Dosage is 2 tsp of liquid (or 1.5 tsp of powder) per gallon of water for 5 days. After treatment give vitamins and probiotics for several days to get gut bacteria back to normal. With any medicine, whether you treat with the LS50 or Corid, if they aren't drinking you have to give it with a dropper or syringe just as iwiw60 has instructed. Here is more info: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/12/coccidiosis-what-backyard-chicken.html

 

[teamkight]

Thanks Eggcessive, we are in a hot climate and the room temp is 75-80 without any heat lamp, I was just reluctant to turn off the heat lamp since it was all the way up to the ceiling already. I have turned it off and will keep an eye on them. They were still mostly hanging out in the light and occasionally going into a shaded part of the brooder.

I thought Coccidiosis too but the feed store staff person insisted that since they haven't been outside yet, that can't be it. I'd never heard that they only get Coccidiosis from outdoors. We have the puffing up or hunching and lethargy but none of the other symptoms. Still at a loss! The chick seems none better or worse today.

 

[teamkight]

I got her to drink this morning, and got her to poop on a solid surface. Maybe I'll take it in for a float test today. Does this look like diarrhea?

 

[Eggcessive]

It looks pretty normal. If you get a more recent one before you leave for the vet's I would use it. There seem to be a lot of coccidiosis cases in chicks that are not on the ground. I'm not a vet, and can't say if it is possible or not. I do know that once they get on ground, they are at risk.

 

[teamkight]

Update: we have a barred plymouth rock that also seemed a bit lethargic/nonreactive to reaching hands over a day, so we quarantined her too. The first sick chick is still eating, drinking, and pooping fine, but still stumbling and not getting up very much; the plymouth rock (sick chick #2) may not have been sick at all - she is not stumbling and seems fine and strong.

So I wonder if this is not sickness at all, but something neurological or an injury with the first chick. Any opinions? It has been three days with no change in symptoms.

 

[seminolewind]

If they look sick, treat them for coccidiosis. I've seen that they can get it before they go out. Put them on B vitamins, they may have a deficiency . Check for mold in the feed or get new feed. I would not rely on staff at the feed store for good advice.With your medicated feed, it can very well be a vitamin deficiency.

 

[chuckstuck]

Hi I'm from the UK and have had a similar situation twice now my first pullet was fine one day and looked like uncle fester next next day was paralysed could be force fed and had normal droppings. My next pullet was just bit ill could walk ok was eating by itself just very lethargic and fluffed up by itself a lot it was the smallest of the group, anyway had been looking out for unusual signs and reading forum almost convinced it was merecs so when it died yesterday I decided to do post mortem on it following instructions from a link somewhere on this site. I couldn't see anything obvious until I cut the intestines open and full of worms so have you tried worming it might be that simple doing all mine now with fubenvet I think it's called in a powder over here no egg withdrawal but seven day course. Have a other chuck looking bad and others not quite how I think they should be. Will let you know how it goes if you want.

 

[teamkight]

Update - Now it looks like four of our eight chicks have these symptoms. Very upsetting since these are our first chickens. Bought some Corid today but am not feeling confident it will help, especially since all the droppings look normal.