Sickness spreading among chicks? Please help!

[FLChickens]

Btw thanks for the info re:vitamin B. I need to get that back into them. So young, they don't need to be deficient. I'm wondering if Rooster Booster mixed with mashed boiled egg will help them.

 

[FLChickens]

Btw, their poop looks like the first one, brown, a bit foamy, at this page http://thefarmerslamp.com/coccidiosis-in-poultry/

 

[FLChickens]

The week-old RIR died during the night.

Most of the others burst out of the coop and are acting very normal. The month old Wyandotte (my last one) is not doing great. SLIGHTLY better than yesterday. She managed to go in out of the coop by herself. I'm not convinced she will drink much so I brought her in today into a box under a light, dipped her beak in medicated water a few times and will keep that up.

She's standing in one spot, wings drooping just a little. But she's also looking around, making little movements with her beak from time to time, and seems interested and semi-normal from the neck up. She feels just slightly chilled, but that might be my imagination.

I would really hate to lose this one. I've wished for red-laced blue wyandottes for years, and this was my first chance to have any. But 2 out of 3 have died and the third is the only one looking really sick. Im not overly optimistic. But I'll do all I can.

If I need to bring in more from outside in future, I will DEFINITELY look for hatching eggs instead of grafting chicks. I had no idea they could be so much weaker. I've normally kept flocks of about 100 for years in two states, always hatching my own eggs under broodies, and never dealt with anything like this. It's devastating to the birds.

 

[rebrascora]

I don't know whether you missed the suggestion in one of the previous posts but you can give the really sick chick a drop or two of undiluted Corid directly into it's mouth/down it's throat (right hand side of it's mouth.... make sure nothing goes down the centre hole, which is the trachea ) with a small dropper, but it is really important to keep chicks with coccidiosis hydrated so offer wet mash as food and carefully dropper water into them if necessary. I would hold off on the vitamins until after Corid treatment as you are defeating the object by giving extra b vitamins when you are trying to block them. Kill the coccidia first and then supplement the chick with vitamins. Corid works by preventing the uptake of thiamine (Vitamin B1) and therefore starving the coccidia which live off it.

 

[FLChickens]

I don't know whether you missed the suggestion in one of the previous posts but you can give the really sick chick a drop or two of undiluted Corid directly into it's mouth/down it's throat (right hand side of it's mouth.... make sure nothing goes down the centre hole, which is the trachea ) with a small dropper, but it is really important to keep chicks with coccidiosis hydrated so offer wet mash as food and carefully dropper water into them if necessary. I would hold off on the vitamins until after Corid treatment as you are defeating the object by giving extra b vitamins when you are trying to block them. Kill the coccidia first and then supplement the chick with vitamins. Corid works by preventing the uptake of thiamine (Vitamin B1) and therefore starving the coccidia which live off it.

Thank you so much. That makes sense. I'm glad I'm posting everything here, since I have no idea. I wondered what sort of action Corid used if not an antibiotic. Good to know.

I have a little syringe, and was trying to decide what point was worth risking giving dose directly. I've never given a chicken medicine directly, but I used to have parrots (LONG ago) and I know you can aspirate by doing it wrong.

I'm a little confused if they (maybe just this one) should receive plain unmedicated water then? And when you say mash, do you mean wetted chick starter? Plain water?

Thanks, and sorry to be so full of questions. I'd really like to save her if I can.

 

[FLChickens]

Oh, and another silly question. Undiluted Corid? Mine is a powder (for calves)? I'm not sure if you're talking about the same thing.

 

[brucifer]

I've thought about it. I'd want more info first. I want to be sure no one is going to want to destroy even healthy ones. And cost would be an issue. I've been dealing with medical treatments that have kept me essentially out of work for a year, and my husband has lost a lot of hours with all the rain we've had for several weeks.

But I wanted to have the chick, just in case it was possible and necessary.

I understand your point of view; however, right now you are shooting in the dark because you really don't know why your young birds are dying. Treating with Corid is fine IF you know your flock has coccidiosis, but you're subjecting your birds to a needless vitamin deficiency if they don't have cocci.

Instead of treating symptoms and continuing to lose birds, the responsible thing to do is to find out what is killing your birds. In other words, find out the real cause, so you can focus on the real problem. Your county extension agent will provide that advice for free. If you really want to give your existing birds, healthy and otherwise, the best chance for survival and living, get an expert involved. Personally, I would be hopping mad if my neighbor had sick chickens with a contagious disease yet failed to get in touch with the county or a vet because he/she was worried that the healthy chickens would be destroyed.

Anyway, your county agent may put you in touch with a local expert who has just the fix you need. If need be, share information about your financial hardship. There are people who will sincerely try to help. Best of luck.

 

[FLChickens]

I appreciate the info. I'll give them a call.

And if I had neighbors with chickens, it would be a completely different scenario. There are none. But I wouldn't be subjecting someone else's birds to sickness.

I should also say these are not really "my" chickens in that I'm not the one to make decisions, etc ... though I had input on trying to treat them and am claiming the little Wyandotte if it lives. I'm just offering what I know, and all help I can. I've really been very sick and unable to build coop, do all that. But I'm doing enough better that I'm able to play nursemaid to a sickly chick or few, and I honestly just can never see an animal sick or hurt and not do SOMEthing. So with this illness coming on, I've stepped up a bit and done what I could.

County extension might be open by now, or in a half hour. I'll give them a call.

 

[rebrascora]

Yes I mean chick crumbs mixed to an oatmeal consistency slurry with water. If you are giving the Corid directly to the chicks via a syringe or dropper then giving them access to plain water is good. The problem is that they get so ill they won't eat or drink, so it doesn't matter how much medicine you put in the water, they are not ingesting enough for it to have a beneficial effect. The Corid also probably tastes bitter (most medicine does) which may deter them from drinking the water with it in, when of course they need both to treat the infestation and rehydrate them. Giving them the medicine directly into the mouth and leaving the water plain means that they are more likely to get the treatment and take in the fluids they need.
Sorry I didn't realise you had powder. You could just make a strong solution with the powder and water and use your syringe to give the chick a drop down it's gullet twice a day and then encourage it to drink clean unmedicated water. I'm not sure of the dilution required to make it the equivalent of the liquid Corid. I believe you give 1.5 teaspns of powder to a gallon of water or 2 teaspns of the liquid Corid to a gallon, so that would suggest that if you can dissolve 1.5 teaspns of the powder in 2 teaspns of water, you are somewhere near the concentration of the liquid corid(if slightly more dilute) and should be able to give the chick a drop of that direct. Hopefully someone else (@casportpony with luck) will confirm that suggested dilution. It may be that you won't be able to get all the powder to dissolve into that small amount of liquid, but that will just dilute the concentration of the medication, so try 2drops.

I agree with @brucifer that identifying the problem is important and not just for your own flock. Having said that, these chicks are at a prime age for coccidia problems, they came from a hatchery and were grafted onto the broodies, rather than hatched by them and your climate being hot and humid and them exhibiting many of the symptoms of coccidiosis, I think you are justified in using Corid and if you don't see any improvement during/after treatment, then look into getting the authorities involved. If everyone who had probems with coccidiosis went straight to the authorities for help I think their resources would be extremely strained.

 

[casportpony]

When giving Corid powder orally you can mix 1/2 teaspoon with 2 teaspoons water and give 0.07 ml per 100 grams.