Silkie chick with a broken leg?

[Silkie-Guinz]

Thank you, Miss Lydia. They sure do, don't they?

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

Okay, now I'm worried about Tweety...Just a bit ago, I checked on him, and found two spots on the bedding with blood.
Now, just like Minnie did, he's bleeding.

It's not as much as she did right before she passed, but still. Does this sound like coccidiosis? Does that mean that Minnie had coccidiosis and now Tweety does?

I really don't want to lose another chick, it was hard enough losing Minnie, I don't want to lose him,too.

Should we treat him with Sulmet? should we treat the rest of our guinea keets and silkie chicks just in case? We don't know what to do right now....

Here's one spot on the bedding.


Here's both spots.


Poor Tweety...

 

[racuda]

Sulmet certainly couldn't hurt. I assume they are on starter with amprolium in it?

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

We just switched feeds that has the amprolium in it. When we got our supplies and was asking questions about a month ago they never told us you need this in the feed and so they just pointed us in the direction of Dumor for the baby chicks

We could not find sulmet so we had to get to corid but heard this was ok too. So started that today for Tweety hope we caught it in time to help him.

They are not even outside yet, all are in the house in brooders. Is there anything special we need to do to prepare them for the journey outside in the next few weeks? Not sure if I should wait and let them all in the coop at the same time or what do you guys suggest? Since we have some ranges in the ages from 8 weeks to 11 days. thanks.

 

[Judy]

I'm so glad you got Corid instead of Sulmet, it is so much easier on them. Cocci are a protozoa in the soil, so if they have never been outside, it is unlikely they have cocci. A round of Corid is unlikely to do any harm, though.

Corid and medicated feed both contain amprolium. The dose is higher in Corid. It is a thiamine blocker, and works by interfering with thiamine uptake in the cocci, slowing their growth and development. Over time, chickens will normally develop a natural immunity. The reason for medicated feed is to keep the cocci numbers down wile this immunity develops. So it really isn't doing anything until they are put on the soil. The chickens absorb very little of the amprolium into their systems; it acts inside the intestine on the cocci present.

I suspect either you are seeing some cecal poo, which is normal, and looks quite bloody, or there was some other source of the blood. I'll give you a link to the well known poop chart -- but be warned, you might want to eat breakfast first....

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

I don't think this is normal, he's had blood in his stool since yesterday evening, and every few hours I'll see a fresh spot on the bedding. And he's acting a little differant then he normally does, he's laying down alot more and sleeping, and is eating, just not alot.. And he's more quiet. But he is the only one in the brooder now, since Minnie passed away. I think he does miss her a little.

Plus, Minnie was doing what he was doing... I don't think she would have died from broken legs like that. She seemed fine, then she started having bloody stools the evening we took her to the vet, and sleeping alot, the next day,she was bleeding a lot more then the day before, and she wasn't doing hardly anything. it was easy to tell she was going to pass away soon... She just wasn't acting like her self.

I usually go over to the brooder a few times a hour to make sure he's drinking enough of his water, I put my finger in his water and start moving the water around, and he comes over and drinks beside my finger... He has seemed more alert since we started him on Corid, but he is still laying around. So far, so good for Tweety. He's being very strong.

Thanks for the chart. It was helpful.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but you might add some kind of probiotic to his feed to help with his gut. the probiotics will add to the good bacteria that is already there, which might not be much if he is having issues. Butter milk or kefir or yogurt all plain will be fine just mix into his feed to make a gruel, my chicks loved it.

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

Thank you, Miss Lydia.

We will go out after dinner and go get some yogurt for him.

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

Just wanted to say thank you to Miss Lydia!

We went out and got some plain yogurt, mixed with his feed, and my mom held him with a towel over her shoulder,and I helped feed him it.

We started by putting some on the side of his beak, and he started eating it, slowly. It's once he started figuring out that he actually loved it, is when he started actually trying to bite to get to the yogurt.

whenever he would drop some on the towel or on him self, he would gobble it up.

Then I started putting the yogurt on the towel, and he loved it. After he started eating it quickly, he would wipe his beak on the towel, then start back eating.

It was so funny.

After he finished eating, he was tired, so we put the bowl in his brooder, and let him go back to sleep.

thanks for letting us know, Miss Lydia. We're glad we got him it, because he loved it.

Hopefully he'll be even better tomorrow. So far, he's doing pretty good to make it this far.

Tweety eating at the yogurt mixed with his feed.


Tweety with his beak covered in yummy yogurt.

At least he's still got his famous appitite.

 

[seminolewind]

I hope the Corrid works. It sounds like coccidiosis. However, with the broken legs (?), and them both being the right age, I would not rule Marek's out. One of my roos had both but died from Marek's.
So far I've treated 3 chickens with broken legs.....then realized it was not broken legs, it was paralysis.