Hi, all. I have 30 EE chicks, 4 and 5 weeks old. Except for a couple of beak issues they have all been very vigorous and healthy youngsters.
However, this morning I found two of the girls sick. One can stand and walk although her gait is slow and unsteady. She is eating, but with an oddly repetitive motion punctuated by bouts of resting her beak or chin on the feeder, which is how I first noticed the problem - I thought she had a neurological issue. When I picked her up out of the brooder her neck hung down limply. The other pullet has better tone in her neck but can't stand up - she can move a little, crouched down on her hocks, but mostly flops over to her right side.
They eat medicated chick starter, free choice. I give some scrambled egg every couple of days. Water is always clean and available. They've been on pine shavings ever since they were a few days old; they do scratch in it and eat pieces of it. They are still in the brooder (well, several brooders now because they've grown so much and were starting to pick) but the coop is nearly finished and they should be moving out to it soon. They're currently at 70 degrees, room temp, with no lamp because they had started to sleep on the opposite side of the brooder (these chicks from day one seemed to prefer a slightly lower temperature).
I have separated the two to an "infirmary bin" but don't know what else I can do to help them. There are no feed stores open in my area today and in any event they don't stock much in the way of supplies here.
So far there's only one poop in the infirmary, and other than being greener than usual it doesn't look particularly odd.
Taking these chickens to a vet is not in the cards, but I don't want to cull them if there's something I can do to help. Also of course I'd like to figure out what the problem is as I'm worried about the rest of the flock.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
However, this morning I found two of the girls sick. One can stand and walk although her gait is slow and unsteady. She is eating, but with an oddly repetitive motion punctuated by bouts of resting her beak or chin on the feeder, which is how I first noticed the problem - I thought she had a neurological issue. When I picked her up out of the brooder her neck hung down limply. The other pullet has better tone in her neck but can't stand up - she can move a little, crouched down on her hocks, but mostly flops over to her right side.
They eat medicated chick starter, free choice. I give some scrambled egg every couple of days. Water is always clean and available. They've been on pine shavings ever since they were a few days old; they do scratch in it and eat pieces of it. They are still in the brooder (well, several brooders now because they've grown so much and were starting to pick) but the coop is nearly finished and they should be moving out to it soon. They're currently at 70 degrees, room temp, with no lamp because they had started to sleep on the opposite side of the brooder (these chicks from day one seemed to prefer a slightly lower temperature).
I have separated the two to an "infirmary bin" but don't know what else I can do to help them. There are no feed stores open in my area today and in any event they don't stock much in the way of supplies here.
So far there's only one poop in the infirmary, and other than being greener than usual it doesn't look particularly odd.
Taking these chickens to a vet is not in the cards, but I don't want to cull them if there's something I can do to help. Also of course I'd like to figure out what the problem is as I'm worried about the rest of the flock.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
