Two sick chicks... Wobbly and lethargic?

[PineBurrowPeeps]

This morning when I turned out my chickens everyone was perfectly fine. I sat and watched them like I usually do for about 15 minutes and nothing was amiss.
Tonight I go out to put them up and two of my 7 1/2 week old Salmon Faverolle chicks are sick with something... They are weak as can be, cold to the touch, fluffed up, and very wobbly on their feet. They hold their wings out slighty to try and stabalize themselves but they just shake.
I brought them inside. Noticed the first one we found had poo running down her butt, white poo. Washed off her bottom and started looking through her feathers under a bright light. Found no signs of lice or mites and I looked really well. We have had mites before pretty badly, late last year before these chicks were even thought of. These two chicks are sort of thin too. I cannot get them to drink water.
The other one I looked through thoroughly and found one mite crawling on her under her wing. I picked it off and squashed it and looked for some more, found nothing else but a couple of eggs on her, I washed them off.
I can get sevin dust or something first thing in the morning but nothing I can do now.
These guys have no other symptoms. No sneezing, coughing, no bubbly eyes, no wheezing, no clicking when they breathe... I am freaking out. I have a large flock and I have never had two birds sick at one time with the same thing, this is scaring me badly.
What should I do? I am going to put them under a heat light to keep them warm since they are so cold. These chicks are very valuable to me, one of them is one of my most promising looking pullets.
I have vitamins and electrolights on hand, I have Apple Cider Vinegar on hand, I have yogurt on hand, I have asprin, I have Terrimyicin... Will any of these things help?
When I actually see one poop I will report the looks of it.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

They won't eat either and the crops are completely empty.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

One of them is going downhill really rapidly, is anyone out there?!
I'm scared to death this might be marek's...

The smaller chick will literally just lay on it's side, near death, barely breathing. The bigger one will at least hold itself up.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

white diarrhea is generally thought of as pullorum typhoid ans is generally associated with young chicks

did these come from a NPIP tested PT free flock?

I most assuradly ask you to take the two chicks to a labatory for testing as if they are sick with PT the whole flock will come down

but feel it is something else

When studying this articles on white diarrhea it can be a form of coccidiosis
click on this url and study this information on white diarrhea

FROM
Poultry diseases and their treatment - Google Books Result by Frank Macy Surface, Maynie Rose Curtis, Maine ... - 1911 - Business & Economics - 216 pages
DISEASES OF CHICKENS., White Diarrhea. Of all the diseases which the ... hatched throughout the country are lost from white diarrhea in its various forms. ...
books.google.com/books?id=nrM1AAAAMAAJ...


Also then I would buy some amproylium called corid and medicat for 5-7 days
if using sulmet you may want to put 1/2 pkg if red jello in each gallon of sulmet medicated water to get them to drink it

also I use the wet mash with sulmet or corid
1 qt od dry crumbles(chicken mash)
1 tsp of sulmet add to the water
1-1/2qts of water

if using corid
1 qt of dry mash
1-1/2 qts of water
add 2 tbsp of corid to the water
feed 2 tsp per chick for feeding


speckled hen gives corid liquid in 3-4 tbsp per gallon of water
and after medicating give the following things

I would put the whole flock on 2 tbsp of ACV to gallon of water and give them some feed with
3 tbsp of cayanne pepper to gallon of feed
as it will clean the body of the chicken well


I would get the chicks all on a wet mash probiotic with vitE and Vit B complex

1 qt of dry crumbles
1-1/2 qt of milk any kind
1/2 cup of yoguart
and for each chick in flock put in one 400 mg of vit E cut end off and add to mix
1 vit B complex for each chick fed crushed and put in the wet mix

feed this for several days twice a day

email me with any questions

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I lost both chicks in the night. I put one body in the freezer to call the state vet and the other I cut open myself and found nothing amiss except for an extremely empty crop and gizzard, what looked like a blockage of the small intestine, and a bird that looked nearly emaciated. She had nearly no meat on her.
Her lungs were beautiful in color and normal, the heart was normal, the liver was normal, the kidneys were normal, there were no tumors of any kind anywhere in the body like I was expecting to see. Under all the skin was normal. It just boggled my mind more than ever.
We'll see what the other body has to tell us when I send it to necropsy.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I have now lost 4 chicks and I think it honestly might be starvation. These chicks are whithered away to nothing and we have them (33 of them originally) in with the adult flock already and some ducks and a turkey (LARGE run area).
I am noticing that some of the adults are preventing the chicks from eating. At first I thought it was normal pecking order being established but now I'm not so sure. and I watch them too! I feel like an idiot. How could I not have known that they weren't getting much of anything to eat? I watch them in the mornings when I let them out and everyone runs to the single feeder. I am buying and putting out two more feeders tomorrow.
I don't normally pick my chicks up so I had no idea their body condidtion was going downhill. When my husband and I started picking up chicks today we noticed that all of the Salmon Faverolle chicks are thin, thin, thin. The EE's and Cinnamon Queens and my lone Cochin are all okay, they are fat by any means but they are normal.
Early on when I got these chicks from Estes Hatchery I lost 4 Salmon chicks right off the bat. Now these 4 that I have lost were all Salmon chicks. And I have lost two other Salmon chicks over the course of the month and a half prior to this (two very tiny runty chicks with nearly no feathers)....

Is it possible that this was just a horrible batch of weak stunted Salmon Faverolles from Estes Hatchery?
Should I call them? So total I have lost 10 of my original 16 SF chicks. I have lost none of my original EE and CQ chicks from the same order at the same hatchery.

I waited for Salmon chicks for a long time and now I am losing them all. My best little Roo Tucker died this AM out of nowhere and he too was literally skin and bones.

 

[NotTheMomma]

I send one of those to the state vet for testing! Even if the bigger chickens were initially preventing them from eating, they should have gotten to the feed after the bigger ones were done. Mine kinda eat in shifts according to the pecking order.

That many dieing, definitely find out WHY by having a necropsy done!

I'm sorry for your loss.

Oh, and I'd probably treat for coccidiosis as it is so rampant, and can wipe out your flock. That's the cheapest, simpliest thing to treat for while you await the necropsy results.

Isolate ANY chicks that are showing problems.

Separate those smaller ones from the the bigger ones. Even if you only put up some chicken wire between the two. That way you know they have access to the feed.

 

[threehorses]

I'd definitely remove them back from that area - both because of the different things that ducks and turkeys will present the chickens, but also because of the bullying. I'm sorry you had to go through this. And yes - picking them up is so necessary. Also you might consider that they could have been exposed to worms.

I'd get a lot of your best nutrition into them - really boost it. Give them the ACV in the water, make a mash every other day for three treatments of their crumbles or pellets, water, and the yogurt. I use a heaping teaspoon of yogurt to one cup of pellets for adults. Wet it, throw a mashed egg yolk in there. Take their food away before and then feed them that in an amount that the whole effected flock can take. Hand feed them by a spoon to get a spoonful in each of them if you must.

Since you're talking about a lot of birds, you might also consider Fastrack or Probios from the feedstore. You can just sprinkle that on their food and innocuate them with good bacteria. The good bacteria will help them better utilize the food they're getting. It'll also provide them with vitamin B for increased vigor during this time.

It really is important to monitor their keel scores, the keel bone compared to their breast meat. I know you know this especially now, and I'm sorry that the point had to be brought back to you in such a sad way.

Losing these babies is always heartbreaking and mine breaks with yours.

Incidentally, and I'm going to make a post on this for the main board, whenevery ou're going to send your bird in for a histopathology and necropsy, you should never freeze the bird. If you lose any more, here's what you do:

You take the fresh bird and run it under the faucet to cool the body down. Then pat dry with paper towels. This is equivalent to a 'towel drying' for humans. Wrap the bird in a layer of the last paper towels and put into an appropriately sized plastic bag. A clean new garbage bag is fine for this. Then you refrigerate them.

Freezing distorts the water inside cells and makes it more difficult for a histopathologist to examine the bird on a cellular diagnostic level if that becomes necessary. Often a simple necropsy (just the 'autopsy') can tell a lot about the health of a bird (organ disease, unusual bleeding, jaundice, etc) but sometimes it's necessary to look cellularly at the nerves and cells to see if there was a specific pathogen (virus, bacteria, protazoan, etc) at fault. If you lose another, do the birds this way.

I would definitely notify the hatchery in case there's an issue. Othewise, I'd separate and feed them up immediately.

I really hope this helps, and I'm terribly sorry for your losses.

 

[NotTheMomma]

Oh, and for a necropsy, they typically don't want a frozen specimen, but one that has been kept cold in the fridge. Call to see what they want.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

It is just so sad and I feel incredibly stupid. Here I am chicken farmer, I have over 100 birds here and I'm possibly losing them to something as simple as starvation and bullying.
If I lose another one I will certainly cool it down like you said and bring that bird. I didn't know freezing would harm the body.