Unusually high mortality rates in chicks for 2013

[starlingdaly]

Those symptoms sound so similar to mine, though!

 

[casportpony]

 

[starlingdaly]

Thanks!
Saw that in one of the links.

 

[lauranickerson]

I bought a Silkie chick that was probably only a day or two old from Tractor Supply in mid-April, along with a Leghorn, and Sebright, and a Rouen duck. From the day I got them, the Silkie was always sleepy and lazy. I kept them in a box in the garage with a light, water, food, wood shavings, etc. We thought maybe it was because the light was too close, though the others were still fine. So I moved the light back. Still sleepy. It also always tried crawling under the other ones. When I held them all in my hands, it would borrow under the others. Anyways. I had it for maybe a week or two, and I never really saw it eat anything. I figured it did while I wasn't out there or something. So one day I go out to check it, and when the others scattered from my hand, the SIlkie didn't, which was normal, but when I picked it up, it was dead.

So long story short, one of my chicks did show one of the symptoms you described in the first post.

I also had a pullet die from my mid-March flock, after it was fully feathered and all while it was out in the run. Discovered it when I went to go close their little chicken door. Thought maybe a weasel, but never had another one die, and no dig marks. So I'm not sure why that one died. It was probably about a month ago, if that, so they were pretty established at that point.

 

[weechickenhawk]

MS a and MG are the two most common forms of CRD Chronic Respiratory Disease. Having just gone through this and deciding to treat and vaccinate my flock as I have 250 birds some of which are loved pets. I emailed a few hatcheries and asked them, just to gather info about how they handled it and I got mixed feed back from them but the general consensus was that they did not test. This is still just my limited understanding of the disease and how we are handling it here. As long as it is not active it does not spread. By treating and vaccinating your birds you can keep it under control. It was suggested to me to clear it up with Denagard and make sure every one was well. Cull out any birds that were not thrifty and or in excess of my needs. Vaccinate what was left and vaccinate again in 4 weeks. Any birds that I used for breeding vaccinate them again about a month before breeding season. The vaccine is not cheep but its a lot cheaper than replacing some of the rare breed chickens that we have. Here in MD they do not require that you test for CRDs in order to show or become NPIP certified so you can pick it up anywhere. Again this is still my limited understanding of CRD but vaccination is very helpful in keeping your flock from being sick. I chose this path for many reasons but the biggest one was that not all of my birds were sick at all but the only way to be sure to rid my self of the disease was to kill all the birds and start new with tested birds or from eggs that came from farms that test for MS and MG

 

[casportpony]

I bought a Silkie chick that was probably only a day or two old from Tractor Supply in mid-April, along with a Leghorn, and Sebright, and a Rouen duck. From the day I got them, the Silkie was always sleepy and lazy. I kept them in a box in the garage with a light, water, food, wood shavings, etc. We thought maybe it was because the light was too close, though the others were still fine. So I moved the light back. Still sleepy. It also always tried crawling under the other ones. When I held them all in my hands, it would borrow under the others. Anyways. I had it for maybe a week or two, and I never really saw it eat anything. I figured it did while I wasn't out there or something. So one day I go out to check it, and when the others scattered from my hand, the SIlkie didn't, which was normal, but when I picked it up, it was dead.

So long story short, one of my chicks did show one of the symptoms you described in the first post.

I also had a pullet die from my mid-March flock, after it was fully feathered and all while it was out in the run. Discovered it when I went to go close their little chicken door. Thought maybe a weasel, but never had another one die, and no dig marks. So I'm not sure why that one died. It was probably about a month ago, if that, so they were pretty established at that point.

A healthy chick will have food in it's crop most of the day and the *majority* of it's poop will be well formed with a white cap like in these pictures:

 

[weechickenhawk]

When chicks are raised in the house free of coccidious it is a shock to there systems when they are taken out to the run and exposed to the coccidious all at once for the first time. This is when I have found the biggest loss to occur. Most hatcheries will vaccinate for this it is a spray either added to the chicks feathers or on the food. The spraying of the feathers cause is the birds to ingest the coccidious as they preen. I have started vaccinating my chicks before they go outside. The ones that the hen raises get exposed gradually as they peck around a little at a time. If at all possible to brood chicks from the start in a area where chickens have been it helps to introduce them naturally. If you vaccinate or get chicks that have been vaccinated you should not treat for cocci nor feed medicated feed as it kills the cocci they have ingested from the vaccine. I have had great luck with the vaccine

 

[seminolewind]

We've gotten 32 chicks from hatcheries this year. 22 of those are polish. We've lost 11 of the polish chicks and none of the others. None of our chicks have shown any symptoms other than just refusing food/water shortly before death. Then they just lay down and sleep until they die.
We do a few drops of ACV, grapefruit seed extract, and electrolytes in the water. We've tried plain water and lost 4 out of 4 in that batch. With the additives we've lost 7 out of 18. So I couldn't really make a guess either way if it helps or hurts.

We get 6 replacements this week. I think I'll have some corid on hand just in case.

My first chick was Polish. Out of 12 eggs I got 1 hatched. The one started peeping all the time, so hubby started giving her yogurt on his finger. That seemed to work. We stopped doing this because she would peep if she didn't get any. For the first 3 days, I thought I saw her eat, but pick and drop alot of feed as well. Day 5 she died.

Then I hatched 8 Polish chicks. I noticed I was throwing alot of scattered food away, Just about all of it. They, too were dropping a lot of feed. I was wondering something. I took their feed and ground it down with a hammer or rolling pin to smaller crumbles. They ate and stopped dropping 90% of what they did. My theory was that they were starving because the crumbles were to big. Crumbles are fine for normal size chicks, but I really wonder if some chicks don't survive because the crumbles are too big for them. They appear to be eating, but they are not actually swallowing. Around day 5 or so, they get weak and die. I always grind my crumbles for a week or so now and have never had another problem.

 

[casportpony]

My first chick was Polish. Out of 12 eggs I got 1 hatched. The one started peeping all the time, so hubby started giving her yogurt on his finger. That seemed to work. We stopped doing this because she would peep if she didn't get any. For the first 3 days, I thought I saw her eat, but pick and drop alot of feed as well. Day 5 she died.

Then I hatched 8 Polish chicks. I noticed I was throwing alot of scattered food away, Just about all of it. They, too were dropping a lot of feed. I was wondering something. I took their feed and ground it down with a hammer or rolling pin to smaller crumbles. They ate and stopped dropping 90% of what they did. My theory was that they were starving because the crumbles were to big. Crumbles are fine for normal size chicks, but I really wonder if some chicks don't survive because the crumbles are too big for them. They appear to be eating, but they are not actually swallowing. Around day 5 or so, they get weak and die. I always grind my crumbles for a week or so now and have never had another problem.

Very good advice! I read somewhere that this is often an issue with those that raise quail.

-Kathy

 

[seminolewind]

When chicks are raised in the house free of coccidious it is a shock to there systems when they are taken out to the run and exposed to the coccidious all at once for the first time. This is when I have found the biggest loss to occur. Most hatcheries will vaccinate for this it is a spray either added to the chicks feathers or on the food. The spraying of the feathers cause is the birds to ingest the coccidious as they preen. I have started vaccinating my chicks before they go outside. The ones that the hen raises get exposed gradually as they peck around a little at a time. If at all possible to brood chicks from the start in a area where chickens have been it helps to introduce them naturally. If you vaccinate or get chicks that have been vaccinated you should not treat for cocci nor feed medicated feed as it kills the cocci they have ingested from the vaccine. I have had great luck with the vaccine

I will be vaccinating too, for coccidiosis. I've now had 2 that died and have never touched ground. And 3 that died that did touch ground and had no symptoms. I read that some cocci have no symptoms until hours before they die, or none that are noticeable. Especially with my Marek's vaccinated birds. Although they are Marek's resistant, they have not much resistance against common ailments.