Very lethargic chick after mite infestation

[bonnylass79]

We've been battling what I thought was an upper resp infection for almost two weeks. Started with two chicks with swollen, watery eyes and sneezing. Put them on quarantine for a week, put the whole flock on antibiotic water and treated the two symptomatic chicks with VetRX. Symptoms resolved quickly and they went back with the flock last Friday.

Sunday, three different chicks got the same symptoms and went into quarantine. One of them included my white chick. While treating her, we noticed she was covered in mites. Most of the other chicks are black, so it was harder to see on them, but closer examination showed that all of the birds were covered in mites and most of the chicks had them near their eyes. We cleaned out the coop and dusted it and all of the birds with DE. We use pine shavings as bedding. The next night one of the RIR chicks was dead. The next morning another RIR chick couldn't stand and was dead that night. We still saw mites, so we dusted the coop again with Seven dust. Last night we sprayed all of the chickens with puppy/kitten flea spray. The white chick had mites pouring off of her.

This morning three chicks in the coop were lethargic in addition to the three still in quarantine with the swollen eyes. By this point, the white chick can't stand. I half expected to come home to more dead chicks. Stopped by CVS and got some Ensure and Gatorade. When I got home, all of the chicks in the coop had good energy and appetites. Two of the chicks in quarantine are energetic with clear eyes. My poor white chick is still extremely lethargic, can't stand and both eyes are swollen shut.

She is 6-7 weeks old (hatched Dec 12). I've been treating with VetRX and put more on her tonight. I have Ensure in a small syringe and I'm trying to feed her as much of it has possible. I don't know if she's had much to eat or drink in the last two days. I don't see any mites on her today. She's sleeping on my chest while I watch tv. She's doing a lot of sleeping, but her breathing seems to be more regular and she's moving and chirping more. Her eyes still haven't opened. She keeps trying to stand, but she can't balance herself. I'd like to give her Gatorade too, but I was hoping to see a stronger reaction to the Ensure first.

Is there anything else I should be doing? I'm worried about leaving alone tomorrow while I go to work.

 

[purpletree23]

Fluids are the most important right now.

Stick to the Gatorade. Dust her with the Sevin dust again and make her treats to get some nutrition into her. Quarter some grapes, small pieces of strawberry. Not too much fruit because it will give her diarrhea but the fruit will give her water that she desperately needs. Don't force feed with syringe. Too much of a danger of getting it into her lungs. Try scrambled egg, chopped greens and small bits of left over chicken and beef. She is probably anemic and the protein will do her a lot of good.

Please make sure you re-dust everyone and the coop with Sevin. DE is a preventative and will not stop an infestation.

You can alos purchase Poly Vi Sol liquid baby vitamins WITHOUT added iron. Give her two drops in the morning and 2 at night. Drop the liquid on the top/side of her beak and let the liquid roll into her mouth so she can swallow.

Actually everyone in the coop should get vitamins in their water for a while and extra protein to rebuild themselves.

Hope she makes it through the night.

For her swollen eyes wet a cotton ball with contact lens saline solution. Gently wipe her eyes. It will soothe her and has germ killing properties (it might fizz like peroxide) and will loosen the crust the mites made.

 

[bonnylass79]

I'm feeding her the Ensure and Gatorade by dripping it on top of her beak. She's drinking half and wearing half. Gave her 3 ml Ensure and now working on 3 ml of Gatorade. She won't eat anthing solid, mainly because she can't see it. Her energy is slowly coming back. She's very frustrated about not being able to see. We used saline drops on both eyes with a qtip. Some thick white gunk came out of one eye. She tried opening them, but they're still too swollen.

After the flea spray last night, I'm going to wait a few days before dusting again.

 

[chookchick]

Purple tree has good advice...
What was the active ingredient in the puppy/kitten flea spray? (Chemical and %) Can you give an indication of how much was put on each chicken? I would not use any more chemicals until this is resolved, and use a dosage and ingredient that is listed for chickens at that age and weight (Sevin is okay, but wait a while). Lethargy and stumbling could indicate over dosage. I wonder if it would be helpful to bathe her with water? Could anyone else weigh in on that?

 

[bonnylass79]

The white chick was lethargic and the two RIR chicks died before the flea spray. It's .27% (S)-Methoprene, .20% Pyrethrins, .37% Piperonyl, and .62% N-octyl Bicycloheptene Dicarboximide. It's hard to say exactly how much we used on each. We put some beneath each wing, on the belly, back, butt and neck and gently rubbed in to cover the rest of the feathers. My husband may have dusted them with Seven on Monday night. I know he did the coop. I was at school.

The white chick didn't make it through the night. She was the most heavily infested and was just too depleated to spring back. Maybe I could have caught it sooner if I hadn't been so busy with school and work. Maybe she would have lived if I had stayed up with her all night until she was out of the woods. I hate the should of, could of, would of. It just goes to show that prevention is the best cure. We had been dusting the adult birds with Seven up until we put the chicks out with them. They've been out there about a month. We were worried about using the Seven dust on the chicks. I don't even have time to bury her right now because I have to go to work. I guess it will have to wait until tonight.

 

[bonnylass79]

I just wanted to add that we moved the coops around the same time we put the chicks outside. The new location is more wooded and has a lot of pine needles on the ground. We didn't treat the ground and I'm now wondering if that's where the mites came from.

 

[chookchick]

I'm so sorry about your white chick--sounds like you had bonded with her. Don't beat yourself up--mites can get out of hand really fast, and it is hard when you are busy to get a good look at the flock. You really went through a lot of effort to try and save them. I don't think they came from the new ground, as they new a living host (that is, a living bird) at all times or they will die. New ground is actually a good thing when it comes to pests.

 

[bonnylass79]

Thanks. I was gone all weekend in Georgia and then got home late Monday-Wednesday nights. I would have been late last night, but my tutoring student cancelled on me. I just can't help but feel that I should have done something sooner.

The white chick was named Angel. We hatched 17 chicks and she was the only white one. Five of the chicks were eggs from someone else. They were 3 RIRs and 2 RIR crosses. Two of the RIRs also died this weekend. The rest were out of my breakfast flock and were black with the exception of Angel. I think she was out of one of my buff hens and the barred rooster in my avatar. She was just starting to get black speckles on her white feathers. She would have been a beautiful hen. We'll probably do another hatch in a few months to try to recreate her unique look. Gosh, I'm close to tears just thinking about her. Just a chicken, just a chicken, just a chicken.

At least the rest of the chicks are doing really well now. I guess I'll feed them the rest of the Ensure and drink the rest of the Gatorade myself.