week old brahma breathing hard and listless

[chicknmama]

We have week old baby chicks. The Brahma has been weak and standing in one spot since this morning. Yesterday she was fine. They are kept in a brooder at night with a light. They are eating chicken starter, new bag. With the 90 degree heat wave we have had them outside in a nice rabbit hutch during the day and inside in the brooder at night. Up until this morning she was eating and drinking fine. She just stands in one place and seems to be breathing hard. When I listen to her chest I hear a clicking noise. There is no discharge from eyes or nose. The other chicks are behaving fine.

I've started them on electrolytes and vitamins and duramycin 10, I've added acidophilus as a probiotic. Should I do anything else? Was this the right thing to do? This is the first time we've had chickens. We have 2 barred plymouth rocks, one red star, one dominique and the brahma.

I really appreciate all the knowledge on this board.
Beth

 

[gritsar]

I'm afraid you are doing about all that can be done.
You might try contacting a moderator to have this thread moved to the emergencies section where you'll likely get more help.
Good luck to you and your little brahma. My adult flock is all brahmas and I love them dearly.

 

[CathyRN]

what are you using for bottom cover? make sure its not cedar chips or cedar shavings....this is poisonous to baby chicks and will cause the same symptoms........use only paper towels or pine shavings, or some people use chicken friendly mulch of somekind. Not sure if the issue can be as basic as this but I always mention it just in case. Good Luck and I'm so sorry, I will pray for your chick.......

 

[chicknmama]

thank you so much for the kind thoughts and prayers. We are using paper towel for bedding. I smell amonia really bad in the room they are in and was wondering if this was the problem. No one else in the house seems to smell as bad as I do. We have the chicks in our studio where we housed a stray cat over the winter and I don't think she used the litter box like she should have. I've cleaned the carpet as best I can with a steam cleaner and I still smelled the ammonia. could this be a problem.?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Don't take my word as gospel, but yes I believe that could be part of the problem.

 

[chicknmama]

She's much worse now. All the others are fine. Still pooping small amounts of diarhea. not eating or drinking. Just standing with head dropped sleeping and her whole body is moving because of her labored breathing.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I'm afraid you may lose her. It's sad, but it happens. I lost a 3 day old EE out of this batch of chicks. Did everything I could for her, but she just wasn't strong enough to make it in this world.

 

[froggie71]

This has happened to several polish chicks and now 1 houdan chick we had. They all look fine then they next day they look lethargic, won't lay down, eyes closed, all puffed up, the other added bit of info was they had a bulge above their vent. the Houdan chick had this which looks to have been attacked by one of the other chicks and had bled. No blood in poo though. I stayed up with the houdan until 4:30am this morning keeping it drinking and hoping it would last until we could get antibiotics from feed store. by 8 am this morning it was gone. This chick was fine the day before. DH noticed it was lethargic at 6:40pm. it looked fine when I went out at 3pm. None had been outside yet except the day before for a short time and they were in a pen.This is when I noticed the Frizzled Polish look lethargic and then it died within hours. They are on medicated chick starter. No pasty butt. Constipated? We also have a MF d'uccle that has the bulge that cries out when it poos. Again no blood in poo. We also had a Spitzhauben chick that was being raised by a broody. This one just turned up dead 1 day and we noticed it too had that bulge above the vent. Not sure what we dealing with.

 

[SmittenChicken]

Sorry to hear about your little Brahma, I wish I had some advice for you but I'm new to this too!
All I can say is that these things happen sometimes and you won't always know why. I hope your little one turns around but please don't let it discourage you if not - i've heard some wise people on BYC say that some chicks just don't thrive from the start, and it may be that there was nothing you could have done for this little one. I lost an EE in the first couple weeks and never got to the bottom of it, and I'm sure virtually everyone here has been there. But I do hope she makes it, Brahmas are some of my favorites.
Sending out lots of good thoughts for your little feather-foot!