What's crippling my chicks?

[Wyorp Rock]

This has to be my worst experience raising chicks, I've had 5 die so far despite never loosing any before. A few that died i understood why but one of the most recent died due to injuries to it's knees, it was cut and swollen and the chick couldn't stand.

I've got one with a knee that's swollen 2-3x normal size, i thought slipped tendon but I'm 2nd guessing that now. I've also got another one that had what looked like open blisters behind it's knees so treated it but now one knee is swelling and it is losing motion, does anyone have any idea on what is going on here?

I'll be adding pics shortly. Can you tell us a little more about the injuries/cuts that 1week old chicks got, how did this occur?
You mention in your original thread that 5 have died, did they all die from the same leg/joint injuries?

If all of them have the same symptoms / swelling/lesions on the hocks and they were all injured/cut, then infection could be the cause.

 

[Shamo123]

Can you tell us a little more about the injuries/cuts that 1week old chicks got, how did this occur?
You mention in your original thread that 5 have died, did they all die from the same leg/joint injuries?

If all of them have the same symptoms / swelling/lesions on the hocks and they were all injured/cut, then infection could be the cause.

Out of the 5 that have died, 1 died shortly after birth in the incubator (no swelling joints or wounds, 1 was born with curled toes and died a day or 2 after hatching (no swelling or wounds), 1 had splayed legs and died in the process of me trying to sort it (my fault but no swelling or wounds) and one was crawling from the moment i put it in to the brooder, it had wounds behind both knees and the hock/knees started swelling and the most recent one that died was weak from the beginning (no swelling or wounds), it had pipped in the wrong end so i thought I'd help it a little.

Out of 8 that i have alive 2 of them have swollen hocks, one had no visible wounds (suspected slipped tendon) but i did apply tape around it's knee to straighten and managed to pull off the scales when taking the tape off which left a pink area and the swelling increased since doing so. The other had what looked like 2 open blisters but they healed up well except it left one hock swollen, the swelling hasn't increased but i have also been giving it an epsom salt soak every day.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It's possible it could be injury, I do hope so. MS can be egg transmitted (transovarian) so it is still real possibility that you may want to consider.

Any way that you can one tested?

 

[Shamo123]

[COLOR=000000]It's possible it could be injury, I do hope so. MS can be egg transmitted (transovarian) so it is still real possibility that you may want to consider.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=000000]Any way that you can one tested?[/COLOR]

3 of the chicks i have i bought the eggs from eBay so being egg transmitted is a possibility. I think i read somewhere that it takes a while for symptoms to show but in some cases it can come up as soon as a week old? 2 chicks from a relatives hen (don't think that has MS) and 1 from the ebay eggs have shown swelling but these were only a few days old when i 1st saw swelling. I could try and look for somewhere that may be able to test, either now or in a few weeks (will keep them isolated from the flock until 6 weeks or so). Any idea how much the test will cost?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have no idea how much it costs. You can contact your personal vet or you local agricultural agent if they do testing, Your state lab should also be able to give you the information you need. The labs are in the links below:

http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf

 

[Shamo123]

I have no idea how much it costs. You can contact your personal vet or you local agricultural agent if they do testing, Your state lab should also be able to give you the information you need. The labs are in the links below:

http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf

I'm based in England so unfortunately wouldn't be able to use those services, I'll have to look and see if i can find anyone here.

Update on the chicks: Fortunately I've had no issue with any others since creating this thread, one chicks leg has completely died i think as it's toes are now curled together and the whole leg is about 10C cooler than the rest of the body so i think in his/her case it wasn't MS as i haven't heard anything about it actually killing the limbs? The other one still has the same swelling that hasn't increased or decreased, it's still able to walk on both legs but you can tell it has some trouble when comparing it to the rest. The other 6 are doing well and growing like weeds.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm based in England so unfortunately wouldn't be able to use those services, I'll have to look and see if i can find anyone here.

Update on the chicks: Fortunately I've had no issue with any others since creating this thread, one chicks leg has completely died i think as it's toes are now curled together and the whole leg is about 10C cooler than the rest of the body so i think in his/her case it wasn't MS as i haven't heard anything about it actually killing the limbs? The other one still has the same swelling that hasn't increased or decreased, it's still able to walk on both legs but you can tell it has some trouble when comparing it to the rest. The other 6 are doing well and growing like weeds.

Thank you for the update.
I'm glad the other chicks are doing well.
I'm sorry to hear the other 2 are still having trouble.
Can you get any antibiotics in England?
If so it may be helpful for the one that has the swelling, but the one that has an immobile (dead) leg, most likely not, but it may help with any secondary infections if there are any.

 

[Shamo123]

Thank you for the update.
I'm glad the other chicks are doing well.
I'm sorry to hear the other 2 are still having trouble.
Can you get any antibiotics in England?
If so it may be helpful for the one that has the swelling, but the one that has an immobile (dead) leg, most likely not, but it may help with any secondary infections if there are any.

Getting your hand on antibiotics here is no easy task, you can't buy it over the counter for people or for animals so the only way to get it is to find a vet that specialises (or at least knows the basics) in poultry, take the chick for examination then they may or may not prescribe it depending on whether they feel it's necessary.

I may have to cull the chick with the dead leg, i can't imagine it having a great life so i just have to try and get it over with.

 

[peacockfeather]

Hello! Sorry to hear you're going through this. As for antibiotics, I believe oregano has antibacterial properties, which you can safely crush up and put into the chicks' water. My first thought was some sort of vitamin deficiency passed on genetically. But since there are multiple chicks from various parents, that may not be the case. What is their bedding like in the brooder? If you're using shavings, what kind? Just brainstorming common variables - were they hatched in an incubator?

 

[Shamo123]

Hello! Sorry to hear you're going through this. As for antibiotics, I believe oregano has antibacterial properties, which you can safely crush up and put into the chicks' water. My first thought was some sort of vitamin deficiency passed on genetically. But since there are multiple chicks from various parents, that may not be the case. What is their bedding like in the brooder? If you're using shavings, what kind? Just brainstorming common variables - were they hatched in an incubator?

Thanks for the info, i didn't know about oregano having antibacterial properties, i will also try some garlic.

I hatched them all in an incubator, 2 incubators actually and some of the eggs were over 3 weeks old which probably explains a couple of the deaths as a couple chicks were born pretty weak. Another thing i done differently this time waa increased the humidity to over 90% during the hatch as i have had great hatches doing this, however this time i kept it at that level for longer than usual (1 or 2 of the eggs hadn't hatched).

After a day or 2 in the incubator i put them in a large cardboard box with a heat lamp, same as usual and used paper towels as bedding although this time i used a slightly different type of paper which is a little more slippery i think, i went back to the other type after all the problems (didn't have any issues since but that might just be a coincidence).

I have shavings but i no longer use that in the brooder as they always manage to get it in their feeders and waterers so haven't used it with this batch of chicks.