"What's wrong with my baby chick?" Symptoms and their association with nutritional deficiency

[BlazeJester]

Most baby chick issues are not your fault. Nutritional deficiencies in the breeding stock can cause all sorts of deformities in baby chicks. I just found this website and these deficiencies explain every chick problem I've ever had, which are mostly related to the B vitamins.

Vitamin/electrolyte supplementation in the drinking water may help most if not all of these conditions when caught in time. I will be using electrolytes for my very young chicks from now on, and this website to help me diagnose.

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2114&page=49

Example chart (this one goes on for several more pages):

TABLE 7-3 Nutrients Associated with Various Signs of Deficiency in Growing Birds

Deficiency Signs

Descriptions

Species

Associated Nutrients

Skin lesions

Crusting and scab formation around eyes and beak

Chick, poult,

Biotin, pantothenic acid
​

Bottoms of feet rough and calloused with hemorrhagic cracks

Chick, poult

Biotin, pantothenic acid
​

Scaliness on feet

Chick

Zinc, niacin
​

Lesions around eyes, eyelids stuck together

Chick, poult

Vitamin A
​

Mouth, inflammation of oral mucosa (chicken black tongue)

Poult, chick

Niacin

Feather abnormalities

Uneven feather growth, abnormally long primary feathers, feathers not lying smoothly

Chick, poult

Protein, amino acid imbalance
​

Frizzled and rough

Chick, poult

Zinc, niacin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, lysine
​

Black pigmentation in breeds with red and brown feathers

Chick

Vitamin D
​

Depigmentation

Chick, poult,

Copper, iron, folacin

Nervous disorders

Convulsions with head retraction

Chick, pigeon

Thiamin
​

Convulsions with hyperexcitability

Chick, poult, duckling

Pyridoxine
​

Hyperirritability

Chick, poult, duckling

Magnesium, sodium chloride
​

Characteristic fright reaction with tetanic spasms

Chick

Chloride
​

Spastic cervical paralysis, neck extended with birds appearing to look down

Poult

Folacin
​

Curled-toe paralysis, gross enlargement of sciatic and brachial nerves with myelin degeneration

Chick

Riboflavin
​

Encephalomalacia, tetanic spasms with head retraction, hemorrhagic lesions in cerebellum

Chick

Vitamin E

Blood and vascular system

Anemia

All poultry


​

Macrocytic



Vitamin B12
​

Macrocytic, hyperchromic



Folacin
​

Microcytic, hypochromic



Iron, copper
​

Microcytic



Pyridoxine
​

Hemorrhage, intramuscular, subcutaneous, internal from aortic rupture

Chick, poult

Vitamin K, copper
​

Exudative diathesis

Chick, poult

Selenium, vitamin E
​

Enlarged heart

Chick, poult

Copper

Muscle

Muscular dystrophy, white areas of degeneration in skeletal muscle

Chick, duck, poult

Vitamin E, selenium
​

Cardiac myopathy

Poult

Vitamin E, selenium
​

Gizzard myopathy

Poult

Vitamin E, selenium

Bone disorders

Soft, easily bent bones and beak (rickets)

All poultry

Vitamin D, calcium or phosphorus deficiency or imbalance
​

Hock enlargement

Poult, chick, gosling, duckling

Niacin, zinc
​

Perosis

Chick, poult

Biotin, choline, vitamin B12, manganese, zinc, folacin
​

Bowed legs

Duck

Niacin
​

Shortening and thickening of leg bones

Chick

zinc, manganese
​

Curled toes

Chick

Riboflavin





​

 

[tweetysvoice]

Great page to have handy in the chicken favorites folder! Thanks for sharing that find!

 

[chickitty]

what foods have all these vitamins?

 

[BlazeJester]

All major brand poultry feeds should have the correct balance of nutrients, as well as any electrolyte water mix-in for livestock or poultry (Sav-a-chik, PolyViSol, etc).

This is more a diagnostic resource for very young chicks, where contagious illness is not a probable cause. All of mine that have died have had neurological symptoms, and B vitamin deficiencies explain all of those deaths. This would mean that the parents did not have adequate thiamin and niacin in their diets. It may have been something I could correct with B complex supplement if caught in time, or it may be something that the chick will die from regardless, but at least now I know it was beyond my control and not due to negligence on my part.

It helps to have this list of alternative causes to what I only had resources to diagnose as Newcastle or Encephalomyelitis, neither of which made any sense in my situations. The fact that the birds were from breeder stock and therefore a less controlled feed source than hatchery makes more sense to me, though I did have one hatchery chick fall ill with symptoms classic to B vitamin deficiency and recover after a week of isolation with electrolyte water as the only treatment.

 

[featheredroots]

Thank you for posting this. If you don't mind my asking, how many chicks did you lose due to deficiency? I'm losing chicks at an alarming rate, 4 in 5 days and it's not looking good for the last 2. I was worried that it may be a disease or infection, but when I describe the symptoms, which are neurological, and developmental, people tell me it sounds more like a deficiency. I got an electrolyte and vitamin mix from the feed store today, but I'm afraid it may too little too late.

I'm so glad to have this information now, so that I will be able to do better by our next batch of chicks.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Wow! Awesome! I am bookmarking this thread for distribution!!!!