Nutridrench to the beak- how many times per day?

[Finnie]

So, I've searched all over BYC, and all the threads that talk about using Nutridrench will give the amount to put in water, and the amount to give per pound of body weight directly to the beak. But for the drop in the beak method, no one EVER answers the question, how often do I repeat the dose?

A lot of people ask this, but that's usually the last post in the thread. No one responded. I have some shipped chicks that are not faring well. I gave them each one drop. I want to give them more, but I don't know how long I should wait.

@TerryH ? I know you used it last year to save #7.

Do you know @casportpony ?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't think it would hurt to give a drop 3 or 4 times a day because the dose for day old chicks is 2 tablespoons per quart of water. It is just to give them a quick boost because the nutrients and energy gets into the bloodstream in minutes.
If they are eating and drinking on their own, they should be fine. If they aren't, more ND may not help them.

 

[Finnie]

Ok, thank you. I will wait 3 or 4 hours and give another dose to whichever ones seem like they need it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

As long as they're eating and drinking, I just put the Nutri Drench in the water at the dosage rate on the bottle.

 

[Finnie]

As long as they're eating and drinking, I just put the Nutri Drench in the water at the dosage rate on the bottle.

In this case, they weren't eating and drinking, much that I could see, and I wanted to give them that boost of the concentrated dose. I think they got chilled during the trip, or, since they were overnighted, but came a day late, I think they might have used up their yolk and began starving. When I opened the box, 2 looked like they were almost dead, but the rest seemed fine. It wasn't until later on that I noticed the two had died and the others were all acting wobbly and sluggish.

Any rate, 4 have died, one is looking iffy, I am keeping my eye on a few more, and the other 4 are starting to perk up and act like normal chicks. (There were 12.) They arrived Wednesday.

I only did the drops to the beak on Thursday, three times. Then I mixed the Nutridrench in a little dish of water and soaked some feed crumbles in that, leaving pools of liquid for them to drink. Then I replenished and changed that periodically. And dipped their beaks in it a lot. All but the really weakest ones were also scratching and eating feed from the paper towels, and drinking from the vertical drinkers too.

Now that it has been a few days, and the weakest ones have died off, the other ones seem to be improving. I'm hoping there will be no more deaths, and that they will all gain strength.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

[Finnie]

Thank you. Two more are at death's door. The rest eat and drink, but do not act like normal chicks. I don't know what else to try. I think I need to just treat them like normal chicks and let them sink or swim on their own. It seems like nursing them and supplementing them with Nutridrench didn't save the weak ones. It just dragged out their downward spiral. But it's hard to say whether it made a difference for the stronger chicks.

 

[Finnie]

Well since BYC has been down for over a week, I never did come back to update. Two more chicks did die, for a total of 6 dead out of 12. The breeder is sending me a replacement batch. We both have a feeling that the survivors had such a rough start, that they may turn out poor, even though they lived. At least the weather for the next shipment is looking positive.

 

[Eggcessive]

NutriDrench dosage is 1 ml per every 3 pounds of weight. A ml contains from 15-20 drops per ml. With weak or dying chicks, they also need plain water by dipping the beaks into water several times an hour as often as you can manage. Check for pasty butt as well, since dehdydration and chilling during shipping can cause that. Adding ND or a good poultry electrolyte/vitamin powder such as SaveAChick to the water makes it easier. With shipped chicks suffering stress, sometimes the damage has already been done and may not be helped.

 

[Finnie]

Yes, that seems to be how it played out, because all of those measures were not enough to save the ones that died. I'm sure they did help boost the ones that weren't affected too badly.