weak, wobbly 5 week chicks -- legs not working?

[thejoyofchicks]

help please! i've had lots of chickens and chicks throughout my life, but have never had this problem before. if there is something i can do to help these babies, please tell me!

the victims:
#1. 5 week old wyandotte chick, had her from day 2,, mt. healthy hatchery via feed store
#2 5w blue andalusian, same

the info:
yesterday late afternoon i found #1 flopped on the bottom of the brooder, unable to move herself around. her legs don't seem to be under her control anymore. she can kinda push herself backwards, but mostly just flops around. she was weak and lethargic. i put her in a separated part of the brooder, and offered her water, which she took, and feed, which she didn't.
after cruising around here for awhile, i gave her some unflavored pedialyte and some Poly Sol Vit from a dropper. i couldn't find anything specific that seemed to correlate with her symptoms, though. figured it was just one of those things, and that she'd probably be gone by morning. offered her some scrambled egg...absolutely no interest at all.

but today she's still hanging in there. more vitamins and electrolytes, still doesn't want any egg.
and this afternoon, i noticed #2 looking wobbly legged. she was still able to walk and run around, but definitely not with total control. so now she's in the separated pen, as well.

since i am totally flummoxed as to what this is, i figured i better post to ask the

experts for advice!

if it's something contagious, which it seems to be, what else should i do? i have 5 more babies that age, and 8 more that are almost two months. my spare heat lamp burned out two days ago, or i'd have them further apart. they are all on non-medicated chick feed. i have put apple-cider vinegar in their water. and now i added some pedialyte to the big cage's water, too.

help me, help me!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/218/vitamin-e-deficiency
It could very easily be a vitamin deficiency. Since you have given poly vi sol already you might consider trying corid out for 24 hours to see if it is coccidiosis. If it is then you should see improvement in 24 hours (the whole course of treatment is 5-7 days). Even though you haven't seen diarrhea or bloody poo, the age group is so susceptible to it, and can be transferred into the brooder by humans (not having been on soil doesn't matter).

http://browneggblueegg.com/Article.html
if you click left column where it says "crookneck" it gives vit e dosages for chickens

I don't know what is wrong with your chicks but hope this helps. I use corid 9.6% liquid in the cattle section of the feed store, 9.5 ml per gallon of drinking water for 5 to 7 days, and I treat all the chickens who have had exposure to the poo of the "sick" ones. Then you might have to give your babies drops of this medicated water to dose them.

Don't give corid with vitamins as it is a thiamine blocker.

Of note: Mareks is a paralysis causing disease also...I don't have experience with it and thus you might want to look this up, but I am thinking that I had read that 5 weeks would be a little young for it to be showing up. I am not sure. Hopefully you will get some other responses as well.

 

[thejoyofchicks]

thank you! i'll keep trying the vitamins tonight and run to the feed store in the morning for some Corid.

it doesn't seem to be crookneck or wry neck... but i don't know what it could be, so i won't rule anything out.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

thank you! i'll keep trying the vitamins tonight and run to the feed store in the morning for some Corid.

it doesn't seem to be crookneck or wry neck... but i don't know what it could be, so i won't rule anything out.

The crookneck page was for vit e dosing- sorry I wasn't more clear. It is the only page on the internet I have seen that mentions vit e dosing for sick chickens. I hope everything works out! I have had to treat with corid up to the age of 3 months, and am like lightning to give it when chicks act like they are ill with coccidiosis (not eating or drinking, or diarrhea). It is amazing and has saved the lives of many of my chicks.

 

[thejoyofchicks]

no, no, i wasn't clear! you were fine! i just wanted to make that point, since i didn't mention it in the original post.


i think the best medical descriptor for their main symptom would be ataxia. they still have control of head & neck, but nothing else seems to work right.

update: #1 just kindly pooped on the towel i was holding her in. a little watery, but quite solid for how little she has eaten. no blood.

 

[thejoyofchicks]

i should probably mention as well that i am pregnant. of course, i wash my hands after handling the chicks! but are there other precautions i need to take? could this be something potentially dangerous to me?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

i should probably mention as well that i am pregnant. of course, i wash my hands after handling the chicks! but are there other precautions i need to take? could this be something potentially dangerous to me?

Honestly I'd wear gloves at all times when handling poultry if pregnant if it were me. I have no idea if it is "recommended" to do that but hey, I've started to also!!! And I have already had my kids.

I have started to wear garden gloves (the kind with the plastic coating on the front over the palm and fingers) when doing my chicken chores and my fingers are a world cleaner than they used to be after chicken chores!! I'd inadvertently touch poo quite often, and run to wash with the hose and some dish soap, but still! Just handling the rake and waterers, etc., was making my hands very dirty. You don't want to pick up staph!

In terms of coccidiosis I am under the impression that this is just an animal problem. If it is a vitamin deficiency then of course that isn't a concern. But there are always bacteria to be concerned about in the soil, and chickens are constantly pecking soil, getting it on their feet, etc.

I am so happy now with my glove wearing I just want to tell the world how nice it is!! I used to have to really scrub my hands to get them clean after chicken chores.

If your little one is having watery poos then it could very well be coccidiosis. Cocci are naturally occurring in the soil everywhere. They must build up a resistance to them. Sometimes it overwhelms their systems and there are HUGE numbers of them in the poo of the overwhelmed chicks. You can take a stool sample to some vets to test for cocci for a small fee.

 

[thejoyofchicks]

that's a good idea, ChickensAreSweet, i'll pick up some gloves of that type at the feed store today. all i have is fabric gloves.

honestly, i'm flummoxed. their poo seems okay to me, so i am not sure whether to treat for coccidiosis.

but the vitamins don't seem to be helping, so i don't know how long to continue that before trying other options!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

that's a good idea, ChickensAreSweet, i'll pick up some gloves of that type at the feed store today. all i have is fabric gloves.

honestly, i'm flummoxed. their poo seems okay to me, so i am not sure whether to treat for coccidiosis.

but the vitamins don't seem to be helping, so i don't know how long to continue that before trying other options!

Well go with your gut, I always say. It is very difficult to say to another what to do on internet when we cannot see the chicken in question.

Trust your gut feelings, as that is our compass in life.

 

[thejoyofchicks]

thank you both!
i picked up sulmet at the feed store...they didn't have corvid. unfortunately, they didn't have any other ideas for what to do, either. the only thing he mentioned that i hadn't thought of was maybe pulled tendons from slipping? while their cage bottom is not particularly slippery -- it has pine shavings -- part of it has cardboard underneath. it could be ??

i also saw botulism mentioned as a possibility. the treatment for that would be epsom salts, it seems. can i treat with sulmet AND epsom salts at the same time?