# 9-week old chick a bit sick



## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Our 9-week-old male chick has seemed a bit ill for about 24 hours. Nothing too serious- feathers a bit ruffled, neck drawn in, listless.

These are pretty much the same symptoms that swept through clutch no.1 a few months ago. Those chicks were about four weeks old when it started and within a couple of weeks six of the eight had died, typically within a few hours of appearing ill. The last one to die took about 24 hours from onset to death. The two survivors also got a bit ill but had much milder symptoms and got better within a day or two.

My guess at the time was cocci. Any other suggestions? Anything I can do to lessen the impact? I don't need this bird for breeding but he's very tame (he's currently perched on my shoulder!) and it would be a shame to lose him.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I was thinking the same thing as I was reading. I don't know what you have there to treat them for it. But Corid or Sulmet are both drugs for treating it. Albon? I need to do some digging. 

Sulmet is a sulfa drug. Corid is amprolium. Albon is also a sulfa drug. You might have one of those three available to you there.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I can ask in a farming supplies shop down the road, but mostly they stock fertilisers and herbicides/pesticides banned in most other countries! There are plenty of small-scale broiler chicken farms around here and I should imagine they have a need for various basic medications. 

If it is cocci then he should probably get better later today or tomorrow as he’s probably old enough to pull through.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

He's back with his sibs, although he's still a bit listless. A new development today is that our ginger cockerel has taken an interest in his sisters. It would be pretty cool if the cockerel forms a flock with these chicks, although I don't really want him to breed with them.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If he's that listless I'm not so certain about his survival. 

What about veterinary clinics? They would have those types of drugs.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

There are no vets near here that I can find. We had to take our puppy on a two-hour car ride to get her first vaccines (although the veterinary nurse said she travels very close to where we live once a month so the next jabs should be easier to arrange). It’s difficult to describe just how basic things are here. We live in a wooden shack in the middle of some paddy fields next to 8,000km2 of jungle. The only roads in and out are deliberately kept in an atrocious state to deter large-scale theft from the vast plantations that stretch between here and the nearest city.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

robin416 said:


> If he's that listless I'm not so certain about his survival.


He's perked up a bit and is eating. Fingers crossed.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

I've been meaning to ask you what the vaccination recommendations are for your part of the world?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

No-one vaccinates free-range chickens here. Even if medicated feed is available here I wouldn’t know where to buy it. Most village chickens (ours included) are free to range where they like from day 1. Some aren’t given any food at all but most are given just a bit of uncooked rice and maybe table/kitchen scraps such as grated coconut that’s been used to make coconut milk. Before we got chickens we had a lot of garden lizards but I haven’t seen one for a while so presumably our birds ate all their eggs. There are also lots of centipedes, millipedes, beetle larvae etc. Enough for a balanced diet, and pretty much what their wild cousins eat just a mile or two from here.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Sure, I understand. I know a few breeders in the Philippines and they have to do a strict vax regimen due to the tropical environment and everything the birds are susceptible to.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Some prize gamefowl in the Philippines can change hands for $5,000, here even a champion is unlikely to cost more than $100. Most birds sell for $2-3. So there’s no money in it for vaccinations or even feed other than scraps.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

I see, yes it's definitely a cultural thing in the Philippines.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

I hope your bird is doing better.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

He kept sneaking into the house all day. When I let him he perched on my shoulder. The puppy chased him a bit but he managed to dodge her teeth so I guess he’s not at death’s door. He’s roosting with his sisters right now. They were most upset about being moved to their new coop but now it’s dark they’re quiet.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Perhaps he was speaking with my birds about ways to sneak into the house!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

OK, any bird that invites themselves in the house and sits on a human's shoulder needs a name.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I'm trying to think of a name but nothing leaps out yet. He's still a bit poorly and won't leave me alone.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I hope he pulls out of whatever it is. 

Will you be the odd one in the village giving a name to one of your birds?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Some of our birds have names. The muscovies are called Donald, Sweetie and Pretty. Our two original hens are Noisy and Emergency and the two survivors from the first clutch are Pepper and Ginger. The four chicks from the second clutch are still called no.1, no.2, no.3 and no.4. We’ll probably have to start selling or eating birds soon, so it’s best not to get too attached.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Hmmm, I wonder if that's why Baby 1 and Baby 2 the Peafowl are numbered? I hadn't really considered it from the dinner angle.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Years ago hubs wanted to put cattle on the place we had in TN. There was more than one reason but the one that convinced him it wouldn't work was when I told him I would give the names and make pets of them. He figured out they would never end up on anyone's table.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

That is the issue with names and big brown cattle eyes.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

He keeps sneaking into the house. I think he's looking for some company so I didn't mind too much when his sisters snuck in as well.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That is so darned sweet. I didn't think chickens imprinted like some other featherd species but it looks like this group just might have.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Thanks for the great picture!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Day 5 and he was still feeling sorry for himself this morning, but some colour had returned to his face. He's now running around with his sisters so hopefully he's over the worst of it and will make a full recovery.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

That is good news!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

It's not cocci. Cocci improvement doesn't drag out like this.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Then it’s something else. There are plenty of ailments to choose from. The important thing is he’s on the mend. He’s still not 100% but he’s mixing with his sisters most of the time.and hopping on my shoulder for a time-out once in a while. His poop looks reasonably healthy and his appetite is fine. And he can move like the wind when our hyper-aggressive hen Noisy shows up.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

robin416 said:


> It's not cocci. Cocci improvement doesn't drag out like this.


unless he got better a few days ago and he's faking it because he loves the attention!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Heck, he could have eaten something he shouldn't have. I've seen my own do that. Or been bitten by something that caused him to feel low. 

No telling what happened to him.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Your environment has got me thinking, your birds must have very good naturally developed immune systems. It makes me wonder what our birds' immune systems are like here in the States. I would like to think that mine are probably fairly middling as far as intervention. But I shudder to think of the commercial meat 4500 bird facility less than three miles away.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I never dealt with Mareks or cocci in my birds so I'd say that for the most part our private flocks do pretty well as long as they get what they need from us. 

We had outbreaks of ILT down here a few years ago. They were inoculating eggs with live virus, I think it was, which got outside of the commercial houses and spread to private flocks.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Excellent point, when that commercially implemented stuff gets out, it's generally not a good thing.


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