One of our sexlink hens brooded a clutch of nine eggs and hatched out six of those on May 9. Now 16 days later, we discovered one of the chicks outside, alone, unable to move with a case of curled toes. Now perhaps I haven't done my research properly, but from what I can tell, this is a common reaction to vitamin B2, or riboflavin, deficiency.
Here's how I believe it happened. Momma hen has her six chicks with her foraging along side the other hens. Although I have tried to pull them aside and feed the chicks the normal chick starter/grower feed that we use for our replacement hens, it has been difficult to keep our egg layers from consuming it. As it is medicated, I don't want that feed entering our egg supply. The chick in question has always been the one to lag behind and more than likely is not receiving his fair share. My guess is that in the larger picture of our poultry set up, this little chick has simply not received adequate nutrition.
These links were helpful in doing my own diagnosis:
Merk Vet Manual
World Poultry
Backyard Chickens
Backyard Chickens
From what I could tell, if nutrition is corrected as soon as the deficiency is noticed by giving Poly Vi Sol infant vitamin drops, then it is possible to reverse the situation. We're not quite to 24 hours yet after starting this chick's recovery process, but it seems to have worsened instead. We can only hope that it will in time pull out, but frankly I'm not hopeful.
With our recent heavy bout of rain, it has been hard to keep tabs on the chicks as momma has had to keep them brooded to stay warm, and we have simply not been outside as much. Lesson learned I guess.
So what are we going to do to keep the other chicks healthy? I'm contemplating a design to allow the chicks to "creep feed" as is done with other livestock. The smaller, younger animals are able to access feedstuffs available for their consumption only and not by the older, larger animals.
Although we have not experienced this situation before raising chicks in a similar manner, it is a concern that we will need to address to keep it from happening again.
If you've had experience with a similar deficiency, leave me a comment. I'd like to hear what advice you have to offer.
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How'd it go? I've unfortunately only just diagnosed this (I think) in my turkeys ... I don't know if they'll make it, as I have left it untreated for possibly too long. The birds are older, too, though, which seems not super common, so I'm not confident this is what it is. They were fine as chicks but started going lame at ~6 weeks, getting worse one at a time; they're now about 9 weeks.
ReplyDeleteThey all ate the same thing -- non-medicated feed formulated for turkeys -- and one breed (Narragannsetts) is tending to go lame, while the other (Broad-Breasted Bronze) is not. Our feed supplier said they are hearing a lot of complaints about birds this year, and speculates that hatcheries are shipping birds they'd normally cull, in an attempt to meet demand.
Time to start breeding my own, I guess, or sourcing more locally.
Anyway, I'm interested to hear how this chick's treatment went for you ...
Lauren, Unfortunately our intervention was too late. I tried the vitamin drops but never did see improvement. The chick eventually became prone and did not survive much longer. I checked our feed tags for poultry food and did see that they add B vitamins. These chicks were free ranging with the hen and the the rest of the flock and we were only supplementing with a 14% all-stock blend which is not fortified. Our goats produce their own B vitamins through rumen activity but it had not dawned on me that poultry needs were different. Live and learn.
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