Woke up to a dead chick

This morning I went out to check on my babies and noticed all the chicks huddled up together in one corner, all except one chick who was too still alone under the heat lamp. I opened the top of the box and no one moved, which is odd, and I touched the lone chick, nothing. I picked her up, nothing, just limp... And she had thrown up, it was thin grainy and slimy. Not sure what caused her to throw up but it appears she either died and threw up or threw up and choked and died because it doesn't look like there is throw up anywhere else, and it doesn't look like she moved after she puked. These are my first chicks and this was my first loss and I am worried now that if she was sick that my other chicks may have caught what she had, they seem fine, but so did she until this morning. I am going to clean the box and waterer and feeder and change out the straw again. They are only two weeks old. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could have happened, or anything I need to do to protect the rest of the chicks?

You said the others were all huddled in a corner away from the one under the heat lamp. Perhaps it is too hot in there.
There only needs to be a warm place and lots of cool space. Determine their comfort level by behavior. If they huddle under the lamp, they're likely too cold. If they crowd far away from the heat, they're too hot. If they move all about, they're fine.
A 250 watt infrared lamp is usually too much heat for a smallish brooder. I went out of town once leaving some newly hatched chicks with a friend. They were in a large Rubbermaid tub with a heat lamp. They cooked in there.

The brooder is just under 3'X3' with a hinged hardware cloth top. Only one corner is heated with a plain Jane 60w light bulb. It doesn't put off a lot of heat, but it's been in the high 70 and low 80 during the day here. Nights have seen in the low 50s and last night dipped to 48, and I cover the brooder at night to keep as much heat in as possible. They are on an enclosed porch (the bottom half of the walls are wood and the top half is screened). They are usually all over the box all the time except when they all go to sleep, then they are all right under the lamp.



Would the heat from the light have caused an otherwise healthy chick, that had plenty of cool spaces to move into, to just die? She wasn't the oldest chick (they all hatched out over four days) but she was the biggest and rowdiest, so I'd have a hard time believing that she got stuck under another chick and got too hot.... But, like I said, this is my first time so I don't know.

My main concern though is trying to figure out if she could have been sick and possibly passed anything on to the others, and if so what are the possible illnesses that it could be, what to look for in the others how to treat/prevent it from happening again.

That shouldn't be too hot then. It isn't a rough service bulb is it? They give off deadly fumes.
There's no way to tell if she was sick without a necropsy.
You have 3 labs in GA.
11

Georgia

Athens Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
501 DW Brooks Drive
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia 30602
Phone: 706-542-5568 Fax 706-542-5977
AI, BSE, CSF, CWD*, ND, FMD, PRV, IAV-S*
12

Georgia

Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network
4457 Oakwood Road
Oakwood, Georgia 30566
Phone: 770-535-5996
AI, ND
13

Georgia

University of Georgia Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
43 Brighton Road
Tifton, Georgia 31793-3000
Phone: 229-386-3340 Fax 229-386-3399

I'm not sure what a rough service bulb is... It's just a normal bulb, the same as we use in the house. I have already buried the body. But will keep those addresses handy incase I lose another. Would I have to take the body to them?

You can refrigerate it and mail it to them with an ice pack. If you call them, they'll tell you how to package. With today's gas prices, it may be cheaper to drive it there depending on how far away.
If you don't know what a rough service bulb, it probably isn't. It will say rough service where the wattage is printed.