11 day old 'sleepy' chick died

LongRanch

Chirping
Apr 17, 2016
149
5
54
I'm trying to figure out what was wrong with my chick and if the others are in danger. My little olive egger chick has been very "sleepy" for the past week. It seemed like every time I peeked in, she was close to the heat lamp and sleeping while standing up. However, when I'd throw food in the dish, she was actively eating, digging in the dish, and was drinking as well. She wasn't ALWAYS sleeping, just more than any other chick I've had. No strange poops, and they've only been indoors in a brooder, except one older chick (5 weeks old) who had been outside a few times but due to a leg injury I brought her back in. There are six chicks in the brooder and all appear to be fine. They have vitamins and ACV in the water and they eat organic chick starter (they are all ravenous). Should I be worried about the rest of my chicks? Two of them are true araucana and it was such a hassle getting the eggs shipped so I'll be so sad if they die.
 
Sounds like a simple failure to thrive. It happens sometimes.

Not sure if I would recommend ACV in the water of such young chicks. There's not really any conclusive evidence it's even beneficial in adult birds, and it seems like a very harsh substance to be giving to such young birds.
 
Thanks, I only added the ACV after she started looking sleepy all the time, so I guess it didn't help.. I'll take it out. The other chicks are active and eat plenty but I do notice that they peep more than previous chicks.
 
I also vote for "failure-to-thrive" as the cause of your chick's death. How old are these newer chicks? FTT is not at all uncommon during the first two weeks, so your remaining chicks should be fine as long as they don't display similar symptoms as the dead chick presented.

Baby chicks, like human infants at birth, aren't completely formed at hatch. In some, their internal organs and digestive track are immature to the extent they can't process nutrients. They quickly lose energy, lag behind in size, and eventually die.

Many of us use Poultry Nutri-drench as a matter of practice during the first couple weeks to mainline, literally, nutrients into the bloodstream, giving lagging chicks a jump start. Even the normal ones can benefit. That would be the best thing you can do for your surviving chicks.
 
Thank you, I am glad that it is probably something I didn't do wrong. She just looked so healthy.. Good weight, was one of the bigger chicks... At the time I was thinking it was a coincidence that she seemed to be sleeping most of the times I peeked in at them, because otherwise she just seemed so normal. I'll look into the Nutri-Drench. I'm in Canada so I don't always have everything available to me but I was giving them Vita-Sol and since I ran out of that, I recently picked up some new vitamins (a powder) I haven't tried yet. I wish now I would have given them electrolytes or something but I wasn't sure she was sick. Little trooper. Sigh. They are all 12 days old now (these are the youngest, the 5 week old is the oldest).
 

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