Can chicks die of fright?

[Asiakg]

If you have a baby chick acting sluggish, wobbly, eyes looking dull and even a little red-rimmed, give it coconut oil immediately. Chill the coconut oil until it solid and cut it into tiny pieces and slip one at a time into the little beak until it has swallowed about half to one teaspoon. That will unblock the intestines and the chick will poop it out in one impressive turd and it will be just fine after that.

Thanks so much for the information!
The remaining chick from this hatch has pooped four times since I made this post. I have them on paper towels now instead of puppy pads because I noticed the pads had a very slight fragrance so I’m concerned now that the pads could’ve caused them to breath in fumes. The paper towels are over top of a layer of pine bedding. So that’s how I’m able to tell how often she’s pooped, since the older chick has much bigger poops. If she is pooping does that mean that there’s no risk of constipation?

Ugh it seems there’s so much that can go wrong with chicks, no matter how much you read about them before you hatch them it seems like a million things you’ve never even heard of or considered can and will happen to them! Luckily these chicks are from my own sex link chocolates so I can hatch more but that seems like a brutal way to look at things The survivor is the only mauve I’ve hatched so I really hope it makes it

 

[Asiakg]

Lack of ventilation, excessive heat, dehydration are possibilities. It should have an exhaust fan if its an enclosed 80-90 degree tank. Should have a humidity guage and thermometer to monitor living conditions. I dont think fright is a possibility.

They’re hanging out now at the end of the tank that is 80 degrees and humidity is 29%. Maybe they’re too hot? My room is about 60 degrees, so I’m worried about experimenting more with the temps

 

[Asiakg]

If you have a baby chick acting sluggish, wobbly, eyes looking dull and even a little red-rimmed, give it coconut oil immediately. Chill the coconut oil until it solid and cut it into tiny pieces and slip one at a time into the little beak until it has swallowed about half to one teaspoon. That will unblock the intestines and the chick will poop it out in one impressive turd and it will be just fine after that.

The little survivor is acting alert, and when I lightly tap on the glass she is showing interest and is interacting. She’s eating and drinking. I have their water directly under the lamp so it stays warm and she doesn’t get a shock from drinking cold water. Here’s a video of her taken just now. Does she seem like anything is off about her that I’m not seeing?

 

[SavnEarth]

Well I have to say that I'm sorry about your chicks, but I have seen this happen myself. I was at the local feed store and there was an impetuous young lad that decided to go put his boot to the side of a stock tank where the chicks were and two in their squeaked and tipped right over dead. Now as to whether or not it was fear, I couldn't honestly say, it could have something to do with the sound/pressure wave inside the stock tank. Draping some fluffy blankets over the sides or similar measures would help to dampen that hard clang on the inside of that tank. Hope this helps.

 

[azygous]

Your video didn't embed. Post it first to YouTube, copy the URL and post that here. Then the video embeds.

A chick behaving as yours is is fine. There is no guessing when a chick is constipated. The chick is miserable, lethargic, often chirps constantly, is limp. You'd notice.

 

[SavnEarth]

I had three absolutely gorgeous little silkie chicks that hatched out yesterday. It was an easy uncomplicated hatch and babies were up and running around within an hour of hatching.

My house is older and not well insulated so to better keep the heat in I set the chicks up in a 20 gallon long tank. I put one of those lightless ceramic heat lamps on one end of the tank, 150 watts, and the other side I left alone so they could go to that side and escape the heat if needed.
I have been feeding them manna pro medicated chick feed and also gave them a couple live meal worms. They have vitamin water in a very shallow container. It’s literally just a lid.
So chicks have been doing great all day. Eating and drinking and running around being chicks. I have thermometers set in either end of the tank. The Govee ones. One side of the tank said 90 degrees and one side said 80.

So I have been checking on them all day and also just enjoy watching them because they’re so cute! The last time I went up, two of the chicks were stretched out on the puppy pad, and they looked like they were dead. I rushed over to them and accidentally knocked into the tank a little and both the chicks jumped up squealing and then started spasming. I’m thinking now that they were just in a normal sleep and I might have frightened them to death when I rudely awoke them out of a deep sleep? They were on the end of the tank that stays at 90 degrees. Anyway they were dead within a minute or two of me bumping the tank.
If anyone knows what could have happened please let me know because I am so upset right now I cannot even google properly to try and find out what went wrong. These were PERFECT, and I mean PERFECT chicks that were beautiful and healthy an hour ago and now they’re dead. I moved an older chick in with the surviving one and right now it looks fine and healthy but I realize how that looks can be deceiving. Part of me wants to just give the chick away because I am so sick of getting so attached to these little guys and then being devastated by their loss.
They had no abdominal swelling, no signs of any illnesses at all. So the only thing I can think of is that they died from fright. Has anyone else had this happen? I have heard of older chickens dying of fright but never babies

 

[Huntmaster]

They’re hanging out now at the end of the tank that is 80 degrees and humidity is 29%. Maybe they’re too hot? My room is about 60 degrees, so I’m worried about experimenting more with the temps

Do they ever go to warm end with bulb and sleep or are they sleeping on opposite end from bulb?

 

[Asiakg]

Your video didn't embed. Post it first to YouTube, copy the URL and post that here. Then the video embeds.

A chick behaving as yours is is fine. There is no guessing when a chick is constipated. The chick is miserable, lethargic, often chirps constantly, is limp. You'd notice.

Hmm I thought that’s what I had done. I’ll try pasting the link here again. This chick is definitely not acting like it’s sick or in any pain. It does loudly chirp if I walk away from it for long periods of time. Very very loudly. It’s only been doing that since it’s siblings died. I have the smallest of my older chicks in with her but she still seems like she’s lonely. (She’s from a sex linked chocolate x blue breeding so I know she’s a female)
She seems to want a lot of interaction but other than that she’s acting like her normal self

 

[Asiakg]

Do they ever go to warm end with bulb and sleep or are they sleeping on opposite end from bulb?

They seem to only go to the warm end for short periods of time but when they sleep they tend to stretch out on the cooler side of the tank. The two babies that died were stretched out under the lamp when I startled them out of a sleep and they started squealing and spasming when I knocked into the tank

 

[Asiakg]

Well I have to say that I'm sorry about your chicks, but I have seen this happen myself. I was at the local feed store and there was an impetuous young lad that decided to go put his boot to the side of a stock tank where the chicks were and two in their squeaked and tipped right over dead. Now as to whether or not it was fear, I couldn't honestly say, it could have something to do with the sound/pressure wave inside the stock tank. Draping some fluffy blankets over the sides or similar measures would help to dampen that hard clang on the inside of that tank. Hope this helps.

It was nuts, the two chicks were just stretched out and looked like they were dead or as another person wrote they looked like they were sunbathing. They were in a state of deep sleep. When I knocked the tank sideways from bumping into it the two that were in a deep sleep jumped up and started squealing and having spasms and were both dead within a minute. It’s just so crazy, they were running around healthy all day before this and eating and drinking. Neither showed any signs of being ill or in any kind of discomfort. The only difference between them and the surviving chick is that the survivor was awake and eating when I ran into the tank. It was startled as well and let out a surprised squeal but the two other chicks were in a deep sleep. That’s why I had wondered if I caused them to have a heart attack or something. This is so upsetting, I just feel like if they were ill for some reason how did they just die at the exact same time? I’ve had illness in chicks before when I first started keeping chickens around three years ago, and one would fall sick and then a day later another would fall sick but I’ve never had two healthy chicks die simultaneously without any signs of illness before hand! That’s why I keep going back to suspecting they had a heart attack or something