week old chicks dying one by one

[mandarin1]

Hi everyone,

I have week old copper marans that I bought the eggs locally and hatched myself. No complications during hatching, all acting healthy, I keep the brooder clean, clean food and water in constant supply, and at a week old now they have been dying one a day for the past few days, what could this be from? I put a thermometer in the bottom of the brooder just to make sure my temperature was correct even though they were acting fine and it is in the ideal temperature range. The only thing I can think of would be if there is something wrong with the parent birds that laid the eggs and if so, how do you tell and what do you do about it? I just don't want to lose anymore, I started with 11 and I'm down to 7 now. Please help!

 

[junebuggena]

Here are the chicks, all the birds have been walking around eating, drinking, and doing what chicks do and then there is the one that has been gaping, (that is the one laying down in the corner in one of the pictures) which this one will lay down for a while, do the gaping or gasping every once in a while and then it'll get up and go eat, drink, walk around a minute and then goes and lays back down.

Do you see how all the chicks are holding their wings out from their bodies? That means they are all much too warm. Forget about what the 'rules' for temperature are for chicks. Yours are much too warm.

 

[keesmom]

I suggest you get Sulmet or Corid instead of the medicated feed.

 

[carldaugh]

May I ask... what is their water in? This may not be an illness, it may be drowning. Make sure the water container is not too big for your chicks. If they can place their entire head in the water, it is too big/deep and they may be drowning. The "gasping motion" may be them trying to get air in, and/or water out of their lungs. Sounds silly, that a chick can drown in it drinking water, but it happens.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I suggest you get Sulmet or Corid instead of the medicated feed.

X2 medicated feed is preventative, not theraputic. For active loss like you are experiencing you need to purchase and use direct application treatment, not feed.

 

[junebuggena]

Thank you all so much, I will look into getting them a direct treatment instead of just feed. The warmest spot in the brooder is 92 and the coolest is 87.

Too warm. They only need warmth in one spot. The rest of the brooder needs to be at least 15 to 20 degrees cooler. Otherwise they can not get away from the heat to properly cool themselves off. It is much easier to kill them with too much heat than it is to loose them to being a tad bit too cool. If they get too cool, they can always huddle for warmth. If the brooder is too warm, there is nothing they can do but overheat.

 

[azjustin]

In the top picture, they look quite toasty with their wings up like junebuggena said. It is also quite bright by the feeder.

Second picture: that little one appears to be passed out as far AWAY from the heat as possible, a sign that you are probably way too warm.

If the new ones start acting hot or sleeping away from the light, I will usually just turn it off and let them crowd for heat. Inversely, if everyone is packed into a ball then they need some heat. I don't currently do it, but the mommy heating pad concept seems like a great idea and might be worth a try in your current situation.

Hopefully it all works out for you.

 

[countladybee]

Just an update, I ended up with only five chicks surviving. After all the adjustments I still had a couple die and I'm not really sure if it was a heat issue or not, because their wings still sit like that on their sides and the remaining five are doing well, so I'm not too sure if it was the temperature issue and the one's that died it was one of those things where the damage was already done or if it was a respiratory issue or coccidiosis issue and it took a bit for the antibiotics to kick in and do their job and it was just too late for the sicker one's. I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that helped!!

Did you ever figure out the problem here? I'm facing exactly the same issue. I also treated for coccidia immediately because i did see some bloody stool from one chick.
One dies every day, gasping etc as you described. I ordered 26 birds from the hatchery, 10 showed up DOA and 7 more have died in so many days.
Treated for coccidia using corid for 5 days and began giving probiotic and electrolyte (i read you're not supposed to use corid together with the electrolyte).
They're running around, eating and drinking one moment and then the next they're lethargic and can't even hold their head up. I'm so sincerely devastated I've been researching and wanting chickens for more than 15 years and these are my first my temps are good, it's clean in there, i can absolutely not figure out what the issue is

 

[nuthatched]

Did you ever figure out the problem here? I'm facing exactly the same issue. I also treated for coccidia immediately because i did see some bloody stool from one chick.
One dies every day, gasping etc as you described. I ordered 26 birds from the hatchery, 10 showed up DOA and 7 more have died in so many days.
Treated for coccidia using corid for 5 days and began giving probiotic and electrolyte (i read you're not supposed to use corid together with the electrolyte).
They're running around, eating and drinking one moment and then the next they're lethargic and can't even hold their head up. I'm so sincerely devastated I've been researching and wanting chickens for more than 15 years and these are my first my temps are good, it's clean in there, i can absolutely not figure out what the issue is

I'm sorry for your loss, I know that's hard.
This thread is 7 years old, so please make your own thread so we can give you personalized advice.

 

[TLWR]

What are they doing before they die?