911 I need answers now!!!😭😭😭

[GunnyBun]

One of my baby bantams has just had a seizure type thing, it is dripping clear whitish slimy stuff out of its butt and I think it is dead now... when I discovered it, it was still acting alive but it was cold and stiff but it was still blinking it’s eyes and moving it’s beak. Now it’s doing nothing!! It is one of my first babies that hatched out of my last batch of eggs and I’m so devastated!! I was wondering if it’s coccidia?? I have no clue as to why it has done this! We haven’t had any problems with our chicks like this and we have only had one experience with coccidia and that was with a dog!!

this was the white stuff that was dripping out of its butt!

 

[azygous]

Please. We need very much to know your location. It's the first piece of information you needed to provide. The second was the age of the chicks. This piece-meal batch of clues is maddening. We want to help but taking wild guesses just doesn't cut it.

My questions:
1. Where are you?
2. What was the temperatures during the day and at night during the "cold snap"? (Cold snap can cover a wide range from 55F to 20F)
3. How long has it been since you provided heat to these chicks?
4. Have these chicks ever been outside on the soil?

 

[sourland]

The fact that the chick was described as chilled and that the other chicks have been complaining makes me wonder if they are warm enough.

 

[azygous]

Did you see the dead chick eat any of the corn or bread?

Putting grit into food isn't the best way to offer it to chickens. Each chicken has their own grit requirements, just as each laying hen has their individual requirement for calcium so putting oyster shell or powdered calcium into food isn't giving each chicken the choice to satisfy their own needs.

Grit and oyster shell should be offered free choice separate from food. For chicks, sprinkling grit over the floor of the brooder is the best way to offer it. Chickens eat grit as they feel the need for it.

For anyone reading this who is new to chicks, you can offer grit to new chicks by sprinkling it over the floor of the brooder. It must be chick grit as adult grit is too large. Chicks will instinctively consume the grit, hitting it heavily at first so some wonder if the chicks are eating too much and will get into trouble. No, they won't. They will stop as soon as their gizzards are supplied.

This is good insurance in case the chicks somehow get hold of something that requires grit to help digest it. (Corn, bread, grass, leaves, etc. Without grit, a chick can quickly die from the undigested food clogging its system.

 

[sourland]

Dying birds frequently pass feces, and if bird was chilled and not eating this might be a result.

 

[azygous]

Unfortunately, "something wrong with it" isn't enough of a clue to even begin to guess why it died. You would need a necropsy, as others have pointed out.

My suggestion at this point is to keep careful watch over the rest of your chicks. Watch for any chick that is slow, fluffed up, head hunched into its shoulders, standing still with its eyes dull and droopy, any consistently runny poop, or poop that is much smaller and drier than the others.

At four weeks of age, chicks no longer require heat during the day in your climate. As long as the nights are mild in the 50s, they may be okay just huddling together as long as they've become used to the cooper temps and have acclimatized. But if you see temperatures forecast into the low 40s or lower, some heat at night might be wise.

 

[azygous]

Thankyou for the info. I am assuming you mean Louisiana, not Los Angeles. Please list every single thing you've given them to eat since you've had them. We already know you offered them bread. What else?

 

[Fishychix]

I just ran across this thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/disease-in-chickens.1420088/
@EggSighted4Life posted an answer with extremely helpful links

 

[sourland]

The fact that the chick was described as chilled and that the other chicks have been complaining makes me wonder if they are warm enough.

Seeing the brooder makes me wonder exactly how cold the 'cold snap' was, and if chilling may very well have been the cause of death.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

There are other strains of coccidiosis that do not present with blood in poop, so that's still a possibility. Can you share some pic of poop? How old are they? What do you feed them (feed, treats, etc)? How are the others acting? I'm so sorry that you have lost a bird. My heart breaks for you