i'm trying to figure out what happened to my 2-week old french black copper maran chick. any suggestions as to what happened would be greatly appreciated!!
the chick came out of the egg easily just like the rest of its siblings and seemed completely normal the first week. once it started to puff up i began to realize that it was smaller and rounder than the rest of the chicks by a fair amount. once i moved them into their bin where they would be staying while they're young, i always thought it was strange that when i tried picking up one of the chicks, they would all run away except for the little round one. it would just stay in place with its eyes closed and let me pick it up. when i picked it up, it would keep its eyes closed while i pet it. it was never as active as the other chicks. while they were walking around exploring their surroundings, that one had always just sat down but moved frequently.
midway through the second week, my dad found it lying on its side close to death. that's when we separated it from the other chicks and put it in its own bin to recover. i thought it was malnourished so we put plenty of food and water for it to eat and drink, we also have a heating lamp at the side of the bin so it has a source for warmth. the next day it seemed perfectly healthy, it was walking, chirping loudly, eating, and seemed to be pooping regularly (the poop seemed normal too). i did notice that its nose seemed to be stuffed on one side of its beak, so i lightly tried to wipe it with a q-tip but it still didn't come out. i thought about trying to get it out with a toothpick but i was afraid i would hurt it, so i just let it be.
the next day was the worst. my little sister took it out to play with it like she usually had, but she told me everytime it tried to stand up, it just fell to its side with its eyes shut and just stayed there. it sat at the corner of the bin for the whole day, until at about 9:00 PM my dad found it lying on its side breathing heavily (eyes still shut). i quickly tried finding anything on this forum that may help. i read that if it looked like it's breathing heavily to not feed it water. all of the suggestions were about making sure it was warm (which it should have been with the heat lamp). i didn't know what else to do so the only other option i had was to just watch it die slowly. it was awful for both me and especially my little sister to see it suffer. it was curled up and it kept rolling over and making short bursts of energy while laying down. it finally flapped its wings, made its last chirp, and died. it was definitely one of the saddest things i've ever seen.
it's obviously never easy to watch baby chicks suffer, and this is the first death i've had with hatching chicks. this one just seems really odd to me. i have no idea what happened since it seemed perfectly healthy the day before. is there anything i could have done to prevent this from happening? or anything i could have done to cure it? please be honest in your responses! if there is anyone who has had a similar experience with your chick dying from unknown causes please share!
thank you to anyone who took the time to read this post, i look forward to reading your responses!
the chick came out of the egg easily just like the rest of its siblings and seemed completely normal the first week. once it started to puff up i began to realize that it was smaller and rounder than the rest of the chicks by a fair amount. once i moved them into their bin where they would be staying while they're young, i always thought it was strange that when i tried picking up one of the chicks, they would all run away except for the little round one. it would just stay in place with its eyes closed and let me pick it up. when i picked it up, it would keep its eyes closed while i pet it. it was never as active as the other chicks. while they were walking around exploring their surroundings, that one had always just sat down but moved frequently.
midway through the second week, my dad found it lying on its side close to death. that's when we separated it from the other chicks and put it in its own bin to recover. i thought it was malnourished so we put plenty of food and water for it to eat and drink, we also have a heating lamp at the side of the bin so it has a source for warmth. the next day it seemed perfectly healthy, it was walking, chirping loudly, eating, and seemed to be pooping regularly (the poop seemed normal too). i did notice that its nose seemed to be stuffed on one side of its beak, so i lightly tried to wipe it with a q-tip but it still didn't come out. i thought about trying to get it out with a toothpick but i was afraid i would hurt it, so i just let it be.
the next day was the worst. my little sister took it out to play with it like she usually had, but she told me everytime it tried to stand up, it just fell to its side with its eyes shut and just stayed there. it sat at the corner of the bin for the whole day, until at about 9:00 PM my dad found it lying on its side breathing heavily (eyes still shut). i quickly tried finding anything on this forum that may help. i read that if it looked like it's breathing heavily to not feed it water. all of the suggestions were about making sure it was warm (which it should have been with the heat lamp). i didn't know what else to do so the only other option i had was to just watch it die slowly. it was awful for both me and especially my little sister to see it suffer. it was curled up and it kept rolling over and making short bursts of energy while laying down. it finally flapped its wings, made its last chirp, and died. it was definitely one of the saddest things i've ever seen.
it's obviously never easy to watch baby chicks suffer, and this is the first death i've had with hatching chicks. this one just seems really odd to me. i have no idea what happened since it seemed perfectly healthy the day before. is there anything i could have done to prevent this from happening? or anything i could have done to cure it? please be honest in your responses! if there is anyone who has had a similar experience with your chick dying from unknown causes please share!
thank you to anyone who took the time to read this post, i look forward to reading your responses!
it's definitely not nice to watch a baby die. One question, where is the body?
