baby chick died this morning

[Olwethen]

Had a clutch of 10 hatched July 4th. Momma has been great and the little ones have been doing well. This morning, one of the smallest was by itself, not with momma and the rest of the clutch. I picked it up and noticed it sounded a little congested, some open mouth breathing but no discharge. It would sneeze and shake its head. I brought it inside and came to work so I could get meds at lunch. Unfortunately, the little one died before I could.

In searching I read about gape worm, or MG. I was going to deworm with Valbazen and start on tetracycline. Mom and babies did not get dewormed w/ Valbazen last week. Should I just watch the rest of the clutch and see what happens? Can't really quarantine them as everyone free ranges.

Stephanie in GA

 

[<3ChickenForever]

You might want to check the other chicks every so often to make sure they don't have the problem that chick did. Put your ear up against their back and see if the breathing is weird.

 

[Echobabe]

The chicks are too little to give worm medicine to. Gapeworm takes 2 weeks to establish, and your chick would have been eating earthworms to get it. Maybe it just got heatstroke? Keep a close eye (and ear) on the others, and ask your vet at what age you could start worming the babies.

 

[Judy]

Generally, worming is started at one year. There are any number of things that could have gone wrong with this chick. Its small size may be an indication that there was something wrong, a congenital defect of some sort. If it is the only one with respiratory symptoms, I wouldn't worry about the others. There is a sticky at the beginning of the Raising Baby Chicks forum that talks at length about some of the reasons we lose young chicks.

So, yes, I would just watch the others.