Baby chick just died

[jenngue86]

I'm so sad so I was hoping someone could help me. One of my two week old chicks just died last night. I cleaned their brooder, gave them fresh food and water yesterday morning before I went to work. Everyone was very active and nothing seemed strange. When I got back from work, 1 of the girls was lying dead in the middle of the brooder. Any ideas of what could have caused this?

I feed them unmedicated chick starter with a little bit of crushed oatmeal. The heat seems fine too because the other chicks are running all over the brooder.

One other thing - I have noticed that a lot of the girls have brown diahhrea (no blood so not cocci?). After reading some posts here it seems like this is normal?

Any ideas or thoughts of anything I can give them/do differently?

Thanks so much!

 

[Northern.Ontario]

I'm so sad so I was hoping someone could help me. One of my two week old chicks just died last night. I cleaned their brooder, gave them fresh food and water yesterday morning before I went to work. Everyone was very active and nothing seemed strange. When I got back from work, 1 of the girls was lying dead in the middle of the brooder. Any ideas of what could have caused this?

I feed them unmedicated chick starter with a little bit of crushed oatmeal. The heat seems fine too because the other chicks are running all over the brooder.

One other thing - I have noticed that a lot of the girls have brown diahhrea (no blood so not cocci?). After reading some posts here it seems like this is normal?

Any ideas or thoughts of anything I can give them/do differently?

Thanks so much!

Get corid and treat all your chicks right away. Diarrhea is a good sign of coccidiosis.

 

[staceyj]

Hi, I’m so sorry for your sad experience. Poor little baby.
Chicks are so very fragile and vulnerable. Sometimes despite our very best efforts they don’t make it.

This is not a fun way to start off your time with chickens or to become a flock member here at BYC!

Lots of people here will give their opinion to answer your question I’m sure.
Everyone makes independent choices based on what they’ve read or heard.

Chicks can have poops that vary in consistency throughout the day because every so often the have a cecal poop which is different in color, consistency and smell .
Cecal excrement comes from a different part of their bowel than a typical poop.

But Don’t be lured into thinking that if you aren’t seeing blood you’re totally in the clear from coccidia. By the time a chick is bleeding internally, enough for you to notice it, they already have an overload of this deadly organism in them and they are in a potentially precarious position.

I chose to use the medicated starter even though lots of people choose not to, because I wanted one less thing that could impede their growth and developement, and force me to try to snatch them back from the brink.

You’ll find along the way as a chicken steward, that there are many challenges ahead. some can’t be helped. I choose the “safe” way on anything I can.

I’m this situation I think I would treat my chicks as if they had coccidiosis.

 

[chickens really]

Stop feeding the oatmeal and they will need Grit if fed anything other than Chick starter..

 

[staceyj]

Stop feeding the oatmeal and they will need Grit if fed anything other than Chick starter..

Agreed