Poults are fragile. Once they begin a downhill spiral more often than not they die. Poults that are shipped can arrive "stressed" which is a nice way of saying they have had inadequate nutrition, crowding, less than optimal temps etc.. If the stress is not too bad the poults will eat, drink, sleep under the heat lamp and make a fast recovery.
Sugar in the water, optimal temperatures, feed under foot, and maybe a chick to help teach the poults the ropes can help but some of the poults may be too weakened to recover. These usually go down hill within hours or at most a couple of days.
This sad occurence is not limited to shipped poults. Poults hatched at home that can get chilled, aspirate while learning to drink, fall asleep directly under a heat lamp hung just a little too low or you name it. Poults requiring assistance to get hatched are particularly prone to die. IMHO you should let nature take its course with the rare exception of a nearly fully hatched poult that is stuck due to the position of the egg in the bator or similar obvious mechanical cause. The gist of this ramble is that poults are fragile and some will die. In most cases you cannot prevent it and being proactive during the hatching process usually does more harm than good. Same goes for syringe feedings that often cause aspiration. Aspiration virtually guarantees a dead poult even if it would have lived with no intervention.
