Black Australorp Chick Found Dead W/ No Sign of Problem

[d.justins]

Hi there,

One of my 4 day old chicks was just laying dead on the floor of their chick box (built with decent insulation and very good amount of room according to recommendations).

I was very saddened it showed no sign of any issue, however i'm very new to this. Because of the no sign, i decided to take it and do a full examination and dissection. No bones broken or anything caught in it's airways. I did notice a shirt sleeve button - sized scab on it's anus. After opening it up it looked like the scab impeded the chick from relieving itself. I was then curious to if it ate or not, so i opened it's stomach up to find that it was full of yellow puss-ish stuff. I'm not sure if this is yolk from it's egg, but it's definitely not the feed. All the other chicks have been eating, but i could find no evidence this chick has been eating the feed. I was wondering if there was a specific intestinal disease i should be looking at, and if i should be worried about my other chicks. The rest are eating and drinking just fine.

 

[cobrien]

could the "scab" have been dried poop? do a BYC search on "pasty butt" - sounds like that's what it could be. not sure what the food on the inside of their stomach should look like, hopefully others chime in.

 

[d.justins]

Okay, after reading about this, it sounds very likely that this was the case. But, at the same time, does a chick die from this so quickly? I guess they metabolize quicker, and probably need to release relative to that, but what a sad way to go. I've checked a few of my other chicks, but i didn't want to harass them too much. I'll make sure i check them all tonight.

Thank you very much.