Came home to cold listless chick, what do I do? am afraid it's dying!

[iopele]

Hello, one of my 5 day old Araucana chicks was lying outside their bedding box when I got home--I'd been gone about 3 hours and it was fine when I left. It was lying beside their waterer but didn't look wet or like it'd gotten squished or anything. It did feel very cold in my hands when I picked it up. It kicked a little when I lifted it but went still again, and isn't moving around when I put it right under the heat lamp to warm it up. All the other chicks are fine.

I don't know what to check or do for it. There's no obvious injuries. It's been one of the pasty ones, but I've been cleaning butts twice a day and it's not pasted up now because I put Vaseline on all their vents (that's why its butt looks funny in the pics). I thought pasted butts take a day or two to really hurt a chicken, not a few hours, anyway? Here are a couple of pictures if that helps:

edited to remove pictures of the dying chick

This chick has been doing just fine until now. The paper towels look really dirty right now but I changed them just last night, so I don't know if the poop on the towels caused it? They've had 1 part pedialyte to 2 parts water in their waterer since yesterday afternoon. This one and two others were having problems with pasty butts, so I coated their vents with Vaseline to keep it from sticking. Can't remember where I read that hint. These were mailed and had a really bad journey but they've been here since Thurs night. Is stress a factor still?

What do I do besides keeping it warm? How can I help it pull through? Help!

 

[iopele]

Twenty minutes under the heat lamp (thermometer says temp there is 93F)--As it's warmed up some, it moves a little bit more, but mostly just flops one way or the other, usually going belly-up and unable to turn back over. It's now clicking its beak with every breath. I tried dribbling a few drops of water into its mouth and it seemed to swallow them, but when I put it back down, the water drooled right back out. I don't see anything in its mouth. (For those who remember the choking chick, this is a different chick.)

I held it for a little while and that seemed to calm it--cradled in one hand held right over my heart where it'd be warmest. It struggled a couple of times like it wanted down, so I put it back in the brooder and it's just lying there most of the time, but occasionally thrashing like I described above.

If anyone has *any* ideas, please please post!

We started with 15, and 4 died in transit and now this one... we're really, really heartbroken here.

 

[iopele]

It just died.

The only thing I could find odd about it was that it smelled somewhat like urine after it died--not like chick poop, but like human urine.

Does anyone have any ideas at all what could've caused this? If it's something I did, I need to know so I can keep the remaining 10 from getting sick and dying. I found an article that said that Grape Pedialyte has been linked to chicken deaths within hours, but nothing about the unflavored kind. I'm taking it out of there anyway just in case. Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I'm really sorry your chick didn't make it. It's always so hard when you're doing everything you can and it isn't enough. I hope your other chicks all do well and you get past this hard time without any other losses.

Other than some mild pasty butt, I don't have any experience with chick illness. I know I've just been lucky. I'm sure you'll get more helpful comments from others, later.