Chicks arrived alive, now 3 are in chick heaven!?

[AtomicChicken]

The last of the 4 hens stopped moving and could no longer support itself under its legs. She stopped eating and wouldn't really drink, but let the water from the dropper dribble out of her beak. At 2AM, she was walking and even spreading her wings in a jumping, flying motion. So with the cage at a maximum of 88 degrees over night, I don't think it was heat related. But they sure go downhill fast.

I've since cleaned out the entire cage and prepped for our second batch. These are two weeks old and came from a farm north of Denver. So hopefully our experience will improve with this batch.

 

[Erica]

That's just awful for you. So sorry AtomicChicken.

Off the top of my head, in case it helps...

I agree with others, the most likely scenario would be transport stress. Perhaps they were just a tiny bit under par on arrival. A natural chicken behaviour is to pick at sick ones. That may explain the australorp's behavior all along.

Deaths of young chicks can also be disease related (e.g. navel infection during hatch). Birds infected in this way would gradually weaken and die days later. I tend to think it wouldn't be common with hatchery shipped birds, but it's a possibility.

Coccidiosis in my experience isn't something you'd expect with very young chicks. Practically speaking it doesn't tend to be a problem until the 3rd week of age when oocysts are shed in high numbers.

Sometimes people have lost chicks due to fumes given off by plastics etc. Another thing to watch out for is whether closing in the brooder causes it to gradually overheat, though then you'd see panting, open-winged stance and birds trying to escape out the corners. You seem quite observant, so I doubt this has happened.

Just as a last comment, be careful if hand-watering chicks to only dribble the liquid drop by drop onto the lower beak, letting the bird swallow each time. Don't put the dropper into the open mouth or it will go down the wrong way.

Hope this helps, though I'm not an expert. But I've had both shipping deaths and navel disease... Both are painful to see.

Edit: Just read your update, sorry about the last chick... And good luck with the new ones. I'm sure you won't see a repeat.

 

[Lilredhippie]

You really should contact the place you got them from. Sounds to me like they were ill when you got them. My Pet Chicken should at least refund your money. I would not purchase any more from them this year. A couple of years ago several hatcheries had outbreaks of some avian illness and lost thousand of birds. You won't hear that on the news.
Good luck with this next batch.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Just a thought, but I believe I read that thermometers don't take acurate readings on the infrared heat lamps. It may have been too hot for your chicks. Maybe you could replace the red bulb with a 100 watt white bulb and see if the temperature reads different on your thermometer. I used a white 100 watt bulb in an outside hutch (3ft wide x 5ft long x 3ft high) and it kept my chicks toasty warm. We even had night that were in the 40s. Good luck!

 

[nickie]

Hi, I'm bran new here, and this is my first post. That being said, I got my first order of 10 chicks almost three weeks ago and I had one do almost the same thing. Started out fine and then went down hill fast. Only thing is, it was just the one that died. I did, however have a chick start doing poorly the next day and after a complete freakout an entire day cleaning, sanatizing, and moving everyone, I did pull the chick out of the community first, I sat down to clean her up and try to figure out what was going on. I found that this one was droopy, listless, and she had goop leaking from her butt. The thing that made me not give up is that I noticed her behind was distended and she looked like she had to poop very bad. I set her down and waited.... Turns out she was so extremely constipated, she couldn't poo. I washed her off and then applied gentle pressure to either side of her butt, and the hard glob of poop came our like a giant pimple. Super gross, but, after using a dropped ful of oil water to help her drink and to kinda grease up her insides, and assisting her poop efforts oh so gently for 2 hours she was eating drinking and pooping on her own. What I didn't know as a newbie is that constipation kills them fairly quickly. I don't know if that was what was wrong with my first little guy, but I saved one. So next batch keep and eye our for swollen, distended behinds. BTW, I also got my chicks from Ohio, and was notified that there was a salmonella issue with an Ohio hatchery, but I don't know which one.

Oh and the place I got mine was on the phone with me and over email trying to help me out, they even refunded the price of my sick baby after their guaranteed live delivery expired. I don't know if I'm allowed to say where I got them, but I would deffinately recommend them.

Three weeks and I still have 9 happy babies. I hope you have the same luck next time.

 

[nickie]

I forgot to mention: little Butt Plug (my husband named her that) never had any butt pasting.

 

[tiny529]

I got my girls from mypetchicken.com too. I'm currently spending the night trying to keep my Light Brahma from joining your Buff Brahma Bantams. My hopes are not high.

I just read the link at the top of the page about chick mortality and one thing that stood out to me was Pullorum. These are the listed signs...

* Inappetance.
* Depression.
* Ruffled feathers.
* Closed eyes.
* Loud chirping.
* White diarrhoea.
* Vent pasting.
* Gasping.
* Lameness.

I noticed the white poop with a couple of my girls, though I haven't noticed it with this one. I have no vent pasting, though my one EE looks like she could go that route. I've had the loud chirping off and on with a number of them. I've seen the gasping, but it's irregular so I assume that it's a yawn? One might do it for a few seconds and then not again, another might do it once here or there.

Just wondering if you've noticed anything other than the lameness since we got ours from the same place at the same time.

 

[lburress]

250watt is too much. Put a hundred watt in and point it in the corner.

 

[BoltonChicken]

When I noticed the sluggishness in the first one, I started mixed some poultry and livestock multivitamins/electrolytes into the waterer.

AtomicChicken:

Still puzzling over this. I am not a vet, but one thing bothers me. The "poultry and livestock multivitamins/electrolytes". If fed to poultry in water it must be highly diluted.
Four oz. of powder in a 55 gallon drum is recommended for adult chickens. I would think it would be much less than that, say less than one oz. per 55 gallon drum for chicks.
Check the dosage. One ounce is pretty small, and a 55 gallon drum is pretty big. I don't think it would be possible to mix up say a 1 gallon batch of the stuff without using chemist scales.

All of the ones that died ate, drank, pooped regularly, even up to the hour of death.

Sorry to say but it sounds like poisoning of some type. These are just thoughts as to possibilities, but maybe something to be aware of when you get the next group.​

 

[TheSheriffswife]

Quote:
Hi..So Sorry about your babies..I just hope that this makes you feel better but I really don't think it's anything you did..Same thing happened to me when I got my six from My Pet chicken I lost 4 out of 6 one after another and almost lost the 5th but fought for her life and she and her sister are alive today no thanks to MPC..but anyway..they sent all runts..with no heat pack, In March.. all stressed
I know, I personally would never order from one of those places again..I know that's what killed those babies..They didn't even refund my money..My Pet Chicken is horrible ( I know they are not the hatchery) but they know who was and wouldn't tell me..
It sounds just like the symptoms of yours..So don't be hard on yourself..you did everything right..maybe you could try hatching your own?
Good Luck to you..