dead chick at 6.5 weeks

[mendozer]

just check on my chicks who are still kept away from the adults and i found one dead. No idea why. no shortage of food or water. Just so happns she was the one had a hard spot when they were newborns from the incubator (the belly closure? was enlarged and hard for about 3 weeks as their feathers were coming in. She was the only one like this.)

was is a malformation or something? I could open her up tomorrow to see but I'm curious and worried about the others

 

[SmiYa0126]

Yes, it was probably a malformation of her digestive system since she had a hard protrusion. I'm so sorry

 

[mendozer]

it was covered up later, but i'll do a little investigation when i get home. remove feathers and examine. It was my wife's favorite one

 

[mendozer]

also if it was a malformation does it have to do with temperature fluctuations, not enough egg movement, etc? it was my first time rearing them from eggs and we used a good commercial one with rotation and humidity control. Or is it just luck of the draw?

 

[NatJ]

also if it was a malformation does it have to do with temperature fluctuations, not enough egg movement, etc? it was my first time rearing them from eggs and we used a good commercial one with rotation and humidity control. Or is it just luck of the draw?

I think any of those could cause it.

If many chicks had problems I would check the incubating conditions very carefully, but for just one chick I think luck of the draw is a more likely explanation.

 

[mendozer]

i wonder if i rushed her out. She was the last out of the shell and i didn't remove the shells until they were clear of yolk but at first i thought she had pasty butt and i tried cleaning and pulling away that stuff when she was young. I wonder if i caused more damage. It wasn't until several days in that i realized it was gut closure and not shavings glued to her butt (the tissue was yellow and hard so i thought it was shavings)

 

[NatJ]

i wonder if i rushed her out. She was the last out of the shell and i didn't remove the shells until they were clear of yolk but at first i thought she had pasty butt and i tried cleaning and pulling away that stuff when she was young. I wonder if i caused more damage. It wasn't until several days in that i realized it was gut closure and not shavings glued to her butt (the tissue was yellow and hard so i thought it was shavings)

There is a possibility that you made it worse by trying to clean it up, but there is also a good chance that it made no difference. The results might have been the same even if you did nothing.

 

[Luv Ducks]

i wonder if i rushed her out. She was the last out of the shell and i didn't remove the shells until they were clear of yolk but at first i thought she had pasty butt and i tried cleaning and pulling away that stuff when she was young. I wonder if i caused more damage. It wasn't until several days in that i realized it was gut closure and not shavings glued to her butt (the tissue was yellow and hard so i thought it was shavings)

I wouldn't beat myself up over it. Sometimes things just happen with our flock babies and we never find out. So sorry for your loss. It's always harder whenever it is a favorite and we lose them.

 

[mendozer]

Just sucks because this year we've lost three. one was strangled in a fence, one was found dead mysteriously in the coop (both born in 2019 so not old) and now this chick. I did a necropsy but didn't see anything that jumped out to me. I've done a number of human cadaver dissections (medical provider) but I am not familiar with chickens. I expected to see some adhesion near the lower gut where the abdominal skin was a bit folded in the first picture since that's where the hardened spot was (which was now soft) but nothing. You see anything? Crop was fine, colon was fine, nothing seemed blocked.