Dying chicks-NEED ADVICE QUICK, please.

Yesterday we get a call from the Shreveport post office(over 1hr away) saying that we might want to pick up our chicks...never a good sign. All other chicks have been brought to our local post office for pick up.

Upon receiving the box, it felt damp. There were 16 dead chicks out of 52(one smooshed by the box divider-obviously done by Meyer). On the ride home another 4 died. Before lights out we lost another 7-all were acting normal until they laid down & died.

This morning we woke up to almost all the chicks laying down, they are chirping, just not moving or breathing well.

What is wrong with these chicks? Can the remaining be saved? Can these chicks infect my others?

This is quite honestly the worst chick experience ever & my kids(9&12) are very sad with each dead chick. To the point that they dont want to go in the laundry room out of fear there will be more dead...keep in mind we already have 40-4 & 5 wk old chicks that they adore. Just so hard.

 

happybooker1-thanks for the well wishes and hugs, we sure do need them!! Its been a rough 2days with chicks!

Well, we are now down to 7 chicks, 3 "healthy"(or so they seem) and 4 that stumble around.

Called Meyer, they told me I have to call back tomorrow for replacements as we aren't yet sure how many we will have by morning...really?? At this point, with 45 dead chicks, I would think they would just replace the whole order without an additional call. I ordered 50 pullets + meal maker, they sent 53(2 extras to make up for loss). They claim that something must have stressed them along the way...ya think?? Either cold or rain/snow. I will likely never know the cause of death, but its very sad.

We have tried everything, grogel, sav-a-chick, syringe feeding...but they just keep dropping. My daughter is raising the chicks for 4H and to have eggs to sell at the farmers market(we have 15 tophats & 25 feather footed bantams that are 4 & 5 wks old, plus the 50layers-25 rainbow, 12 brown, 13 rare layers...that is now down to 7chicks) and she is very upset by all of the death and now care has been put on me until the deaths stop.

I guess this is all part of the learning experience, but its still very difficult...especially for the kids, good thing the 1yr old isnt old enough to know whats going on yet.

 

We lost 6 more and now have one lone chick :-(

I am considering putting her in with my motherly frizzle cochin, but fear if they have a sickness they will kill off my healthy chicks. She is only a few days old as opposed to the 4 & 5wk olds in with the frizzle. However, being a lone survivor isn't good either.

What should we do?? I have never had chicks drop like this and have never had a lone chick before, so I just dont know.

 

Well, the lone chick died as well :-(

Sad as it is, it was probably for the best considering what was potentially going on. As horrified as I was/am, all of this spreading to the kids other chicks would've been much worse.

Now Meyer says they won't have replacement chicks until the end of February-just ridiculous. They are supposed to call back Monday morning to let me know if they have any over-hatch they can send.

We are just very saddened by this experience and are hoping for better results with the next batch.

Thank you Karen for the advice, I will head to TSC this weekend so I can be prepared when the new babies arrive. We gave this batch gro-gel and save-a-chick, but nothing seemed to help. I have never seen anything like it.