Okay, so I ordered some baby chicks. Today is Friday, she shipped them Tuesday evening. They arrived Thursday morning.
My options were to leave them at the P.O. In the AC with no food or water all day, or go pick them up during my break and bring them to work with me. It was going to be around 80° yesterday so I decided to bring them with me to work, instead of leaving them at PO all day.
Ordered from a NPIP breeder. I ordered 5 Double Silver Laced Barnevelders and 8 Light Brahma's. When I received them yesterday one DSLB was almost dead. Barely moving. I figured, okay that's from shopping stress. Kept it in my bra (I know TMI). I gave them Vi-Tal in their water to perk them up, and waited one hour to give feed to keep from getting pasty butt. 3 had pasty butt when they arrived, but I cleaned them up, they were acting fine. The small sickly one started perking up around lunch yesterday. So I put it back with the others.
When I went to place it with the others I noticed another one had it's head drooping, and was holding it's wings to its side. So I stuck it in my bra to keep a watch on it and keep it warm. All day yesterday every 30-45mins I dipped all of their beaks in the Vi-Tal to make sure they were keeping hydrated, because I know how rough shipping can be on them.
I arrived home about 3:30 yesterday. Put them in their setup. It's a guinea pig cage I bought new a year ago specifically for my chicks. I've used this setup several times and never had problems.
Well the first sickly one from yesterday morning ended up passing about 5:30pm. Then the other sickly one passed about 7:45pm. Two more passed between 10pm last night and 6:30am this morning. When I got home a Light Brahma had passed, and shortly after my last DSLB passed.
It's like one by one they are getting sick and passing away. Chicks start out being lethargic, droopy heads and wings. Then they lay down on the ground and don't move a lot, like they have no energy. Then they stop moving and start "sleeping" with no care of anything around them. I noticed with the first two chicks and another I had pass this evening that they throw their heads back a minute or two before they pass away. Poops look healthy.
I'm at a loss. I don't blame the breeder at all, she's been talking me through this the whole time. We both thought at first it was just shipping stress, but now my Light Brahma's are acting droopy and lethargic and they were all fine this morning when I left for work. Chicks were all in the same shipping box.
Everything in their setup was bleached inside and out before use. The only thing me and the breeder can see that MIGHT have affected them is that she doesn't feed medicated feed and I do.
Anyone have any ideas?
My options were to leave them at the P.O. In the AC with no food or water all day, or go pick them up during my break and bring them to work with me. It was going to be around 80° yesterday so I decided to bring them with me to work, instead of leaving them at PO all day.
Ordered from a NPIP breeder. I ordered 5 Double Silver Laced Barnevelders and 8 Light Brahma's. When I received them yesterday one DSLB was almost dead. Barely moving. I figured, okay that's from shopping stress. Kept it in my bra (I know TMI). I gave them Vi-Tal in their water to perk them up, and waited one hour to give feed to keep from getting pasty butt. 3 had pasty butt when they arrived, but I cleaned them up, they were acting fine. The small sickly one started perking up around lunch yesterday. So I put it back with the others.
When I went to place it with the others I noticed another one had it's head drooping, and was holding it's wings to its side. So I stuck it in my bra to keep a watch on it and keep it warm. All day yesterday every 30-45mins I dipped all of their beaks in the Vi-Tal to make sure they were keeping hydrated, because I know how rough shipping can be on them.
I arrived home about 3:30 yesterday. Put them in their setup. It's a guinea pig cage I bought new a year ago specifically for my chicks. I've used this setup several times and never had problems.
Well the first sickly one from yesterday morning ended up passing about 5:30pm. Then the other sickly one passed about 7:45pm. Two more passed between 10pm last night and 6:30am this morning. When I got home a Light Brahma had passed, and shortly after my last DSLB passed.
It's like one by one they are getting sick and passing away. Chicks start out being lethargic, droopy heads and wings. Then they lay down on the ground and don't move a lot, like they have no energy. Then they stop moving and start "sleeping" with no care of anything around them. I noticed with the first two chicks and another I had pass this evening that they throw their heads back a minute or two before they pass away. Poops look healthy.
I'm at a loss. I don't blame the breeder at all, she's been talking me through this the whole time. We both thought at first it was just shipping stress, but now my Light Brahma's are acting droopy and lethargic and they were all fine this morning when I left for work. Chicks were all in the same shipping box.
Everything in their setup was bleached inside and out before use. The only thing me and the breeder can see that MIGHT have affected them is that she doesn't feed medicated feed and I do.
Anyone have any ideas?
