Figuring out why week-old chick died after peeping constantly?

[arcalinea]

We got 4 chicks and 4 ducklings the other day. They're being kept in a box with a heat lamp in the living room.

This morning, one of the chicks was dead. It had been peeping constantly for days, waking or sleeping, and had not seemed to be eating, drinking, or pooping yesterday.

I'm trying to figure out why it died, and if there is any reason the others might be affected. Its companion chick (same breed) is sitting down more today, it seems. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I want to make sure the others will be ok.

For context, the one that died was smaller than the others, its wings stuck out a little more, and it was very noisy. It looked like a runt. I checked and it did not have pasty butt or anything else obviously wrong with it on the outside. Although I think they started out roughly the same size, this one did not grow as much as the others. The others are energetic and seem fine. The most remarkable thing about the one that died was that it peeped constantly, a shrill distress cheep, day and night. When you held it somewhere really warm it would peep slightly softer, but basically never shut up. The day before yesterday, I noticed it wasn't eating, and fed it out of my hand. It would eat when I held mealworms there, but it reacted much slower than the other chicks so couldn't beat them to snatch up food. Yesterday it was clearly ailing so I tried feeding it yogurt, mealworms, starter feed, and getting it to drink, but it was really resistant to consuming anything and just kept peeping at the top of its lungs.

Here are the things I think we did wrong that might have affected its health, can anyone weigh in?

- Wrong food for first week. We didn't get chick starter until yesterday, and were feeding them a variety of things: a mix of grains they picked through, ground up in a nutribullet sometimes. Some adult chicken layer feed. Dried mealworms. Some small clover clipping, and pieces of dried alfalfa. Ground oatmeal and corn meal.

- Could the excess calcium in the layer feed have given it kidney stones or other problems? Didn't seem to hurt the others though, and we only fed them a little bit of that feed.

- No grit provided in the box. Maybe the ground grains (which included hard things like dried corn and peas) could have worked as grits, but maybe not, and this one got an impacted crop?

- No thermometer to check temperature in box. We have a heat lamp in there, and all the others seem content, but the weak small chick seemed cold.

- Open feed tray. We've been piling the food in a tray. Maybe the weak little one got pushed out of it too much and started to starve? Although I saw it in there picking around 5 days ago.

- Brewer's yeast in the water? I've been putting brewer's yeast in the water for the ducklings, but the chicks also drink out of there. Could consuming brewer's yeast have hurt just that one chick?

Do any of those reasons stand out to you as something that could kill one weak chick, but not harm the others?

I've switched to feeding them chick starter now after we went to town and got it yesterday, and will get them some some rocks from outside for grit today. Still don't have a thermometer or anything other than an open feed tray, and am still adding brewer's yeast to the water. What else should I do?

Attaching a picture of the little chickie that died, back when it was snuggling with me.

 

[rosemarythyme]

The feed you were giving them wasn't ideal, but calcium isn't going to kill a chick this fast. They need grit for sure (and still do, if you haven't provided any), but unsure if crop impaction was the issue. Did you see any evidence of crop issues, like a firm crop that never went down, or a sour odor?

I don't use a thermometer at all and instead go by behavior. And don't know anything about using yeast for chickens.

Possibly the chick was a failure to thrive case?

 

[arcalinea]

I got them some grit today, in the form of very small rocks I picked out of gravel. All the ducklings and chicks ate some.

I wasn't aware of crop impaction at the time, so didn't know how to check. Come to think of it, I did think the chick smelled like pee yesterday. Maybe that was the smell of sour crop? Is a week-old chick susceptible to sour crop, and how would I treat it if another gets it?

How would I check a small chick's crop to know if it was impacted? Would I just gently pinch the fluffy breast area to see if it felt firm?

Reasons it could be a digestive issue: it was reluctant to eat or drink, especially on its last day, and I don't think I ever saw it poop. Its vent was clear though, I checked for pasty butt.

This isn't a great photo, but here's a pic of the chick that died standing next to some others. It's the brown one. It was smaller than the rest, its tail feathers never grew in, and it always looked a bit squat and hunched.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I've never dealt with sour crop so not sure if it's something a young chick could get (my guess is unlikely) but impaction could be possible, since that's just ingested matter getting jumbled up in the crop and not moving out properly.

I would think the best way to check for a possible crop issue with a chick would be to palpate the crop very gently, then try isolating it without food for a few hours, and if the crop still has not reduced in size/hardness at all during that time, then that's concerning.

But the fact that it wasn't growing makes me think there was possibly other things wrong with it internally.