HELP!!!! 12 chicks dropped dead within minutes????

[Ms111101]

It sounds like your chicks are in the house. If so, you have to be aware of all the airborne toxic thing. Birds are highly sensitive to fumes. No candles, no air fresheners, etc. Most importantly, no Teflon! I lost two chicks within minutes of each other, so I rushed the others outside while I aired out the house and tried to determine the cause. Turns out, the stove liner had Teflon in it and I had been boiling a pot of water which released the toxic gas into the air. Check all your cooking containers and any stove or oven liners. Teflon is also listed as PTFE, FEP, PFA, and ETFE.

 

[Verbon30]

I know when I tried pine shaving 1 time I lost 5 out 15 chicks the frist day. I use brooders plates so pine might of so hot. I figured it was the dust.

 

[atucker]

I know I am late to the game, and I am sure OP already got their answer... but I wonder, if the heat plate was 75 degrees when tested, and they had just been given fresh water, was it really cold water? Could they have been too cold? Normally they would huddle I know, but just a thought... otherwise I would say the tote trapped the heat in and it got to hot in there too fast... going down to check on my littles now as this made me nervous!

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

I know, the only time I have ever had a chick die so suddenly with no warning was heat stroke when we still used a heat lamp. It had slipped a little and had overheated two of our chicks and they dropped dead like this, so of course the brooder temp and heater was the first thing I looked at. A toxin is literally the only other thing I can think of. But I have no clue where it would have come from. Gonna burn the rest of that bag of shavings just to be safe, but good grief, I'm so freaked out

I had a similar thing happen the end of July. I discovered the brooder plate was not working correctly. It was just slightly warm and I lost three overnight. Thank goodness I had ordered a brooder heater early for this winter. I put it in the box and was able to keep the remaining 2 alive.

 

[G_J_]

I have no idea what could have possibly happened. I have raised dozens of chicks, and altogether lost a total of maybe 5. Thursday, I bought six chicks from tractor supply. Brought them home, put them in the brooder, three of them had dirty feet, but I cleaned them up and everything seemed fine. Yesterday, I bought six more from Rural King, all seemed healthy, I put them in the brooder, everyone seemed to be doing well. One had mild pasty butt, but again, I cleaned her up, and she was acting perfectly fine. They have a brooder heater, not a heat lamp, it was on the correct setting, brooder temp was great. Fresh water, fresh feed, from the same feed bag I've been feeding my 8 week old chicks in the coop, all of whom are ok. Clean bedding, from a brand new bag. As of six p.m. all the chicks were acting just fine. Spread around the brooder, eating, drinking, etc. At about 8 p.m., my youngest son who is seven came running to get me screaming all the chicks were dead. I ran to the living room, and all but one of the chicks was sprawled out dead as a doornail. The last one was barely alive, and died in my hands minutes later. I have never in my life seen anything like this. I'm desperately trying to figure out what happened. Does anyone have any idea at all what might have happened???? No sign of injury, no sign of illness, just like they literally all just dropped dead. I'm freaking out right now.

Did you cook with non-stick cookware? Deadly to birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish, if you use it if they are in your house they will die. Not good for the health of humans, dogs or cats either. I won't have it or use it. I literally put in the recycling bin.
I wouldn't trust stuff like silicone bake ware or plastic or silicone cooking tools either. And like people said below, stuff like Febreeze which killed many pets, Scotchgard, glade ppl lug ins, all those synthetic products. Pine sol etc. Essential oils in diffuser, diffuser sticks, wax melts, scented candles, even plain petroleum unscented candles,because that was becomes vaporized and breathing it in the petroleum wax particles go into the lungs which is very unnatural and unhealthy (we knew a young guy not even 25 who had COPD and nearly died and had to go on disability and carry an O2 tank everywhere he went bcz he was running a candle business and the wax coating the inside of his lungs nearly killed him). If someone is using hairspray, body spray etc in the house. If someone is microwaving plastic or styrofoam.

 

[tripletfeb]

Did you cook with non-stick cookware? Deadly to birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish, if you use it if they are in your house they will die. Not good for the health of humans, dogs or cats either. I won't have it or use it. I literally put in the recycling bin.
I wouldn't trust stuff like silicone bake ware or plastic or silicone cooking tools either. And like people said below, stuff like Febreeze which killed many pets, Scotchgard, glade ppl lug ins, all those synthetic products. Pine sol etc. Essential oils in diffuser, diffuser sticks, wax melts, scented candles, even plain petroleum unscented candles,because that was becomes vaporized and breathing it in the petroleum wax particles go into the lungs which is very unnatural and unhealthy (we knew a young guy not even 25 who had COPD and nearly died and had to go on disability and carry an O2 tank everywhere he went bcz he was running a candle business and the wax coating the inside of his lungs nearly killed him). If someone is using hairspray, body spray etc in the house. If someone is microwaving plastic or styrofoam.

It's only cookware that is coated with Teflon that is unsafe when heated to a high temp. Regular nonstick cookware is perfectly safe to use around people and pets, not all nonstick is Teflon coated

 

[gimmie birdies]

wood chips, even if not pine chicks will eat them. If you buy chicks from feed store and they had chicks on chips even if not pine. may be what killed them

 

[gimmie birdies]

Oh and plastic tubs are bad.

 

[NatJ]

It's only cookware that is coated with Teflon that is unsafe when heated to a high temp. Regular nonstick cookware is perfectly safe to use around people and pets, not all nonstick is Teflon coated

What "regular' nonstick cookware would that be? The ones in every store with a black or dark-colored coating on the inside? (I'm in the USA and so are you, so I'd assume we see similar things in the stores.)

Every such pan I've looked at has a warning (hidden somewhere in the small print) not to heat it over a certain temperature (usually around 350 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is not hard to reach with a stovetop pan if you forget about it for a bit.) Teflon is just one brand name, but plenty of other companies are using coatings that are similar enough they have the same warnings, so they probably have the same problems as well.

The ceramic-lined ones (white inside) may have different labels. I haven't checked them recently.
And cast iron typically doesn't come with such labels.
Shiny metal ones (stainless steel or aluminum or similar) don't seem to have such warnings, but they also don't claim to be nonstick.

 

[tripletfeb]

What "regular' nonstick cookware would that be? The ones in every store with a black or dark-colored coating on the inside? (I'm in the USA and so are you, so I'd assume we see similar things in the stores.)

Every such pan I've looked at has a warning (hidden somewhere in the small print) not to heat it over a certain temperature (usually around 350 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is not hard to reach with a stovetop pan if you forget about it for a bit.) Teflon is just one brand name, but plenty of other companies are using coatings that are similar enough they have the same warnings, so they probably have the same problems as well.

The ceramic-lined ones (white inside) may have different labels. I haven't checked them recently.
And cast iron typically doesn't come with such labels.
Shiny metal ones (stainless steel or aluminum or similar) don't seem to have such warnings, but they also don't claim to be nonstick.

I was unable to link the article but here are a few screenshots. A quick google search will yield yet more results. I've been cooking with nonstick cookware for many years and my 19 year old cockatiel is alive and well