Help! Chicks dying! I think I know what happened! Am I right?

[KinderKorner]

Alright so I have been intears for days. I had about 30 6 week old pullets out in a grower coop. Then about 25 3 week old chicks in the house in a brooder. Well I left on vacation with strict instuctions for my dad. All my chickens were happy and healthy when I left.

Well over my vacation an inland hurricain came while my dad was at work and somehow flooded my grower coop! I lost all my POLISH! (this is the thrid time trying to get some) And I have like 10 chicks left. I lost BLRW, SLW, GLW, EE, Polish, and my new ducks. (I'm so heart broken)

Well inside I have EE's, Speckled Sussex, Frizzles, Black Austraorps, Buff Orps. During my vacation two of the smaller ones just died. My dad figured that just trampled or something. well the days following chic after chick dropped dead. No signs, no sickness, no nothing. Within hours all but 8 of my chicks dropped dead. I don't know what to do, I'm not getting home until tomorrow. None died yesterday. But I'm scared I have a diease or something. But I've never had any problems with any of my chickens. They always looked very healthy, I got them from dependable people. And I had them for weeks until one day they scared dying. I'm scared to keep the ones I have left. If I put them in with my other chickens will they spread some diease and kill my entire flock off!? I was so excited to get my first frizzles, speckled sussex, very nice Ameraucanas, Black Australorps. Now most of them are gone. I have the frizzles, australorps, and two Ameraucanas left. I really don't want to get rid of them. But I fear for the rest of my flock!



I am so sad. I've lost like 90 chicks this season. 2 hatched batches, a mail order, some Feed store chicks, and some breeder chicks! I have like 20 total left out of the 100+ I've bought. Costing me over $200.

It's all been freak accidents. Getting squished, getting trampled, weird dying off, drowned. I'm almost so hurt I'm afraid to get any more new chickens.

Now I have to start over on getting BLRW, Polish in 8 colors, Speckled Sussex, and more which my dad doesn't know what breed. (I will know tomorrow)

If anyone has any advice, or has these breeds of hatching eggs let me know please. I really want to replace my Speckled Sussex, Polish, BLRW, and some more which I have forgotten.

Also I need to know if my surviving chicks from whatever the reason the others died, do they pose a threat in giving diease to the rest of my flock.

 

[raroo]

Can you get a necropsy done? How do the poops look? That's so sad, I hope you don't lose anymore chicks! Could they have gotten too hot or dehydrated? Cocci maybe?

 

[sondra]

I am having the same problem. Everyday new chicks are dying. I was told that buffalo gnats are going up their noses and suffocating them. I am getting some spray (that is not harmful for the chicks) and spraying it all around their brooder and playing yard. The spray is called Permectrin II. My department of agriculture say they hhave gotten many phone calls about this problem. Call your local ag. and see if that is a problem in your area. Good Luck.

 

[mypicklebird]

Slow way down here, figure out what is going wrong before picking out and ordering more chicks!

Your post is full of information about breeds and how sad you are, but information that would be useful for helping you figure out why they are dying are

what does the brooder look like, temps, flooring, bedding. Do they have a good heat source? When do the deaths happen? If all at night, piling up is a possibility if you do not have it warm enough (or a predator).
what are you feeding? have you checked the food for moisture/mold ect? A flood can bring in infectious organisms, damage the food ect.
have you examined some of the live ones and dead ones closely for external parasites?

Put some on paper towels for a few days to see their poop better.

Are they on medicated starter feed?

Have you had any of them sent to the state lab? can you? Sudden death of multiple birds is always a good reason to have one looked at by a lab.

If you have birds dying in both groups (one inside & one outside), infectious problem, food contaminant, bedding contaminant is more likely than predator or trampling or drowning ect.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

first the thing is to get home and try to save what chicks you have left
also it is hard to say if your father knew what to do as he is not the original care giver
so when you get home just concentrate on answering the problems you have with the questions the other people gave you

remember you can't bring back the dead ones just do good by the live ones

I personally think the flood and moisture are to blame and mayb not enough heat
you would have been more prone to know what to do as your father may not have

there is always another yr and you will always find people to sell you chicks
I would feed them the
natural wet mash probiotic as a means to establish good gut flora
email me PM for the amt to fix as I will need to know how many chicks your feeding it to

(1. check the temp and dryness of bedding in coop

(2 check the manure see if it has blod in it as if wet they may have gotten coccidiosis
you can use casyanne pepper for the treatment of this 3 tbsp to gallon of dry crumbles and make it the only feed they get for two weeks

(3 check and see if any have sniffles or any kind of coryza or MG infection

(4 see if you need to clean out the chicken house from wet moldy bedding

(5 disinfect with clorox the waterers

(6 see if feeders may have moldy spots in the feed and is feed completely dry and clean

(7 try to be stable about this problem as your being upset will keep you from being able to cope with the loss
there is always more chickens and yes money is hard to come by but that will come around also

(8 most of all try and save what you can as for mixing with the other chickens that will come in later months as they can't be added to the flock till adults any ways
always we hope for the best and your good health also

 

[KinderKorner]

Whoa. Okay let me resolve some things.

First off, I don't plan on getting more until I figure out the problems.

Alright they are one medicated chick feed. I don't like using it, but around here it's all they sell now.

As a note, I've hatched hundreds of chicks and raised them this way. Nothing has changed.They live in a big green plastic tub with no top in my extra bedroom. On one side they get unlimited supply of clean water and food. In the middle plenty of running room. And on the other side they have a lamp which is about 100 watt I think. They are not over heating or freezing. Since they are inside they remain a nice steady temperture. They are housed on nice clean wood chips (not cedar) after they are about 2 weeks olds. Their tub is cleaned every 2 or 3 days. Before you can even tell it is dirty. No predatos can get them, they are in a sealed bedroom.

Once they turn about 4-6 weeks old they are moved to an outside brooder, then a grower.

I can not give to much information on what they look like as I am on vacation. But when I left they were perfectly healthy. And my dad has been keeping a close eye on them. He says they are completly fine and normal then when he checks again 2 hours later a few have died.

My inside chicks are the only ones dying like this. My outside ones got drowned in a hurricain. So forget about them for now.


When I left their poop was normal. And I don't believe they are getting suffocated. No more have died in the past two days so I am hoping the worst is over.

They have not come in contact with any of my other chickens.

I am so confuzed. No bleeding, no sickness, clean housing, steady temps, happy and healthy. I leave for a week and all the sudden they are dropping one by one. I know my dad is taking good care of them. He loves animals almost as much as me. And has helped me cared for them for several years now.

I am anxious to get home. And i know it's hard for you all to help since I a not at home looking at them. But I just couldn't help trying to get some answers. I have been a wreck all week.

Some were from Cackle Hatchery. Some from a wonderful breeder with some of the best free range chicks I have ever seen. More from another wonderful breeder I have bought from for years. And one was my own that I hatched. I just can't imagine any of them having diease.

Perhaps could they have a like a 'chicken cold' or something. That just came and wipedthe weakest ones out. I just can't understand what happened.

I wish I knew if they are contagious. They would be moving to the outside brooder soon. They will be housed next (through hardward cloth) to my month older chicks. And I hate to hurt anymore of my flock.

 

[sammi]

could they be eating the bedding?

you'll know more when you get home.

either cocci or respiratory..or eating bedding..
check the crops, vents, and droppings first thing.

could be some feed has spilled and gotten wet and gone sour under the light.

 

[KinderKorner]

I don't think it's cocci. They are on medicated feed. Also I don't think they are eating the bedding. I've had them for 1-2 weeks already. And I'd never seen them eating it. The light and food are very seperated aswell.

 

[KinderKorner]

OMG! I just had an idea! Okay. So I had a BLRW just squished by a piece of plywood. It was alive and I moved it inside. It was hunched up and chilled looking. It still ate and drank but not a ton. It lived like this for a few weeks. Before it finally died. I cried it was a favorite.

But I just read another post about a sick chick. And they said it was bunched up and chilled looking! Just like mine was! even though mine just got squished. Is it possible it attained Cocci from being so wounded.

There's ended up having cocci! I thought mine couldn't get that since they were eating medicated feed. But it makes sense now!

My hurt one could of gotten it perhaps from being so hurt it's immune system shut down. Then when I moved it from my bigger chicks and into my young chicks so it wouldn't be so trampled while it recovered. It could of spread it to all my young ones! It died after a few weeks, and just a couple days after it did my other chicks that it was kept with mysteriously started dying!

I think I may have figured it out!

Now. If this is the case, and tey got cocci. But they stopped dying now. If they don't come in contact with my other chickens for a few weeks. And they are contunied to feed medicated food will they spread it to my other chicks when I put them together? Or now that it is done killing them will it go away.

 

[mypicklebird]

Coccidia is a protozoal organism they can get from other chickens via soil contamination. If you put an outside chick in with your inside younger chicks- yes you could have brought coccidia in. Being on medicated chick start probably saved most of your inside chicks. If they had coccidia, then you need to continue feeding medicated start to all of your chicks before they get put outside in the future. Be glad that is what they sell around you, as it may have saved the rest of your inside chicks.

The organism is in the soil, all chickens get exposed- then eventually become immune to it. The medicated start (amprollium) keeps them usually from dying from the organism when they first get exposed. After a few weeks of living with it, they get immune. Some types are worse than others, some can kill even before they chicks get diarrhea. Some just give mild diarrhea, some nasty bloody diarrhea.