HELP, My Second 1 day old chick just died....WHAT DO I DO?

[featherbaby]

I am beside myself with grief and confusion!!!! Somebody help me with some information PLEASE!!!!

My broody silkie just hatched 3 eggs. Three healthy chicks were walking around cheeping. I found one this afternoon that was dying. I thought the mother may have stepped on it. I removed the other two to a clean tote on shavings and paper towels and put under a heat lamp at about 100 degrees. The strongest one was drinking a little water and walking around. 30 minutes later when I checked on them, I just found him dead. No outward signs of trauma or illness. What can kill them so fast?????? They are only 24-36 hours old and look fine one minute, then dying within minutes. The only common factor is my filtered tap water that all my other exotic birds and chickens (young and old) drink with no problems. Is there some virus/bacteria they could have gotten from the broody mother that would kill them this quickly after hatching??????

I am very careful about keeping things clean and handling them carefully with sanitized hands. Water containers are washed in hot water and rinsed thoroughly and then some.

Can anybody shed some light on this before I lose my mind?

 

[chicksrcool]

Absolutely terrible, I know you must be devastated. None of it makes sense!

I would not think the water would be a factor. I think it's just a matter of either a possible injury or nature took its course...they may have looked fine but maybe they had a birth defect you could not see. I'm sorry

 

[featherbaby]

Thank you for your kind words.

I am heart broken and confused and angry all at once!!!!! I feel so helpless!

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Sorry for your loss,

It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong, sometimes nature just takes it's course, and we don't always know why.

 

[fratmor]

so sorry ,hope you get your answer soon. they weren't pasted up where they?

 

[featherbaby]

No pasty butts, no sign of anything. Since they were from an out of state breeder (with a good reputation, I might add), I feel certain they were not all from the same parents which tends to rule out genetic defects (other than one of them had 6 toes on each foot, a DQ not a death sentence).

Is there some known virus or bacteria that will kill them that quickly without any external signs? They literally are lively and vocal one minute and 5 minutes later they are dead. I use no aerosols or insecticides. Oxine is what I clean the coop with and rinse well. These chickens never touch the ground, they are in above ground coops on pine shavings. These babies were so young they never even ate the crumbles I provided.

 

[Tawodi]

one thing i recently learned talking to my feed store owner is, water can kill baby chicks. he would order day olds 100 at a time, and he was losing a lot of them. he watched them, and when they would get a drink, they were dunking their heads down in the water. he said the water cooled their blood down (high blood flow in the head) so much it would kill them. he now sells a special type of watering bowl that will not allow a chick to stick its head down in the water.

 

[BooBear]

I make sure the water I give the chicks is luke warm. I put rocks in the water dish. These are tips I picked up from reading up on chicks.
The warm water helps keep them warm. Cool water can chill the chicks too much.
The rocks keep the chicks from drowning. I think it helps them gauge the depth; one thing is for sure they can see the rocks and will peck at them to check them out. This helps get the slow to drink chicks to know how to get their water.

Another method I have read others using is the drip bottle technique.