Help please. 😞 Inexplicable Chick deaths.

[Shamo Hybrid]

Did they eat the pine shaving causing their stomachs to 'splode?! Anyway, sounds like something from an alien movie of sorts.

 

[Davethebirdman]

Friends I’m no newbie but certainly no chicken whisperer either and tonight I sadly lost 25 new chicks I’d say were approximately 6 day olds. I normally order from reputable hatcheries but it was so nice to see the chicks at Tractor Supply today that I did pick up 20 Barred Rocks and 5 Banties.

I checked everyone out, dipped beaks twice and set them up in a galvanized stock tank bedded on pine shavings and warmed with the TSC’s brand name “Producer’s Pride” brooder/coop heater set on low or the appropriate brooder temp. Set up fresh food and water in proper chick equipment. Checked them roughly two hours after set up and every single one was dead. Clearly no wild or domestic predator attack, drowning, suffocation or any other danged thing I can think of BUT...maybe electrocution??? There were absolutely no signs of visible injuries but at least two thirds of the chicks had lower abdominal areas that look like they’d “burst”. Intestines were visible but not from the rear end. They appeared like they’d just “popped out” from the stomach and I’m sure someone here most know what could have happened.
I’m just sick about it praying they didn’t suffer.

Thx all.

Horrible. Only problem I ever had was with mail order.

 

[dmaloney15]

Could it be this? This is the only similar sounding disease I’ve found and it’s still a bit odd that they all dropped that quickly. So sorry for your loss. Warning it does have pictures of dead chicks. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/mushy-chick-disease-yolk-sack-infection-omphalitis.64686/

No. If I’m understanding the text and pics that’s not what I observed. The chicks weren’t hatchlings, much older. Walking, eating, drinking. This is horrid. I have not brought in even one new chick since this happened and I always have a stock replacement and flock development plan. Ugh

 

[dmaloney15]

Did they eat the pine shaving causing their stomachs to 'splode?! Anyway, sounds like something from an alien movie of sorts.

It was infinitely worse because they were oh so dead.