Help! This chick is dying! I don't know what to do!

[pvaldes]

Yup, if we talk about 105 chicks being kept together, is definitely relevant data.

 

[chicken danz]

Are you giving them medicated feed? You might get some Corid and put a tsp full in their water. Also what do you have them on for bedding. They could be getting some in their systems and getting it stuck in their throats. More info please to how they are being brooded. Check their butts for pasty butt as well.

 

[chicken danz]

I jsut read the rest of the posts. You need a lot more warmth. They should be held at about 90 degrees. And like others said crowding is a problem as well. I have kept that many chicks together in a similar area for a few days but not much longer because the weak ones get pushed away from the food and water. Get them warm, get them some room and separate smaller ones from larger ones. You can buy large rubbermaid bins and use them as brooders inside when it's cold. I use that rubbery no slip shelf liner as a base for the bins to keep them from slipping. Little chicks sometimes have trouble getting around on shavings etc. Get some heat source going as well.

 

[Peacechick713]

Poultry NutriDrench, Poultry Cell, or chick electrolytes with vitmamins are helpful to use with a weak chick. Leg problems or injuries can be common. Make sure that your bedding is non-slick and clean/dry.

It sounds like you need more room in the temporary brooder. With overcrowding, they can easily be trampled , injured, or smothered. A large box can be used as a temporary brooder. You can use a bath tub, a closet, or spare room as a temporary brooder. I take 4 foot panels 2 feet wide, and attach them with screws. Then they can be taken apart when not needed.

A round brooder made with cardboard attched in a circlecan prevent chicks from being caught in corners.
Hopefully younwill be able to put your chicks back where they were kept before soon or use a heat source there to warm the brooder. I keep a small ceramic heater that can be securly attached to the wall for that purpose.

Good luck and sorry for your losses.

Thanks, the chicks are doing much the same. I wish I had more options for housing but I am limited. I have made the investment of a second heat lamp and I have it running now. Would putting some of the chicks in a second temporary pen fix the trapping?

I think you've identified the cause of mortality as overcrowding. It can be directly responsible for injury and death. For chicks only a few days out of the egg, even a little bit of chilling can hammer the little things. If caught soon enough while a chick can still hold its head up and swallow, warm sugar water is the best, easiest, quickest first aid to revive a chick, followed up with special feeding and vitamin therapy.

If you strongly suspect a chick has suffered chilling, a warm hair dryer focused on the chick's underparts where the maximum blood flow is located, can often reheat a chilled chick quickly and revive it.

You have an uphill battle with that many chicks, though. It's much more difficult to identify chicks with issues early enough to do any good when you have so many. When the numbers are so prohibitive to individual attention, sometimes you just need to accept that you may end up with a few that won't survive, as heart breaking as it can be.

I will try the hairdryer and get some sugar water.

Are you giving them medicated feed? You might get some Corid and put a tsp full in their water. Also what do you have them on for bedding. They could be getting some in their systems and getting it stuck in their throats. More info please to how they are being brooded. Check their butts for pasty butt as well.

They have medicated feed, we have shavings (I'm unsure what kind of tree shaving they are). They are in a wood and metal bookcase (without the shelves) laying on it's back with shavings and black garbage bags lining the bottom of it.

I jsut read the rest of the posts. You need a lot more warmth. They should be held at about 90 degrees. And like others said crowding is a problem as well. I have kept that many chicks together in a similar area for a few days but not much longer because the weak ones get pushed away from the food and water. Get them warm, get them some room and separate smaller ones from larger ones. You can buy large rubbermaid bins and use them as brooders inside when it's cold. I use that rubbery no slip shelf liner as a base for the bins to keep them from slipping. Little chicks sometimes have trouble getting around on shavings etc. Get some heat source going as well.

They were in a bad state when I brought them inside but as far as temperature goes but I have it back up to normal. I have some large plastic bins already. I n0ow have two heat lamps running. One on one end and one on the other.

 

[Peacechick713]

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately, during the night one of the chicks passed away. The second is improving though! Thank you, everyone, for the support and I pray that the now one chick will make it.

 

[GracieJ]

It's not choking.

No, I am not sure, it cannot walk on the leg. it's purplish around the join it cannot move its upper thigh. The wing on the same side is limp too. What kind of neurological issue are you referring to?

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately, during the night one of the chicks passed away. The second is improving though! Thank you, everyone, for the support and I pray that the now one chick will make it.

So sorry for your loss. Hope the other one pulls through.

 

[Eggcessive]

We are hoping that you don’t lose any more. Sorry for your loss.