Just got my chicks--some questions

[Kittymomma]

I'm sorry you're losing your babies. I don't know what that could be from, never had anything like that here.

 

[tammyd57]

Take a look at their butts! If they have 'pasty butt' they can't poo and it will kill them. If their butt looks pasted over, you can gently clean it with a warm damp paper towel, or pick it very carefully off with a toothpick or something, making sure to be VERY careful not to poke them.
This is a fairly common thing with a lot of shipped chicks and you have to keep an eye on it because it can recur until they get fully feathered.

 

[Ariel301]

No pasty butts. Two more gone, and now the spraddle leg chick is getting weak too, along with a few others. I don't get it. They are normal, eating like pigs, drinking, playing...then they sit down for a nap and never get up again. I don't think any of them are going to make it. I'm going to call Ideal on Monday and hopefully we can do something, I hate to just completely lose $40 worth of chicks like this!

 

[Ariel301]

Well, now that I said that, I found two pasty butts. Really bad ones. I cleaned them off and they pooped huge poops and seemed instantly relieved. I checked the dead bodies of the ones we've already lost, and none of them had pasted.