Lost a lot of my chicks! Help

[Lisa Thorne]

Hello there,
So I need help. This is my first time with chicks. I have 6 silkies all fine. I have another 2 unknown breeds. All were well until...
I bought 25 chicks 48 hours old from a hatchey. Put them all in a brooder.Together. Lost a couple. Kept heat at 95. Lost more. Thought maybe the bigger ones were pecking . I separated them. Then I noticed the older ones were sneezing and sounded like congested people!. Lost more of the baby chicks. Now it' been a week I only have 10 left of my shipment!!
I think I bit off more than I can chew. All chicks are in brooders with papertowels with lamps in garage. Garage is warm. Also the older chicks are on green artificial grass. Babies, the week old, are on paper towels.
What did I do wrong? What's wrong with my older chicks. They are now all separate. Silkies by themselves, the two sick ones, and what's left of my new babes. What do I do?!! I'm so sad. I do have 15 more new ones coming . The company helped me out. Help!!! I'm assuming the big ones are sick. I guess with the brochittis? What do I do? Vetrx? Olive oil in water??

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us But wish it were under better circumstances

Can you post a picture of your brooder setup? @Wyorp Rock can you lend a hand?

 

[azygous]

Without more information, the first thing that comes to mind is overcrowding. That causes some chain reactions that can lead to death of chicks.

A brooder must be large enough so chicks don't pile up and smother each other when they are trying to regulate their body heat. The brooder must not only be warm enough in one spot to replenish lost body heat, but it also needs to provide space away from the heat source so chicks can shed excess body heat. This can lead to some chicks being too hot, and others being too cold, in addition to some getting smothered. It also causes stress and chicks can quickly become sick from pathogens that may be present.

It also sounds like a respiratory virus may have been introduced somehow. If that's the case, getting more chicks before you address this issue will result in more contagion. Chicken respiratory viruses are not like human ones. They stick around much, much longer.

Have you been around other chickens since you've obtained your chicks? Viruses can be transmitted from another flock to your chickens on your clothes. Or sometimes a private breeder isn't careful and they end up selling infected chicks. You need to examine your sources.

The best way to determine what killed your chicks is to have a couple of them examined by a lab. It's called a necropsy. You will then know what you're dealing with and can then treat your other chicks.

 

[chickens really]

How old are the first batch of Chicks?...How long have you had them?...Where did they come from?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Sorry for your difficult time.

Were your most recent chicks shipped? I always have large losses in shipped chicks. They usually get vitamin and electrolyte water upon arrival.

I agree your brooder may be too warm for that many bodies and also that piling/trampling can be a huge problem with large groups especially in corners.

Just guessing your 6 Silkies and 2 unknown breeds came from someone other than a hatchery. Do you know if they were incubator hatched or by a broody? It is ALWAYS recommended that you do at least a 30 day quarantine of new birds in case their is illness that hasn't shown up yet at their original place. In addition it gives them a chance to see if anything is already at your place that might make them ill.

In the case of hatchery chicks though they have not been exposed to the outside world or any other birds until we get them.

With large broods, it can be easy for Coccidia to get out of control since it thrive in warm/humid conditions like those of a brooder. Once my shavings were much wetter underneath than they appeared on top. Cocci is in every single chicken poo but only an issue when there is an overgrowth of them. It usually takes about 6 days for symptom to appear which would be standing up, feathers ruffled, and eyes closed... possibly but not always strawberry jam/bloody poo. That probably wan't it, but I'm sharing info just in case. Medicated feed acts as a thiamine blocker to starve out cocci. Keeping poo out of the water is key... but I have seen chicks take a sip of another's poo right off the top of the paper towel!

What are you feeding including treats and supplement?

Your chicks should only be on paper towels long enough to know they are supposed to eat their food. How much older are your Silkies than you new chicks? Get rid of that artificial grass! Go get some pine shaving (never cedar) or rice hulls. That grass isn't absorbing anything and it isn't digestible. Who knows what kind of chemicals are in it? Bring in a dish of dry dirt and put in there they will LOVE it and give them some exposure to your pasture microbes.

Only one area in the brooder should be that warm and the chicks should have a cooler area where they eat and scratch and come back to warm up. If you haven't checked your shipped (?) chicks for pasty butt every single day, then you should start and do so for at least the first 7-10 days. Overheating can make it worse and it's deadly VERY fast.

Vet RX is essentially vicks vapor rub and won't do anything to cure your birds. I guess if you like breathing menthol... but to me a waste of $. What will olive oil in the water do besides adding fat to their diet?

Your other chicks have already been exposed to whatever the sick ones have, separation may be irrelevant.

I would get some vitamins (if the feed is unmedicated, otherwise the vitamins defeat it and it the vitamin B's). Bird vitamins from the pet section (I prefer liquid), Poly vi Sol baby vitamins with NO iron, or nutri drench ( not my fave cuz it doesn't have any B's which I think are crucial and it's expensive).. and add to the water. For shipped chicks I give a drop right below the nostril on the beak and when it rolls around into the mouth they gobble/swallow it.

Anyways, sorry if it's information overload. Hope your chicks and your new ones start to thrive!

 

[Lisa Thorne]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us But wish it were under better circumstances

Can you post a picture of your brooder setup? @Wyorp Rock can you lend a hand?

 

[Lisa Thorne]

Yes. Will post pics

 

[Lisa Thorne]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Sorry for your difficult time.

Were your most recent chicks shipped? I always have large losses in shipped chicks. They usually get vitamin and electrolyte water upon arrival.

I agree your brooder may be too warm for that many bodies and also that piling/trampling can be a huge problem with large groups especially in corners.

Just guessing your 6 Silkies and 2 unknown breeds came from someone other than a hatchery. Do you know if they were incubator hatched or by a broody? It is ALWAYS recommended that you do at least a 30 day quarantine of new birds in case their is illness that hasn't shown up yet at their original place. In addition it gives them a chance to see if anything is already at your place that might make them ill.

In the case of hatchery chicks though they have not been exposed to the outside world or any other birds until we get them.

With large broods, it can be easy for Coccidia to get out of control since it thrive in warm/humid conditions like those of a brooder. Once my shavings were much wetter underneath than they appeared on top. Cocci is in every single chicken poo but only an issue when there is an overgrowth of them. It usually takes about 6 days for symptom to appear which would be standing up, feathers ruffled, and eyes closed... possibly but not always strawberry jam/bloody poo. That probably wan't it, but I'm sharing info just in case. Medicated feed acts as a thiamine blocker to starve out cocci. Keeping poo out of the water is key... but I have seen chicks take a sip of another's poo right off the top of the paper towel!

What are you feeding including treats and supplement?

Your chicks should only be on paper towels long enough to know they are supposed to eat their food. How much older are your Silkies than you new chicks? Get rid of that artificial grass! Go get some pine shaving (never cedar) or rice hulls. That grass isn't absorbing anything and it isn't digestible. Who knows what kind of chemicals are in it? Bring in a dish of dry dirt and put in there they will LOVE it and give them some exposure to your pasture microbes.

Only one area in the brooder should be that warm and the chicks should have a cooler area where they eat and scratch and come back to warm up. If you haven't checked your shipped (?) chicks for pasty butt every single day, then you should start and do so for at least the first 7-10 days. Overheating can make it worse and it's deadly VERY fast.

Vet RX is essentially vicks vapor rub and won't do anything to cure your birds. I guess if you like breathing menthol... but to me a waste of $. What will olive oil in the water do besides adding fat to their diet?

Your other chicks have already been exposed to whatever the sick ones have, separation may be irrelevant.

I would get some vitamins (if the feed is unmedicated, otherwise the vitamins defeat it and it the vitamin B's). Bird vitamins from the pet section (I prefer liquid), Poly vi Sol baby vitamins with NO iron, or nutri drench ( not my fave cuz it doesn't have any B's which I think are crucial and it's expensive).. and add to the water. For shipped chicks I give a drop right below the nostril on the beak and when it rolls around into the mouth they gobble/swallow it.

Anyways, sorry if it's information overload. Hope your chicks and your new ones start to thrive!

I am feeding them medicated chick feed. I gave them some yogurt water because so many were weak. Lost a bunch. Then I boiled an egg and mixed the yolk with feed. I just bought the duramycin for the water. Not sure how much to give?? The silkies are about 3weeks old. They were from a home breeder. I don' t know how they were hatched. The name brand ones were from a hatcery. The ones that are sick are 4 weeks old. I'l post pics today. I have 15 more coming from a hatchery. I plan to quarantine these ones and start over. I'm not sure what to do with the rest? I've heard that once they have the disease there's no way to get rid of it. How do I get rid of them? Am I doomed? Do I keep the sick ones?

 

[Lisa Thorne]

How old are the first batch of Chicks?...How long have you had them?...Where did they come from?[/QUO
The ones that are sick came from a flea market . . I know. Impulsive. The silkies came from a person who breeds at home. Didn' t look all that great. But they'e not sick. The babies are from a hatchery.

 

[Lisa Thorne]

The brooder I had them in was bigger than the picture. I took it apart and tried to sanitize it and separate all..