Lost Silkie....New questions....runny poo

[donnap1967]

One of my 3 day old silkies just passed away. This afternoon I noticed that it had white stringy poo trailing from it's rear end and I thought it might be pasting up so I cleaned it's rear and put it back in the brooder.
Today was my daughter's high school graduation so I was quite busy most of the day but the chicks all seemed to be acting okay when I peeked in on them. I know for sure yesterday it was acting perfectly normal.
A few minutes ago I noticed it was laying there gasping for air so I took it out and got some sugar water and got it to drink a tiny bit but after a minute or two I tried to give it more and it couldn't drink. Within five minutes it was gone.

My brooder is at about 96 degrees on the side with the heat lamp, there is fresh water and I am feeding Purina chick starter that I put in the blender to break down the size of the crumbles because they seemed too big for the tiny silkies.
Any ideas why this happened and anything I should be doing for the rest of the babies? This is my second time raising chicks and I am so sad that I lost one. Poor thing, I just held it and tried to soothe it until it passed away in my hands.

 

[dlhunicorn]

so very sorry to hear you lost one... do you have the set up such that it can get away from the lamp (thermometers have been known to be incorrect and the gasping makes me think perhaps it was overheated?) What type of bedding? I use papertowels the first couple weeks to ensure they do not eat the bedding material ....

 

[donnap1967]

The heat light is on one side so they can escape the heat. Just in case it was too hot I raised the heat lamp before going back to sleep last night. I am using paper towels for bedding.

It so sad to see such a little thing go through that and die when they haven't even had a chance to live

I woke up and jumped out of bed this morning to check the others and so far they look fine but I am still worried.

 

[donnap1967]

A couple of the chicks seem to have very loose gel-ish poo. I am sitting here reading all about cocci and freaking myself out. They are three days old and have been kept in their brooder box so I don't know if it's possible for them to have that. There is no blood that I can see.

Anyway, I am not feeding medicated feed. Should I get some? Should I buy some yogurt and try that?

Edited to add: I changed their paper towels out about 2 hours ago and looked in just now. The only poo in there all look solid and healthy. I really dunno what happened with that poor baby or why their poo is sometimes sickly looking.

 

[donnap1967]

Sorry I am rambling. Someone still has nasty poo in there.

I am going to pick up some yogurt today and some pedialyte just to be on the safe side. I'll see if I can find some poly visol too.

Do you just give the pedialyte as a water substitute or is there a formula for adding to the water?