My baby chicken died and id like to know what happened...

[chicken1dinner]

So I found this abandon baby chicken on the road one week ago and it was totally alone and just chirping for its mother. Before taking it upon myself to bring it home, I waited a good 5 hours far away from the baby hoping the mom would like come back but it didn't. I loved my first little baby bird. Didnt know what breed it was or the gender but I loved it and tried to take good care of it. Because im still a student I couldnt afford to buy a heating lamp and I had to keep it outside because my parents did not want that "thing" inside the house so I always checked the temperature outside to see if it was warm and inside a plastic bag would be a cardboard box filled with paper towels.Id place its make shift home in a big gardening pot along with clean water and rice (or occasionally fully cooked mongo beans which it really liked). Yesterday, I got sick and I could only check on it once in the middle of the day. It was fine. It was happy, running around like usual. Coming back from school, I went to check on it and I was so sad to hear it chirp so weakly. I was crying seeing that it couldnt move and just stayed in this weird sleeping postion where its neck was kind of tilted to the side. Its eyes were open and I was breathing normally. I tried making it stand and its leg were just not holding up although they were moving. It was chirping uncomfortably. I couldn't take it to the vet yet because my parents weren't home yet so I tried looking on this forum for what to do and stuff. It thought it was Botulism so I tried giving it water by droplets from my fingers and it would just vigoriously move its neck back like towards its body and kind of squirm like I was putting lemon on an open wound or something. It would lift its head to the sky and open its mouth like it wanted more water (well.. thats atleast what I thought it looked like). Not knowing what else to do. I still tried to give it water and and it'd just chirp weakly and uncomfortably. I put it down to do more research on my phone and I saw the water leak out from its mouth. As sad as I still am, it died and I couldnt do anything. Id REALLY like to know what happened. It wasnt just a chicken or food to me. Im so sadden that I killed this baby chicken; I loved it so much. I was thinking it was because I didnt give it enough vitamin E or anything. I just really want answers...

 

[azygous]

You did all you could to help your little chick. Many of us have had the sorrow of this same experience. Sometimes, a chick dies because it's not ready to live.

You might try to imagine what happened to the chick before you saw it on the road and rescued it. Why do you suppose it wasn't home safe and sound under its mother?

There are lots of eggs a hen lays, and then she sits on them, and then they hatch, but sometimes not all do. There's something wrong with those eggs that fail to hatch. The same can be true of chicks that hatch. Sometimes something is wrong with them, too, and often a broody hen seems to know which chicks those are and kicks them out of the nest,

Your chick may have been one of those that got kicked out, and it wandered away and you found it. It may not have had all it's organs operating right so it wasn't able to grow and thrive. It probably lived longer than it would have had you not found it, but in spite of your care and love, it could only make it so far, and it died.

You did all you could, and it had a happy, if short, life because you cared.