mysterious death of a 5 week old chick - help

[areyoumymother]

I have 12 assorted new chicks 1 week old separated from the (3) 5 week old chicks. Everything has been going just fine, no issues at all. Normal routine, checked on all the chicks last night before bed and all was well, woke up this morning and found one of the 5 week old chicks dead !

It appeared to be wet from the torso up, body and tail dry. What in the world could have happened ? Ruled out drowning as the waterer is still the small brooder kind with the white canister upside down on the red base with a 1/4 inch lip on it for auto watering. My first thought was a broken neck from craning its neck thru the wrung of the dog cage they have been in since day 1 but that would not explain the 'wet' look. And now I am worried about the others.

This is a great loss, any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Judy]

The only thing I can think of for the wetness is, an animal tried to swallow it but it was too big so they spit it back out. I have read a snake can do this. But then maybe there's some other scenario that's not occurring to me.

 

[areyoumymother]

that makes perfect sense, the cage is in the garage, but living in the country in Texas we have learned there is no 'predator free' zone and snakes are definitely a problem in our area, once we found a snake under the kitchen sink.

thanks for the feedback