New here and new to chickens

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ChickyChicky327

ChickyChicky327

In the Brooder
5 Years
Jun 11, 2014
29
2
34
Oklahoma
Hi there. My husband and I are new to this chick/chicken thing and I'm new to BYC. We live in Oklahoma. I'm a grad student and he's a (small animal, non-avian) veterinarian. After doing a lot of research over the spring, we built a run and got a coop, put together a brooder, and got 10 day-old EE pullets last Tuesday. Things were going well until Saturday when, within the span of an hour, we lost 9 of them extremely suddenly. It was awful to go through. We just held them as they got neurologic symptoms and died. We eventually figured out that it was due to Teflon poisoning. I had just turned on the oven to bake my dad a pie for Father's Day, and there was a non-stick oven liner in the bottom. We cried and cried. It was devastating. I don't have Teflon pans, so I didn't even think about that oven liner. I just feel so stupid. :(

We had one chick left, and she cried all night. We ended up driving about 5 hours on Sunday to a Welsummer breeder to get three pullets about our chick's age. It's worked out well. She's happier to have some friends. They've been eating and sleeping together, so I think it will work out.

We're going to pick up 5 more EE pullets tomorrow, but I'm not sure whether we'll have to use a separate brooder or whether we'll be able to keep them all together. We have the equipment to house them separately if need be.

What an emotional roller coaster this week has been... I really miss the other nine chicks.
 
Welcome to BYC! I am so sorry for your loss, how horrible! When I had parrots I was always concerned about that same thing happening. You may be able to keep the chicks together depending on the size difference, I would keep a very close eye on them to make sure they younger/smaller ones aren't being bullied. You could also create some kind of divider in the brooder to keep them separate. Best of luck to you!
 
Chicky, don't give up! It's a live and learn world. I would have never thought of a teflon oven liner. You might want to go on the thread for your state, and see if anyone near you has some chicks that are closer in age and size to yours. That way they should integrate more easily. There is facebook too under Southwest Oklahoma Chicken Swap. Put a clean feather duster, or a small, clean stuffed animal in with it in the meantime, if you have either one.
 
Welcome to BYC
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I'm so sorry to hear about your loss!
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I hope things will go smoothly for you with your chickens from now on.
 
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Welcome to BYC!

Oh, I am so sorry about your chicks. How awful I hope your heavy heart can heal soon.
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Enjoy these new birds and all your poultry adventures!
 
So sorry this happened to you! The oven liner would not have occurred to me either. Good for you, finding her some friends so quickly! I wish you all the best. Welcome to BYC!
 
I wish you would start a thread elsewhere ( so everyone can read it) to warn about the non-stick coating. Most people would never think about it -it's such a random act to use them.
What a horrible thing to have gone through, you feel so helpless when it happens fast like that.

I once lost 8 out of 9 puppies fast, I watched them nurse and then they would roll over and be dead - that fast!! The vet said my mama dog's milk was so toxic (from infection) it was like someone used brillo on the puppies intestines. One survived to 9 weeks of age, because I tube fed him - then he suddenly went into convulsions. I thought I goofed up. But I used to have all dead pups autopsied - vet said the pup was missing a lung and had his liver in the wrong place. Thankfully we never had an episode like that again. But I cried a river.
 

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