Noisy Chick Dies After Vomit

[SvinFold]

Hey, still new around the site, and I was wondering if anyone could help me find information. It's 3:27am here, and we just had a chick die a few minutes ago. It's pretty devastating to my mother, and I'm not looking forward to telling my nephew that his baby chicken died. By the time I realized something was wrong, it was already too late. I would like to make sure whatever this is isn't going to be able to spread to any of the 11 other chicks.

This is our first time trying to hatch chicks at home, and we did make a few mistakes. Humidity was likely low, and I made the mistake of opening the incubator several times. No excuses, just my newbie mistakes.

The chick that died, Frodo, had been chirping almost non-stop, with breaks being a few minutes long. When I went to check on him, he was laying with his head down, and his mouth open, and eyes droopy. It was probably a mistake to pick him up, but I did, and went straight to the computer to look for answers - which I did not find, unfortunatly. We tried to put together some sugar water and a warm towel, and soon after he spit out some milky mucus. After that, he started convulsing, and that was that...

Any information that can be offered up front would be appriciated, but if anyone knows about a previously made forum that can help with this, you'd be my hero for quite a while...

EDIT: Changed thread name, maybe it'll give someone an idea of what this thread is... Also, I found the Emergencies/Disease threads. If someone could tell me how to move this thread, that would be helpful </3

 

[ten chicks]

Hey, still new around the site, and I was wondering if anyone could help me find information. It's 3:27am here, and we just had a chick die a few minutes ago. It's pretty devastating to my mother, and I'm not looking forward to telling my nephew that his baby chicken died. By the time I realized something was wrong, it was already too late. I would like to make sure whatever this is isn't going to be able to spread to any of the 11 other chicks.

This is our first time trying to hatch chicks at home, and we did make a few mistakes. Humidity was likely low, and I made the mistake of opening the incubator several times. No excuses, just my newbie mistakes.

The chick that died, Frodo, had been chirping almost non-stop, with breaks being a few minutes long. When I went to check on him, he was laying with his head down, and his mouth open, and eyes droopy. It was probably a mistake to pick him up, but I did, and went straight to the computer to look for answers - which I did not find, unfortunatly. We tried to put together some sugar water and a warm towel, and soon after he spit out some milky mucus. After that, he started convulsing, and that was that...

Any information that can be offered up front would be appriciated, but if anyone knows about a previously made forum that can help with this, you'd be my hero for quite a while...

Hey, still new around the site, and I was wondering if anyone could help me find information. It's 3:27am here, and we just had a chick die a few minutes ago. It's pretty devastating to my mother, and I'm not looking forward to telling my nephew that his baby chicken died. By the time I realized something was wrong, it was already too late. I would like to make sure whatever this is isn't going to be able to spread to any of the 11 other chicks.

This is our first time trying to hatch chicks at home, and we did make a few mistakes. Humidity was likely low, and I made the mistake of opening the incubator several times. No excuses, just my newbie mistakes.

The chick that died, Frodo, had been chirping almost non-stop, with breaks being a few minutes long. When I went to check on him, he was laying with his head down, and his mouth open, and eyes droopy. It was probably a mistake to pick him up, but I did, and went straight to the computer to look for answers - which I did not find, unfortunatly. We tried to put together some sugar water and a warm towel, and soon after he spit out some milky mucus. After that, he started convulsing, and that was that...

Any information that can be offered up front would be appriciated, but if anyone knows about a previously made forum that can help with this, you'd be my hero for quite a while...

How old and was he in incubator,if so for how long? Did you put water in his mouth,or did he drink by himself? Sounds like he aspirated(water got into his lungs).

 

[SvinFold]

How old and was he in incubator,if so for how long? Did you put water in his mouth,or did he drink by himself? Sounds like he aspirated(water got into his lungs).

Roughly 4-5 days old, and we did incubate them, if that's what you're asking. We only left him in the incubator long enough to dry out, which was only a few hours I think? We weren't sure how to get him to drink, so I tried to get him to drink on his own which didn't work. We took the sugar water and put it in a shallow yogurt lid, and I set him down next to it and tried to put the tip of his beak in the water to get him to figure out what it was... He just... flopped his head over, though the water wasn't deep at all, and I picked him up a little to get the side of his face out of the water. I don't think he inhaled it, I thought he was breathing through his mouth. Only one nostril would have been in the water...

EDIT: I forgot to mention this earlier, but while we weren't really paying attention to my nephew that much for a while, he had been handling the chick quite a bit. I think that was either yesterday or the day before that he spent so much time with the chick though... He's 6, and he's had a rather bad history with not being gentle with the household dog, but that was a long time and a lot of scolding ago...

 

[MotherAmanda]

My 16year old has dropped chicks. It happens. He is a boy and will learn. Is it a lesson we want to have to teach? No. But sometimes it is a lesson none the less. Don't worry about that. It sounds like that was just a weak chick. Keep trying til ya get it right. don't sweat the small stuff. Enjoy the bigger picture.

 

[farnorth]

Yep, chicks are really really fragile. I would not in future let any child play with such a young chick. Gentle or not the chick needs to be under the brooder lamp staying warm and sleeping and eating and drinking. I don't think any 6 year old that would know how to properly handle a chick that young.

 

[trompystompfarm]

I have been amazed at the fragility of chicks. I don't think I will raise anything younger than 8 weeks from here on out. There are too many ways for them to "go"