One of our chicks died...4 days old

[JeninMN]

I don't know why...one of our little buff orps...I noticed the night before yesterday that she was kind of "a loner" for some reason but she seemed completely healthy...other than she had pasty butt a few times but I am SO careful to watch for that before I go to to work in the morning and after work and again before bed...

We got home last night and opened the brooder and saw her fall over onto her side...we grabbed her right away and I cleaned her butt off quick as she had pasty butt again and then my hubby tried to get her to drink some water and she did so we thought maybe she'd be ok...I held her for about an hour trying to keep her body temp up and she finally went...

We never lost even one of our cheeps last year...not one. This year we lost one the very first day ( we think she got trampled in the box they came in) and now this one....

Is this normal to lose a few???? They send 2 extra when they ship them incase you do but I was so optimistic....

was so sad to see her trying to breathe and finally losing....could this have been from her pasty butt and I didn't get it cleaned off in time???? how quick can that take them?

Jen

 

[speckledhen]

At four days, that's about when you get the ones passing on who didn't not learn to eat and drink sufficiently. Even when you hatch them on site, on occasion, one will just not have the will to survive.

 

[aidenbaby]

I'm not a chicken expert by any means. I think there is one of two options here. One, pasting isn't the cause but the symptom of not truly thriving. Or two, she was pasting up so much that it eventually killed her. I think given her age that it is the first.