please help, one of my baby just die at about 1 week old after I put down pine shavings for bedding

drsze61

Hatching
Aug 16, 2015
6
0
7
Hello every one,

I am a first time chicken keeper, before I purchase my brood, I read up on everything on line and in books. they were hatch on August 10th, (Myer's hatchery, a great place BTW) I got them on the 12th, Pick them up at 5 am at post office, fed them vita gro-gel from the hatchery on arrival, make sure all drank and ate, one that were slow starter, I took out into intensive care brooder and all were thriving. I prepared my brooder area well, fed them chick starter (20 % protein) kept their area spotlessly clean, started with temp of 90-95 during first week and 5 degree less each week there after, started on paper towel for the first 6 days, make sure all of them were eating and drinking well, then lay down pine shaving once they all knew where to eat and drink, gave them vita water, and cleaned daily meticulously. all the other ones looks healthy like she did, running and scratching around, they spread out evenly in the brooder, not too cold, not too hot, all seems very comfortable, no blood in stool. This morning she was doing fine, and when I came home from a a short trip to the market, she looked tired and not moving much, I drop vita water slowly with a eye dropper and she drank and seem to feel better and I came back 30 minutes later and she was dead. It was awful, my little Spanish girl (blue Andalusian) , I check all the other chicks and they all seems fit and without any evidence of stress. I check for pasty butt daily and clean the occasional ones with warm wet paper towel and blow dry them dry. I just check everyone this morning and no pasty butt on any of them. I am not sure what happen. is it common for baby chick just to die like that? I try to search and can not find any answer, any input would be appreciated, thanks. I see all of them scratching and occasionally eating the shavings, but all of the rest seems to be fit and full of spunk. My little Delaware was a little out of spirits on the same day but now perk up and back to normal2 days later, so far today every one seems healthy, I have about 27 chicks in 2 separate brooder giving each chick lots of room to spare. no pasty butt on any of them and each one have normal looking poop. was the lost of one chick just what happens with raising a lot of chicks?
 
I'm sorry you lost a chick, especially given how careful you've been with everything. I'd love to give you a definitive answer, but the plain sad truth is that sometimes a chick or two will just fail to thrive. I think most of us out here have lost a chick or two, and sometimes we just don't know why or what happened. I don't know that the pine shavings have anything to do with it. When I I brooded inside, I started mine on pine shavings, covered with paper towels for the first couple of days and then uncovered after that once I was sure they knew where their food was. I learned early that even with the shavings covered with paper towels, the little stinkers still managed to find them along the edge of the brooder and some of them did eat a few, but with no detrimental results. Now I brood all of my chicks outside from the start on straw, so I no longer have shavings in the brooder, but not because I ever experienced a problem with them.

Keep on keeping a good eye on the others. It sounds like you are doing everything you can to provide them with a safe place. If you start to see anymore that aren't doing well, a good place to post descriptions of the symptoms, their environment and what has happened to the other chick would be in the Emergencies, Diseases. Injuries and Cures forum. You can find that up along the top. Hover over the "Forums" tab, when the dropdown menu appears hover over Raising Backyard Chickens and then click on the Emergencies link on the right. Good luck!

Edited to add a direct link to the Emergencies forum.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures

You can start a new thread with your problem and there are lots of folks with more experience than I have who will try to help.
 
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I couldn't add to Blooie's excellent response. But I can welcome you - So glad you joined the BYC flock
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Welcome to BYC!

x3 on Blooie's response. I'm sorry for your loss, it sounds like you did everything you could.
 
Welcome to BYC..

I was going to tell you I doubt the shavings had anything to do with it. BUT Blooie really did say it all.

And if DrumstickDiva could not add to it, I am just wasting time. listening to myself type..




If you have 27 chicks and have only lost one, you should be giving me advice... good job..

and again Welcome to BYC, hope to see you around..
 
thank you every body for your welcome and kind words, every one else (my chickies) seems to be doing well and no issues that I could see in the last 3 days. I actually been following BYC for a bit now and join up once I took the plunge of chicken keeping, I could no longer get eggs from the grocery store after I saw what the poor animal goes thru their entire life, and wanted cruelty free eggs of my own. I spend more on the coop and feed etc then I would be able to recoup any investment from the eggs i get, but I love having them and they are really more pets then farm animal, they will live out the ret of their lives with me I am pretty sure. I love their antics and expressions, keep me entertained for hours on end. anyway, thanks for the kind words, it is appreciated
 
You are so very welcome! I see a day ahead in the not-to-distant future when you will be posting on here to help someone else get through what you've just gone through. And that's what it's all about!
 
the circle of life is never easy or fun.. we always want the babies to thrive. I hope the rest do well under your mothering care.. Sounds like they will! Best of luck and hope to see pictures soon!
 

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