Seabright chicks two weeks old just dying...

[PunkinPeep]

Normally mama-raised chicks don't get cocci, but i suppose it is possible.

I'm not sure what to tell you, but i might suggest either changing the title of this thread or starting a new thread in order to get more responses from people who might know the answers.

So sorry you're having this trouble.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

The fourth chick is all but dead. It is in the broody pen just laying there now. It is on it's side and if I pick it up, it opens it's eyes but it is all but dead. It is breathing normally but very weak. It stood for awhile after being put in there, but now is just laying on it's side. There are no marks on it at all, and no pasty butt. All five Seabrights were the same size, no runts or anything.

It seems to me that it is something to do with them being Seabrights or a huge coincidence that only they are dying. That hatch was four D'Uccles, and five Seabrights. The D'Uccles are just fine, and still out with the mom...but four...since this little guy will probably die within the hour...of the five Seabrights have died. The last Seabright is perfectly fine, but they were all treated exactly the same.

Seems to me that if they ate something bad, or had the wrong food, or bad water, or needed something me or the mom didn't provide that they'd all die or if only some of them did...then statistically some of the D'Uccles should have died too.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

The fourth one also died but the one I put in the broody pen is still OK. I sure hope it is a roo and makes it because I found my Seabright roo dead on the coop floor under where he always roosts this morning when I went to let them out. He was clean, and dry had no wounds or fluid leaks or poo on him...eyes closed, wings folded, feet relaxed. Just dead. He was perfectly fine the whole day before they were locked in for the night. I posted on the illness board but with no symptoms at all how can anyone guess what happened to him, or what was wrong with him.

I think it is a coincidence the rooster was a Seabright because all the dead Seabright chicks were hatched by a surrogate Old English hen and were never near the rooster. But it is sure strange that the four Duccles that she also hatched are still fine and still with her. She hatched five seabrights and four duccles and all the seabrights but one died and that one I took away from her.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

All that is left of five chicks and a trio is one hen, and one chick. So six Seabrights have died...four chicks, the roo, and yesterday one hen who was out in the run just standing there with droopy wings so I put her in a cage where she died in a few hours. She looked just like the rest, clean, dry, no wounds or blood or poo...and I know if was not from a broken neck or someone 'getting' her as she was caged alone.

I counted the other day and I had 76 chickens...most of them chicks...but that's a lot of chickens. Out of 76 there were eight Seabrights. So six chickens or chicks have died in a couple of days..at no time were they in the same pen, or ate the same food. The adults free ranged, the chicks didn't...and those chicks were three weeks old before they suddenly dropped dead.

None of it makes any sense. Why is it only Seabrights are dying? There were nine chicks in the hatch, the four Duccle chicks are fine, but of the five SB chicks four are dead. All the adults are treated the same...so the adult SB are with the rest of the adults free ranging. Three different breeds...why are they all OK?

If it were something effecting only Seabrights I'd expect that all the Seabrights would have been together at some point...which they wern't.
If it was bad food, or something they ate free ranging, then why aren't the other breeds dying?