Shipped chicks dying off one by one

[DawnM]

I just got an order of chicks from Purely Poultry Friday morning. They were all fine when they arrived. There were 11 + 2 Japanese Bantams and 5 + 1 D'Uccle. Ever since they arrived they have been dying off one by one. They are fine one minute and half dead the next. They don't have pasty butt and all have been eating and drinking fine until they drop (literally). I have raised chicks before but all of them have been local or eggs I hatched myself. I have never had a single chick die until now. Once they go down it's like they are semi concious and just flop around and kick or chirp once in a while until they die. We had them on newspaper covered with paper towel and now we switched to pine shavings and it hasn't made a difference. We got Poly vi sol this morning and 2 have died since. I have no idea what to do with them. Right now the 13 survivors are looking like normal chicks but within a few hours there will be a half dead one in the group. I'm totally at a loss and would appreciate any help.

 

[NHchicks]

That's so sad!

I would definitely get in touch with Purely Poultry and ask them what's going on.

 

[DawnM]

Since it's Sunday I sent an email. If I don't hear back from them I'll definately call them. I really think that being shipped through the post office is too much. I'm starting to side with the people that say its cruel to ship chicks through the mail. This many casualties shouldn't just be business as usual and if it wasn't usual they wouldn't ship extras.

They actually looked like they were shipped quite comfortably. They had bedding, a heat pack, and some fee thrown in. I was at work so my mom picked them up. She said it felt really warm in there. Could it have been they got too warm? It's been pretty mild here but I don't know about the whole trip. No more shipped chicks for me ever! I'll get eggs shipped in. That way if they don't hatch they don't hatch and nobody has to be traumatized.

 

[YYZ]

How dreadful ! Maybe they were sick when they were shipped.

 

[Matrix Escapee]

Don't beat yourself up over having chicks sent in the mail. I got 100 shipped from Iowa to Delaware on Wednesday. They arrived at my post office on Friday morning at 6 am. None arrived dead. All 100 are still going strong today. And it was COLD last week while they were in transit for 2 days. No heat packs in box.
I really think it comes down to the hatchery and their genetics, and how they handle the birds.

GL to you.

 

[DawnM]

So we haven't lost a chick now in almost 24 hours. I'm thinking maybe it was genetic issues because most of the ones that went down were white Japanese. Overall we have 11 now so its still more than we were planning on keeping. Purely Poultry has been awesome about it and if I were brave enough to order live chicks again I would probably reorder from them. They don't breed these guys so if it was something wrong with the birds its not their fault. Its too bad they don't sell hatching eggs, as well as the chicks were packed I wouldn't hesitate to buy eggs from them. Fingers crossed now that this is the end of it.

 

[xyresicchick]

This is happening to me right now too! only thing is i hatched eggs from NPIP breeders. I had Lav ameraucanas from little ameraucana mom, silver laced cochins from nv horsefeathers. and blue wheaten ameraucana eggs from a local guy who is also npip.... it started with the lavender ameraucanas. they would get skinny and bony and then just die. they were eating and drinking fine and look completely healthy one day and then the next day they are skinny, weak, tired and then just die suddenly. I separated the lavs from the others. the others are fine exept one silver laced cochin that just died. out of 10 lavs that i hatched i have 3 left and one looks like it is on it's way out, and another is breathing heavily i noticed.

one symptom two of the lavs had before they died was a bruisedish abdomen/but area. i don't know if that has anything to do with it. i am reading through my "chicken health handbook" trying to find some answers. I have hatched chicks from probably about 20 different sources but this is the first time i've ever had sick chicks -- and funny thing is i've hatched her lavs before!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't get it at all! i hope someone can figure out what could be a possible cause soon!

 

[DawnM]

Quote:
It does sound a lot like mine. It seems to have passed. It's been 2 days now and nothing has happened. I got a hold of a lot of people and no one has heard anything like this before. If you do find something definately let me know! At least if its some kind of new chicken illness going around I have a bunch of kiddos here that are hopefully immune and passing on the genes. Good luck to you, its such a helpless feeling watching them die one by one.