Silkie chick with labored breathing

[Swbertrand1]

Sorry to hear that! Where did you get these chicks? Please provide photos of your brooder setup. Perhaps there is something in the brooder that's toxic to them.

 

[Swbertrand1]

Welp I checked on the chicks in the brooder and one was dead in the water dish. I'm not sure if it drowned or if it happened to die near the dish. I'm keeping the chick with labored breathing in a separate brooder and it's been eating and drinking. I've never lost a chick before this batch of silkies so I'm definitely not buying from that breeder again. All the chicks were non-standard coloring and most are Satins. Two don't have extra toes. I'm not sure if it's me that's the problem or just bad quality chicks... Maybe a bit of both.

If you're getting mixed numbers of toes, they are likely not 100% Silkies, but have been crossed with a standard breed somewhere along the way.

 

[TundraFang]

Sorry to hear that! Where did you get these chicks? Please provide photos of your brooder setup. Perhaps there is something in the brooder that's toxic to them.

Here's my current brooder setup. It's pretty simple

 

[Swbertrand1]

Do you use it with the lid on it? If so, I'd remove the lid so there's good ventilation inside.

 

[TundraFang]

Do you use it with the lid on it? If so, I'd remove the lid so there's good ventilation inside.

No, I don't use the lid until they start flying.

 

[RememberTheWay]

So this morning I went to check on it and it was lying on the ground gasping for air. I gave it some benadryl and it perked up and started eating and drinking again. A few hours later it was on the ground gasping again. I picked it up and it went limp in my hands. It's heart was still beating but it wasn't breathing so I started giving it mouth to mouth (yes I'm slightly insane). It started breathing on its own so I let it sit there while I went to let the big chickens out of the coop. When I came back it was gasping for air again and it collapsed. I tried the mouth to mouth again but it's heart stopped beating so I began doing tiny chest pumps with my finger but it still didn't make it. I moved all my Silkie chicks to a different room in my house away from my other chicks. This is the third one to die this week and I still have no idea what's wrong with them. I've heard horror stories of new chickens killing entire flocks because of diseases. Is there anything I can to to make sure the rest of my chickens don't get sick?

Why are you giving it Benadryl? That is really not a good idea at all. And I'm mainly responding now - because I know this is old- so that when other look through the archives they do not follow this for their struggling chicks.