Today I got in a fairly large order (about 50 birds) from Ideal. They were all so cute! Healthy and beautiful. I walked outside a couple hours ago and found almost every one of them on the floor of the brooder, soaking wet and dying. Several of them were literally minutes from death. I scooped them up and started shouting for someone to come help. We rushed them to the bathroom, turned on the heater, put a heating pad in the sink, put them on the heating pad, and starting blowing them with a warm hair dryer. One in particular was doing exceptionally poorly. She just laid in the sink, eyes closed and barely breathing. I picked her up and started rubbing her chest, trying to warm her and keep her awake. My mom blew her with the hair dryer and she eventually perked up. I had my sister mix them up some warm electrolyte water. After awhile they dried off, warmed up and started falling asleep. I moved their brooder into the house for the night. All are still alive, amazingly. Praise God! I couldn't believe none of them died. I filled their waterer base with marbles to keep them out of it. As soon as I put the water back in the brooder with them they tried to climb into it, so I'm assuming that's how it happened. I am still shaking. I'm taking their water out before I go to bed. I'll put it back in the morning and monitor them all day tomorrow to make sure it doesn't happen again. My ducklings have the same kind of waterer, but they stay out of it. I don't know why the chicks try to sit in it. I'm checking on them about every five minutes right now to make sure none of died. It was so terrifying! Has anyone else had something like this happen?
so I brought them home to save what was left.
