Sudden Chick Death

[bangarain]

This morning, all of my chicks were energetic, eating, drinking, and behaving like healthy little babies. This afternoon, my mom found one of my chicks dead. She was six days old. No signs of illness, or injury, or anything that could have suggested why she died. A few days ago, we lost another who had gotten pasty butt overnight - also a first for me. Do you think that these are just flukes, or do I need to worry about my other babies? They're on Kalmbach chick starter, have water with ACV, and an Ecoglow 600 brooder plate. Their bedding is paper towel for now, going to be changed over to shavings next week.

Every time I've lost chicks before, it's been a slow decline from day one - never anything sudden.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry that you lost a chick.

How are the rest doing?

 

[3KillerBs]

I know that a lot of people use ACV, but I think that it's important to always off plain water as well as water that has any sort of additive in it, however healthy that additive might be.

I can't say that it has anything to do with anything, but that's my opinion.

 

[Thorn07]

This morning, all of my chicks were energetic, eating, drinking, and behaving like healthy little babies. This afternoon, my mom found one of my chicks dead.

Could be Omphalitis (Mushy Chick Disease.) It hits fast and will kill the chick suddenly. I'm so sorry you have to deal with that though

 

[CloneFly]

Keep an eye on the other chicks. Are they eating and drinking properly? Is their stool normal? How is their breathing? A couple of my chicks went from being happy, seemingly healthy chicks to dead balls of fluff in less than 6hrs. One of the main things was that towards the end, they lost all their strength and started gasping and choking... hopefully the rest of your babies will be alright.

 

[bangarain]

Thank you, everyone. The rest of the chicks have been doing great, and are very feisty little babies. I am going to add a secondary water source that is plain water just to be safe, and google omphalitis as well.

 

[Meyer_Hatchery]

Could be Omphalitis (Mushy Chick Disease.) It hits fast and will kill the chick suddenly. I'm so sorry you have to deal with that though

That's usually something that is evident within the first 1-3 days right after hatch. At 6 days old, the "belly button" should be well healed and not allow infection in.