Sudden death 7 week old

[dak]

One of my 7 week old gold-sex link pullet looked droopy when I came home today. Mostly closed eyes. It lay down on its side. I brought it in and gave it a little water (6cc) via syringe slowly which she swallowed, then 15 min, later 6cc pedialyte. It continued to lay partially on its side, shorty thereafter it died. These are my only first and only birds, that came from privett hatchery 7 weeks ago via a local feedstore. There have been no additions. None of my neighbors have chickens. They are eating purina starter. There has been no diarrhea. I put them in a pen during the day 70 deg., then into the house at night. There were no apparent wounds or trauma. No dischare at the nares.

Could this be infectious?

Any ideas?

Scared I'm gonna lose all of them. dak

 

[KKatknap]

Wow.

I have no idea. How was her weight? Is it possible she might have been crowded out of the food? Of course...at seven weeks they aren't very plump anyway, so it might be hard to tell. I'm so sorry.

 

[dak]

Her wt. was the same as the rest. The all have plenty of access to food 24/7. They also get hard boiled egg every other day. She was fine this morning. Her name was Rory. They are pets. I don't skimp.

 

[KKatknap]

I hear ya. That's heartbreaking.

I have no ideas. It seems too quick to have been any disease I know of. And she's way too young for any laying disorder. Anything in there she may have eaten that wasn't edible? I'm grabbing at straws, and you've probably thought of these things...

 

[dak]

I appreciate the help! No, the pen they were in is on clean sand in my front yard, and on straw here in the house. I clean and disinfect food and water containers daily. The remaining 16 are all asnooze of their roost as we speak. I hope this was just a fluke, and I hope my son doesn't notice one is missing. Thanks again for the support, dak

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

It's possible that she may have injured herself. Last fall I had a 5wk. old pullet(my favorite of course)flew into the coop wall and broke her neck. I was just outside the coop door when it happened. I heard a thud and she was lying in the floor screaming.

 

[dak]

It's possible. I didn't see anything externally, but it could have been internal. Not sure how. Please don't let it be infectious! dak