Sudden Illness in Chick.

[LibbyR]

I checked on all my 6 day old chicks and left for a few hours. They had their medicated food, water, and the heat was between 90-100. Came home and found one chick laying face down with one eye shut. Have him some nutri drench carefully but I’m thinking he will not make it. Could he have gotten too hot? Choked on a shaving? Got trampled by his rambunctious siblings? They were seriously all running around fine earlier. All the others (I have 16 including the sick one) are fine. These are my meatbirds for a 4-H project that I cannot reorder because everyone has bought all the chicks so I want to know what might be wrong. I lost one two days ago but he had failed to thrive since the beginning and had pasty butt terrible so I’m thinking these are unrelated. I did switch feed brands because I couldn’t find any of the same medicated feed but didn’t think that would matter.

 

[Eggscaping]

What's your heat method...is it a heat lamp? 90 is good, 100 is too hot! Get a chick heating plate where they can run underneath like they would a mama hen, and run out again when they want to cool off. The one time we tried a heat lamp, I found two of them lying in the shavings NOT directly underneath...they'd gotten too hot and just collapsed...couldn't even move to get away from the lamp. That's when we said 'No more heat lamps'.

 

[LibbyR]

What's your heat method...is it a heat lamp? 90 is good, 100 is too hot! Get a chick heating plate where they can run underneath like they would a mama hen, and run out again when they want to cool off. The one time we tried a heat lamp, I found two of them lying in the shavings NOT directly underneath...they'd gotten too hot and just collapsed...couldn't even move to get away from the lamp. That's when we said 'No more heat lamps'.

Heat Lamp. Can’t use a heat plate. It just gets too cold here in May and I raise in a shed outside. I am going to raise the lamp. They have room to get away to cooler space so it shouldn’t be all caused by heat.

 

[LibbyR]

Heat Lamp. Can’t use a heat plate. It just gets too cold here in May and I raise in a shed outside. I am going to raise the lamp. They have room to get away to cooler space so it shouldn’t be all caused by heat.

On further examination it looks like it is wry neck. The chick has a crooked bent neck. So can wry neck happen suddenly or is it a result of injury is my next question.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I checked on all my 6 day old chicks and left for a few hours. They had their medicated food, water, and the heat was between 90-100. Came home and found one chick laying face down with one eye shut. Have him some nutri drench carefully but I’m thinking he will not make it. Could he have gotten too hot? Choked on a shaving? Got trampled by his rambunctious siblings? They were seriously all running around fine earlier. All the others (I have 16 including the sick one) are fine. These are my meatbirds for a 4-H project that I cannot reorder because everyone has bought all the chicks so I want to know what might be wrong. I lost one two days ago but he had failed to thrive since the beginning and had pasty butt terrible so I’m thinking these are unrelated. I did switch feed brands because I couldn’t find any of the same medicated feed but didn’t think that would matter.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Yes, sounds like it is way too hot! Try lowering the heat to about 90°

 

[bluemtnwmn]

On further examination it looks like it is wry neck. The chick has a crooked bent neck. So can wry neck happen suddenly or is it a result of injury is my next question.

Sorry, I don't know much about this condition but here's an article on this site.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/wry-neck-causes-treatment-and-prevention.67732/

 

[LibbyR]

Yes, sounds like it is way too hot! Try lowering the heat to about 90°

I raised the lamp earlier today. ya sitting at about 95. And they’re all falling asleep underneath and calm so I’m thinking I hit the sweet spot. The chick passed. It definetly was either trampled or had wry neck as it’s head would arch back. I tried giving him nutridrench drop by drop but no matter how careful I was I think he aspirated. I’ll be keeping an eye on the rest but they all seemed good with normal poos and eating.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I raised the lamp earlier today. ya sitting at about 95. And they’re all falling asleep underneath and calm so I’m thinking I hit the sweet spot. The chick passed. It definetly was either trampled or had wry neck as it’s head would arch back. I tried giving him nutridrench drop by drop but no matter how careful I was I think he aspirated. I’ll be keeping an eye on the rest but they all seemed good with normal poos and eating.

That’s good, it’s always hard to lose a baby chick, really emotional and heartbreaking! Hope you are doing OK, sorry about your loss and good luck with all your little ones! Remember to lower the temperature 5° every week. Looking forward to seeing some photos of your little ones

 

[LibbyR]

That’s good, it’s always hard to lose a baby chick, really emotional and heartbreaking! Hope you are doing OK, sorry about your loss and good luck with all your little ones! Remember to lower the temperature 5° every week. Looking forward to seeing some photos of your little ones

One is not too terrible for me. I lost 10 between two hatches last year. Never was able to find out why. Which is why I’m trying to figure it out to prevent that from happening. They’re meat chicks so they only are cute for 3-4 weeks then the ugly sets in. And yes the temps change. I just don’t ever know with our weather here. It was wonderful and sunny when I got the babies but then the next day it got down to 29. So I’ve been raising and lowering often.