Sudden Ringneck Pheasant chick death- need help finding cause

[burgerpants]

Hello BYC, I am in need of help with finding out the cause of death of one of my four ringneck pheasant chicks, which passed on this morning. I last saw it alive around 6:00-6:30 am this morning, looking and acting just fine. I then slept for about another three hours and woke up to see a chick on its side, dead and already stiff. The chicks are probably a few days old, the dead one has its eyes partially open and its legs are extended away from its body; if it were picked up by the neck the legs would be pointing towards the ground.

I would really appreciate it if someone had any information on possible cause of death. I keep them in a pen under a heat lamp and the chicks are not gathering under the lamp all the time or trying to get away from it all the time, so I don't think the death was due to temperature extremes. I have checked the first couple pages of pheasant-related threads and found nothing. I would like to determine cause of death ASAP becausef if it was a disease, the other chicks may be in danger and I may have to take them to a vet. Also please let me know if I need to give more info or clarify anything, if that would help anyone figure out what happened to it. Thanks everyone

 

[burgerpants]

EDIT: It seems I have made a mistake describing the body. When looking at it, the body appeared to be stiff; however, upon closer examination, the body seems to not be completely stiff yet.

 

[Tony K T]

Is it possible it jumped and hit his/her head on the top of the brooder,and broke it's neck?
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[007Sean]

Sorry for your loss. Was the chick under the heat lamp when you found it? The reason i ask, is because i've had chicks that would lay directly under the lamp and not move, then it was too late and got heat stroke. I 've saved 2 this season already from them laying there until heat stroke set in. It's kinda rare but does happen.