Hello BYC Friends: I have not posted in a long time and usually just read the great information on this wonderful site. However, I really need your help today and hope you can give me some suggestions.
My chicken background is that almost seven years ago now I bought two 8-week old chicks. They grew wonderfully and I was officially hooked on chickens. I kept only those two, Gertie and Scarlett. Scarlett died last January from cancer. Gertie, thank Goodness, is still alive and well. She is almost seven years old.
I write this b/c I want you to know that this is not my first foray in to chickens and I think I have been a good chicken mama so far.
This summer I built a larger coop with the dream of getting another six or so chicks. My dream came true and on New Years Day I adopted seven chicks, various breeds. The man I got them from told me they were approx. five weeks old and could come out of the brooder.
I brought them home to a coop with the following. Cinder block construction (I had a ton of extra block from another project) with shingled roof and an enclosed run. I used clean, course construction sand to cover the concrete floor of the coop. I set up a chick feeder with medicated chick starter and also a nipple drinker which they all learned to use immediately. I also set up a shallow box filled with alfalfa hay for them to snuggle in at night. On nights when the temp drops below 60 F, I have brought them in to the house to sleep in a makeshift brooder since they are still so young and pin feathers still coming. This week I have allowed them to stay out there even if it's in the 50s b/c I have a radiant heater that brings up the temp around 10 F, so they are never below 60 F.
During the day they love to run around in their coop. They have discovered the joys of scratching around and taking dust baths. Grass is the primary green in the run but there are also a variety of weeds (some I know, some I do not know), including dollarweed and etc. I resisted the urge to pull out unknown weeds b/c most of what I read says that we should not create a sterile environment for chickens. They generally know what is safe to eat and they like variety. So, I have not gone through to identify specifically what is growing in there.
Around five days after I brought them home, my reddish/golden chick was lethargic, standing around, fluffed out, not eating, not interested in moving, and had really smelly poop - like rotten eggs. I separated her from the rest and tried to by some Corid 9.6% at Tractor Supply, suspecting that perhaps she had coccidiosis. Tractor Supply was out and I could not find it anywhere. I ordered it next-day-delivery from Amazon. But by the time it arrived the next day she had died. I buried her without knowing what killed her.
The other chicks seemed fine and unaffected. As a precaution, I added the Corid to all of their drinking water to treat them all for 7-9 days.
All seemed well. In fact, last night I was sitting out in the coop and one of the chicks (Beatrice) flew up from the ground to my lap. she wanted to be held and play in my hair. She sat on my shoulder and seemed happy as can be. I thought, Beatrice is going to be my lap chicken as she grows up. So affectionate!! She showed no obvious signs of illness or lethargy and I left for the night to let them all sleep. I went out to the coop around 1 AM and did not turn on the lights. They were all huddled in a corner in the coop snuggling. The temp inside the coop was 54 F so I turned on a radiant heater to keep the chill out of the air. This will usually bring the temp up to around 64 F. Nobody was standing around by herself at that time.
This morning around 8 AM, I went out to the coop and discovered Beatrice standing by herself with feathers fluffed and eyes closed. I picked her up and immediately felt that her crop was full and her abdomen was hard and distended. I brought her inside and tried a warm water bath, massaging her belly, massaged her crop, and tried to vacuum out a blockage using a syringe from her vent. I noted some yellow, pasty poo below her vent. I was able to extract some yellow pasty substance from her vent, as well as some blood, but did not know if the blood was from the aggravation of the suction. She did not go to the bathroom. I tried giving her water with some unadulterated cider vinegar. Nothing. She would not drink and could hardly stand. In less than one hour she convulsed and died in my hands.
Can anybody tell me what is going wrong here. I do not feel that the first chick and this chick died of the same thing. I feel that something caused this chick's body to stop digesting and excreting. I do not know if this is a parasite, whether she ate something that was poisonous, or etc. At this time the other chicks look okay.
Do you recommend that I take her for a necropsy?
Also, is there anything I am doing that seems wrong or ill-filled for chicks of this age, which I assume are now around 7 weeks old.
Any feedback, comments, constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Please give me your thoughts. Thanks for reading this LONG feed and for your consideration. I really want to help my remaining chicks to survive and thrive.
My chicken background is that almost seven years ago now I bought two 8-week old chicks. They grew wonderfully and I was officially hooked on chickens. I kept only those two, Gertie and Scarlett. Scarlett died last January from cancer. Gertie, thank Goodness, is still alive and well. She is almost seven years old.
I write this b/c I want you to know that this is not my first foray in to chickens and I think I have been a good chicken mama so far.
This summer I built a larger coop with the dream of getting another six or so chicks. My dream came true and on New Years Day I adopted seven chicks, various breeds. The man I got them from told me they were approx. five weeks old and could come out of the brooder.
I brought them home to a coop with the following. Cinder block construction (I had a ton of extra block from another project) with shingled roof and an enclosed run. I used clean, course construction sand to cover the concrete floor of the coop. I set up a chick feeder with medicated chick starter and also a nipple drinker which they all learned to use immediately. I also set up a shallow box filled with alfalfa hay for them to snuggle in at night. On nights when the temp drops below 60 F, I have brought them in to the house to sleep in a makeshift brooder since they are still so young and pin feathers still coming. This week I have allowed them to stay out there even if it's in the 50s b/c I have a radiant heater that brings up the temp around 10 F, so they are never below 60 F.
During the day they love to run around in their coop. They have discovered the joys of scratching around and taking dust baths. Grass is the primary green in the run but there are also a variety of weeds (some I know, some I do not know), including dollarweed and etc. I resisted the urge to pull out unknown weeds b/c most of what I read says that we should not create a sterile environment for chickens. They generally know what is safe to eat and they like variety. So, I have not gone through to identify specifically what is growing in there.
Around five days after I brought them home, my reddish/golden chick was lethargic, standing around, fluffed out, not eating, not interested in moving, and had really smelly poop - like rotten eggs. I separated her from the rest and tried to by some Corid 9.6% at Tractor Supply, suspecting that perhaps she had coccidiosis. Tractor Supply was out and I could not find it anywhere. I ordered it next-day-delivery from Amazon. But by the time it arrived the next day she had died. I buried her without knowing what killed her.
The other chicks seemed fine and unaffected. As a precaution, I added the Corid to all of their drinking water to treat them all for 7-9 days.
All seemed well. In fact, last night I was sitting out in the coop and one of the chicks (Beatrice) flew up from the ground to my lap. she wanted to be held and play in my hair. She sat on my shoulder and seemed happy as can be. I thought, Beatrice is going to be my lap chicken as she grows up. So affectionate!! She showed no obvious signs of illness or lethargy and I left for the night to let them all sleep. I went out to the coop around 1 AM and did not turn on the lights. They were all huddled in a corner in the coop snuggling. The temp inside the coop was 54 F so I turned on a radiant heater to keep the chill out of the air. This will usually bring the temp up to around 64 F. Nobody was standing around by herself at that time.
This morning around 8 AM, I went out to the coop and discovered Beatrice standing by herself with feathers fluffed and eyes closed. I picked her up and immediately felt that her crop was full and her abdomen was hard and distended. I brought her inside and tried a warm water bath, massaging her belly, massaged her crop, and tried to vacuum out a blockage using a syringe from her vent. I noted some yellow, pasty poo below her vent. I was able to extract some yellow pasty substance from her vent, as well as some blood, but did not know if the blood was from the aggravation of the suction. She did not go to the bathroom. I tried giving her water with some unadulterated cider vinegar. Nothing. She would not drink and could hardly stand. In less than one hour she convulsed and died in my hands.
Can anybody tell me what is going wrong here. I do not feel that the first chick and this chick died of the same thing. I feel that something caused this chick's body to stop digesting and excreting. I do not know if this is a parasite, whether she ate something that was poisonous, or etc. At this time the other chicks look okay.
Do you recommend that I take her for a necropsy?
Also, is there anything I am doing that seems wrong or ill-filled for chicks of this age, which I assume are now around 7 weeks old.
Any feedback, comments, constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Please give me your thoughts. Thanks for reading this LONG feed and for your consideration. I really want to help my remaining chicks to survive and thrive.
