Unexpected Chick Death HELP

[hoeftam]

We ordered 8 baby chicks from mypetchicken.com last week. They all arrived alive and have been eating and drinking normally. We woke up this morning and our only lavender orpington was dead. She was fine the night before. She had no apparent symptoms or indication that she was dying. She appeared healthy. She was one week old today. All of my chicks were vaccinated for Mareks disease and I didn't notice any signs of coccidiosis in their stool. The other 7 chicks are acting fine, but so was this one before she died. What could be the cause?

 

[ladybrasa]

I had a sudden death last year of a chick that appeared healthy. I don’t really know for sure, but I suspect it ate the pine shavings and choked or something. There was a little piece in its bill. Then another time found I chick dead that I suspect got smothered at the bottom of a cuddle pile (had a heat plate, but all preferred piling under and next to a bouquet of feather dusters).

Unfortunately sometimes a young chick will die and we can never figure it out. Btw, too soon for Marek’s to manifest.

 

[3KillerBs]

How old are the chicks, exactly? I had an out-of-the-blue death of a 4-day-old chick last year and the best conclusion we could draw was that though she had been seen eating and drinking there was something wrong internally so that when her egg yolk ran out she just died.

 

[jessim]

I agree with lady. Only time I have had a truly unexpected chick death was due to suffocation from the other chicks or pine shavings being eaten. Pine shaving-related death we usually saw pine shavings in the beak, swollen crop. Now we put paper towel over the pine for a week to prevent shavings being eaten. For suffocation, it was more difficult to tell. There were zero signs of anything we could see. I'm a crazy chicken lady, so I found someone to do an autopsy on my chick. I was concerned about diseases. Came back clean, and the vet tech said she looked "crushed on the inside". We now use a big heat plate that sits on the floor inside the brooder. This heats the chicks from underneath instead of from above like a normal heat plate, so they don't pile up on each other. They learn very quickly that laying all spread out keeps them warm. In colder states, I don't know if this kind of heat plate would be enough for young chicks. We live in Florida, and keep our babies in the garage which stays hotter than the rest of the house anyway. If it's below 65, we move them to a cardboard box with a heating pad on high under the box and the heat plate with a blanket over half the box. The heat plate and pad only cover half the box so they have space to move if they get too hot.

 

[hoeftam]

How old are the chicks, exactly? I had an out-of-the-blue death of a 4-day-old chick last year and the best conclusion we could draw was that though she had been seen eating and drinking there was something wrong internally so that when her egg yolk ran out she just died.

The chicks are now 8 days old. The baby chick died when she was 6 days old.

 

[hoeftam]

I agree with lady. Only time I have had a truly unexpected chick death was due to suffocation from the other chicks or pine shavings being eaten. Pine shaving-related death we usually saw pine shavings in the beak, swollen crop. Now we put paper towel over the pine for a week to prevent shavings being eaten. For suffocation, it was more difficult to tell. There were zero signs of anything we could see. I'm a crazy chicken lady, so I found someone to do an autopsy on my chick. I was concerned about diseases. Came back clean, and the vet tech said she looked "crushed on the inside". We now use a big heat plate that sits on the floor inside the brooder. This heats the chicks from underneath instead of from above like a normal heat plate, so they don't pile up on each other. They learn very quickly that laying all spread out keeps them warm. In colder states, I don't know if this kind of heat plate would be enough for young chicks. We live in Florida, and keep our babies in the garage which stays hotter than the rest of the house anyway. If it's below 65, we move them to a cardboard box with a heating pad on high under the box and the heat plate with a blanket over half the box. The heat plate and pad only cover half the box so they have space to move if they get too hot.

I'm wondering if she got crushed by the other chicks. She was laying all flattened out on the bottom of the coop.

 

[3KillerBs]

The chicks are now 8 days old. The baby chick died when she was 6 days old.

That's a little late for "ran out of yolk" then.

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

@hoeftam

We got our baby chicks from mypetchicken- hatch day June 7. We had 1 that was acting a little more sleepy- we treated for cocci. She seemed to be fine- acting normal, running and jumping around like the others, then VERY SUDDENLY she declined quickly on Friday night. She started sneezing and had mucus in her nares and mouth, and started open mouth breathing. We took her to the emergency vet that night (why do they only get sick on the weekends, very expensive!) and they suspected something bacterial (or viral, but none of the other chicks had it and they had been together for almost 2 weeks), and they put her in the oxygen incubator for a few hours and gave her an antibiotic shot, anti-inflammation shot, and sub q fluids. We took her home that night because we didn't want her to be alone but she did NOT look good. She kept screaming until we put her back with the others. They sent us home with Tylosin to give just her and suggested separating her, but it was very difficult - we watered them separately but she wanted to be with them at night. The next morning (Saturday morning) she refused food and water and started open mouth breathing and we were so sure she was going to die. We brought her back to the emergency room, they put her back in oxygen but they took her out after an hour because they said she wasn't dependent on it. They gave her 2 gavage tube feedings and 2 more sub q fluid doses, and by 4pm she was ready to go home. She was good as new I couldn't believe it. Hopefully things continue to improve, but by Sunday, you'd have had NO IDEA this chick was on the brink of death.

I know this won't help you now that your little one has passed- but maybe if you see any of those symptoms you can do something ASAP- the one that was really alarming was the open mouth breathing. Unfortunately this all happened in the span of a couple of hours- if we weren't there to see it she surely would have passed quickly. I really didn't think I was going to see her again when we brought her to be hospitalized.

 

[hoeftam]

Wow! So glad she is ok now! Mypetchicken offered to replace my lost baby bird...but we'd need to order 4 birds and we can't order they many extra birds. Boo!

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

Wow! So glad she is ok now! Mypetchicken offered to replace my lost baby bird...but we'd need to order 4 birds and we can't order they many extra birds. Boo!

Yeah :/