I had a 10wk old Light Brahma chick who was off heat for a few days in my garage and doing just fine. Last night she was acting normal but this morning when I went to check on her and her buddy she had her eyes closed, would barely move, and acting dead. I swooped her up, heated her up and was forcing her to drink some lightly warmed water with Sav-a-chick powder in it. She lasted a few hours and was starting to perk up a bit and then all the sudden passed. what happened? What did I do wrong? It got really cold last night but she had been off heat for a few days and she had a 12wk giant cochin in the brooder with her if she needed to cuddle up with someone. I dont want to ever own chicks again because I am worried something like this would happen again
Sometimes they die for no reason that you know, and most times it's beyond your control. Sad but true. I take their deaths hard too.
This has happened to a chick or two of mine before too...usually a day or two after the heat has been taken away, but the rest of the chicks will be fine. I just explained it the same way as seminolewind did...sometimes they just die. Sorry this happened It makes me sad to lose a chick or a chicken too!
When Snowball passed away today she left a brooder mate who is a giant black cochin alone in her brooder so after inspecting the poo in the brooder, inspecting snowball closely for signs of disease which there was none, and inspecting the giant cochin, I made the decision to put her in the coop with the 19 other chickens. Some are small/young and most are older girls. They excepted her well. No pecking, fighting or issues. I didnt think this would happen because my older girls were in quite a mood today and fighting with each other. I just checked on them and Stormy the black cochin was nestled in with the older girls and cuddled up with my other silver laced cochin Prada. That made the day easier now knowing she will be warm tonight. I find it odd that there are 2 groups in the coop. The original pack of 14 and the newer pack of outcasts lol. Stormy was accepted into the original pack while the outcasts have accepted the 2 roos that went out a few days earlier. My pecking order looks like this Original Pack GIANT BLRW who is 28 weeks as top chicken 12 girls who are 16 weeks old New GIANT black cochin 10ish weeks Outcast Pack D'Uccel who is the mama 2 blrw kids 12 weeks 12 week frizzle 2 10 week EE roo's I just think its odd but its like a click in school
I think their food intake increases significantly when its cold and the chick still has a lot of growing to do. If there is something a little off in their digestive tract/crop it will appear at this point. It suddenly got cold here and my chicks more than doubled what they had been eating and are peeping angrily for their breakfast and really insist on a lot of extra calories.
i'm sry i was at my army reserves last week and my fiance had on of my wk old chicks die. It was a runt and almost dead on the day i got it but i helped it get better but it happens.
