What killed my chick and how did this happen? *Graphic images*

[AWickedChicken]

I just walked out to feed and water the chicks and found one of our black pullets faced down and buried, literally, the chicks kicked up all of the shavings from one spot and covered her. At first I thought maybe they trampled her to death or something, she was one of the bigger ones though. They still had feed and water from last night and the heat lamp was on and they weren't crowding under it so I don't think they got cold. But when I went to scoop her out I noticed something LONG, flat, and red/purple hanging out of her butt, it literally looks like she pooped out her intestines... thats the only thing I can think of, the very bottom of it is ripped so either one of the other chicks pulled on it or it ripped coming out of something... please can somebody explain what happened or what caused this so I can prevent it from happening again?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I just walked out to feed and water the chicks and found one of our black pullets faced down and buried, literally, the chicks kicked up all of the shavings from one spot and covered her. At first I thought maybe they trampled her to death or something, she was one of the bigger ones though. They still had feed and water from last night and the heat lamp was on and they weren't crowding under it so I don't think they got cold. But when I went to scoop her out I noticed something LONG, flat, and red/purple hanging out of her butt, it literally looks like she pooped out her intestines... thats the only thing I can think of, the very bottom of it is ripped so either one of the other chicks pulled on it or it ripped coming out of something... please can somebody explain what happened or what caused this so I can prevent it from happening again?

I'm sorry for your loss.
Hopefully others will chime in.
There's no way to know for sure what happened, but I can give you my "best guess". It does look like her intestines (could be the oviduct) were pulled out - chicks pay attention to each others bums. If she had poop stuck or possibly a little bit of prolapse (swelling of the vent), another chick could have pecked and pulled and others joined in. Won't take much to pull it out.

 

[AWickedChicken]

I'm sorry for your loss.
Hopefully others will chime in.
There's no way to know for sure what happened, but I can give you my "best guess". It does look like her intestines (could be the oviduct) were pulled out - chicks pay attention to each others bums. If she had poop stuck or possibly a little bit of prolapse (swelling of the vent), another chick could have pecked and pulled and others joined in. Won't take much to pull it out.

Thank you, after talking to some other byc members earlier and looking up pictures I have learned a lot and I agree with what you said, I'm very sad about it but I can't blame the little chickies for instincts.. I didn't even know that was a chicks instinct, our first round of chicks last year we had a silkie that would peck the poop off of all the other chicks but would never hurt them and to this day she is our sweetest chicken. I wish she hadn't gone off her broody when we got the chicks or I would've put them under her as I believe she would've done an amazing job taking care of them and maybe this wouldn't've happened. But lesson learned, and from now on I'm doing extra butt checks every day. RIP Foxtrot