What went wrong?

[KatWonderlands]

Guten Tag I'm in my first year of raising chickens. This spring we raised and rescued 6 chickens, but over 4 weeks ago I bought chicks from a local chicken breeder, 3 polish and 3 silkies. We had a cold front their first week so they stayed inside in a black stock tank bin with straw, heat lamp, thermometer, chick starter, and waterer.
3 silkies died first week one by one, the frizzle polish next week. All showed no signs of being weak or sick. I tried to save 2 when I found them lethargic the next mornings with electrolytes but within an hour they each slowly passed.
After the 3 silkies passed I moved the brooder to another room, I got 10 more chicks of various breeds week or so age differences, from the same woman. One by one died every other day. Few started to slow down, then sneezing and wheezing. I used Vetrx any chick showing signs to try help them without antibiotics. They've had acv once, probitoics and electrolytes seperate times. 4 are left, including 1 of the original 6. What could of happened?

 

[Folly's place]

How sad! Please don't get any more birds until you know what happened; sounds like an illness, if your brooder was set up comfortably for them.
Get necropsies done!!! Your state veterinary school, or path lab, or somewhere where testing can give you a diagnosis. This is not a good story, and you need answers!
All the best, Mary

 

[junebuggena]

Too much heat can kill just as easily as too little heat. The brooder needs to be big enough to allow the heat from the lamp to dissipate. Only the area underneath the heat lamp should be at your target temp, and the rest of the brooder should be about room temp so that chicks can escape the heat when needed.

 

[KatWonderlands]

The first 3 might of gotten too much heat. My other guess was my small bag of chick starter in a gallon zip lock from the nearest feed store might of been bad since it was their last batch. No pasty butts just gritty wet poo looked like it went right thru them, switched to medicated since then as well. The remaining 4 are acting lively and normal, and my adult chickens are healthy. This is the current brooder box but the heat lamp is placed accordingly to get the right amount of heat. My remaining chicks.

 

[azygous]

My guess is bad feed, moldy probably, or contaminated water. When that many chicks die, I would suspect a toxin.

What sort of bedding have you been using? Moldy straw or cedar shavings could cause the sort of symptoms you describe.

The last possibility is you've imported an avian virus, perhaps a CRD, into your little flock from the source where you've been purchasing your chicks. Her chickens may be resistant, show no symptoms, yet carry the disease. Any chicks coming from her flock would be infected with the virus. You would do well to have a chat with her.

Meanwhile, a necropsy on a dead chick will tell you what killed these chicks, and we can stop guessing.

 

[AllynTal]

This is just an observation: I see gaps between the boards in the pictures in which you're holding the chicks. Make sure that brooder is free of drafts. (Plenty of ventilation, but no drafts.) I'm not suggesting that is part of the problem; it's just an observation for overall chick health. Also, if you haven't investigated using a heating pad instead of the heat lamp, that might be something worth looking into. I think heating lamps have killed more chicks than any other single cause.

 

[junebuggena]

That brooder does look too drafty, and doesn't look like the heat lamp is near enough to provide the needed 95* for day olds. I notice how they are all huddled up as close to lamp as possible, which is indicating that those chicks are too cold.

 

[KatWonderlands]

All the bodies have been disposed of and I havent had another die for over a week. Hopefully a heater pad is one of my Christmas gifts, I've looked into them just can't afford now. I'm in FL. The heat lamp gets moved for right temperature via thermometer reading during the day and I have another that isn't pictured either I added for colder nights, this picture was right after placing them in there. They had straw to begin changed every other day, mainly pine shavings now pretty thick layer changed the same.
But I suppose I need a necropsy to really find out what happened.
Thanks