When they die....

[Anime2lover]

Unfortunately it is bound to happen. My recent hatch ended up with the deaths of two chicks and one duckling. It isnt easy at all, sometimes there is simply nothing you can do but try. I cried when I had to put my little duckling out of its misery.

And I simply buried all three of them.

 

[Sarjeanp]

I wish this site had the "love", "sad", "mad" etc. buttons like that black hole called FB.

 

[kristi54]

I wish this site had the "love", "sad", "mad" etc. buttons like that black hole called FB.

I'm Cry-Laughing at that remark!! Indeed the blackpithole of FB. It really is, isn't it.
I used to say "Satan's Bed aka Facebook" when I was on the site. HAHAHA!

 

[SueT]

Um, back to your chicks' situation....how many chicks are there, in how much space, and what do you call 'just right' for the temp? Maybe we can help figure out if there's anything that may have caused/prevented it?

 

[Sarjeanp]

It is 92 under the lamp, and 80 on the opposite end. They are all walking around freely, not acting too hot or cold. It is the largest plastic tub that was at Walmart. They definitely aren't squished. I can't figure it out. I go back to what I have read on here about chicks having an internal yolk that will only sustain them for so long. I need to do more research on that, but nothing else makes sense. Since they were from the same batch, doesn't that kind of add up?

 

[BantyChooks]

I start out with the mindset that nothing is immortal. One day, bar something happening to me, I am going to find the dead body of every single animal I now own. It's just a matter of whether it happens now or later. Being sad about it serves no function.

I raise some birds for meat, so I guess I have a tougher skin than a bunch of people. I was pretty wound up the first few times I had to butcher, but once I was over my fear of doing it wrong I could do it calmly. It doesn't really affect me now, though I get looked at like I'm crazy if I say that so I generally keep that bit to myself and play "sad". I'd like to say that I am not flippant about their lives in any way. It is my responsibility to care for them and give them the best lives possible. Cruelty to an animal is despicable. When my flock management practices put birds on the chop list... I do the deed gently, with awareness as to what I'm doing, and use their bodies as food for myself so they have not gone to waste. My empathy just seems to come more from a moral code rather than fully from wherever everyone else is getting it.

I did, however, cry when I had to put down Chrissy, my favourite duck, a few years back. She was injured and I really thought she was going to pull through so it came as a bit of a shock. She got worse after another accident that broke her leg in a way I tried and failed to set, and well, I'm not cruel enough to have let her die slowly and in pain. I still felt like a dirty traitor because I'd promised her I would pull her through... sending her to get a bullet put in her head was tough. Kept thinking that maybe she'd get better if I waited a little longer, though I knew logically it wasn't true, she'd been going downhill for well over a month. Sudden losses don't have tough decisions to make, but they're not fun either. I usually dispose of dead birds by tossing them in the woods somewhere. They're usually cleaned up in a week as long as I put them on a certain side of the property. I've buried a few too, though that's only feasible in summer and even then the rocks and roots make it hard work.

Some people just plain can't compartmentalize the same way others can. Others can learn to. Hard to give advice to someone else on that front when it's such a personal variable. Hopefully you come up with something that works for you.

The kids here aren't really attached to the birds so I have no advice there. I lost plenty of my own pets (not chickens, but rabbits, etc) back when I was their age, but I was an odd child, so advice that would have worked for me would likely not apply to them.

Also, two chicks dying in so short a time sounds iffy. Hopefully they don't continue to do so.

 

[Shadrach]

First let me start with, please do not let this thread turn dramatic. Respect your fellow member. Like Momma always said, "If you don't have anything nice to say...."

I am just so curious, because I feel like I/my family are the exception, not the norm. We started with 11 chicks a little over 1 week ago, and 2 of them have passed. It hurt us. Us, as in me and my youngest son. The first chick got super still on Tuesday night. There was no apparent injury or illness with her, she was just weak. I dipped her beak in vitamin & electrolyte water, and she did take a couple sips on her own. By morning, she was gone. The next afternoon, her sister (got both at Tractor Supply-California Whites) started acting the same way. I literally went from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. holding her, stimulating her, giving her brown sugar sticky water, vitamins, electrolytes, egg.. etc. I swear, she died in my hands like 20 times but I told her to hang on and kept jolting her and she "came back". I was SHOCKED to see her still standing and alive the next morning. On my way home from work, I grabbed VetRx, Corrid, and Amox. but she was gone when I arrived. Don't laugh... I gave her chest compressions for 30 minutes, hoping to "bring her back" yet again. Anyway, my my boys and I buried them and my 12 year old put flowers and a little head stone and even wanted to do a moment of silence for them, as he cried. Oh my gosh, how are we going to do this?! I KNOW they will all die, chickens die. We seriously need to get thicker skin. I have gone through animal deaths before, we have a pet cemetery on our property here basically. We have a designated area for when this happens again with "the girls". So after all of that rambling...for the ones who don't eat the chickens, what do you do and how do your kids respond?

Don't get a thicker skin; learn to cry, but most importantly, know you are crying for your loss, not their death.

 

[Tortoise]

It is 92 under the lamp, and 80 on the opposite end. They are all walking around freely, not acting too hot or cold. It is the largest plastic tub that was at Walmart. They definitely aren't squished. I can't figure it out. I go back to what I have read on here about chicks having an internal yolk that will only sustain them for so long. I need to do more research on that, but nothing else makes sense. Since they were from the same batch, doesn't that kind of add up?

I'm very new to learning and dont have my chicks yet. Your last statement
about the internal yolk sustaining them for so long? Are you not feeding them? How about available water? My understanding is once they go into a brooder they need food and water. I may be wrong, but I have food and water feeders set to work for my very young chicks when i get them. A day or 2 old.

 

[Sarjeanp]

I'm very new to learning and dont have my chicks yet. Your last statement
about the internal yolk sustaining them for so long? Are you not feeding them? How about available water? My understanding is once they go into a brooder they need food and water. I may be wrong, but I have food and water feeders set to work for my very young chicks when i get them. A day or 2 old.

Oh no, I am definitely feeding and watering them, I just remember hearing something about this additional life line that they have internally for the first week or so.

 

[Mrs. K]

Failure to thrive is most likely what happened. I think more than likely a genetic mistake.

I have found that kids follow your lead, so how you handle it they will follow.

We are of the group, dang it... circle of life, not so much of the guilt, I did something wrong. I do sometimes think chickens are not for people with great sensibility as chickens do die rather easily, and generally do not live for years.