why are they dying?

[EggsForIHOP]

So...it's not really an emergency at this point..but I suppose it could become one...

The 411 is this:

shipment of 50 chicks
feeding medicated start and grow by purina
also feeding that to 20 other SEPARATELY KEPT chicks - healthy I may add
1 arrived dead (came on Wednesday)
7 more dropped dead the next night sometime
doing everything for the new chicks as sanitary as possible (i.e. not contact with other prior to feeding them, etc)
1 more yesterday found just laying there, seemed to be struggling to breath, but no discharge from nose, died in the night (had moved it
to it's own warm spot away from EVERYONE)
1 more today not looking so hot - just lays there, legs in a normal position, except when you pick it up, it doesn't move them at all - even the wings are just kinda kicked out to the sides immobile - this one however is still peeping, can't decide whether to cull or leave it be


What is causing this? Why are they just going limp and paralyzed? I tried searching and kept coming up with spraddle leg - but that doesn't really fit the symptoms...any ideas? DH is heart broken, and I have no answer for him...

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Are they too hot? Holding their wings out away from their bodies is a sign of being too hot.

 

[NoseyChickens]

the first time i got chicks I had the same thing happen. they just kept dying at the drop of a hat. The next time I got them I got a pack of vitamin?electolite powder from the feed store and added it to the water (tiny bit goes a long way) and I didn't lose a single chick. I still have no idea what went wrong that first time or if the vitamins make that much of a difference, but I will always add it from now on.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

all the others seem to be doing fine - moving around, eating, drinking, etc...it's hovering between 95 under the light and 80 on the far side of the brooder - idk....just hoping it's not some disease I haven't heard of yet. Only had one pasty butt in the whole crowd and that ones doing great now...just at a loss as to why so many losses in this one group

 

[ShaggysGirl]

Be sure they can move away from the heat and are not over crowded. I'd get some organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar and add 2 tablespoons in a gallon of water. I keep the red brooder light at one end and the food and water on the other.
Are they all spread out? If they are they may be to hot.
My youngest are 3 and 1/2 weeks old being raised by a hen and she had them out last week in the rain and it was only in the high 50's. Last night she had them some how up on the highest roost, so they can be pretty durable

 

[sourland]

Sounds like shipping stress nothing you have done wrong. Hopefully they have turned the corner and are OK today.