I had an 11/12 week old robust and fiery black Ameraucana chick that suddenly died this morning. This was my first loss and I wanted to do a necropsy however my vet charges $300 so that's just not happening. So here's the low down on the series of events that lead up to her death:
She was in a flock of 7 other chicks. 5 of them are 7 weeks and she was in a group of 3 that are 11/12 weeks old. Everyone had been out in their sand run together all day for 2 weeks. I was overdue on putting the chicks out in the coop full time because it just was not finished.
This past Wednesday night (2 days ago) it was warm enough (low of 53 at night) and the coop was finished so I put them all in at night together. I checked on them before bed and all was well, they weren't roosting but they were all huddled together and looked fine.
I opened the door early Thursday morning before work and had someone come check to make sure they left the coop and went into their run around 11:00am. To my surprise everyone let themselves out. When I got home at 3:00pm I knew something was wrong with one of them.
She was slumped over standing, wings and tail low and lightly panting. Everyone else was pecking and scratching away Happy as clams. The high that day was 73.
So I took her inside my house (noticing she felt very skinny and remembering I would have noticed if she felt thin when lifting her into the coop the night prior) tried to feed her scrambled eggs, regular water and sugar water with a soaked qtip and she refused. She LOVED scrambled eggs prior so I know she wasn't feeling well. I had hoped a night indoors quiet and safe would do the trick but this morning she was worse. I tried again with the water and this time tuna another favorite of hers and she wouldn't touch it.
I tried putting her out in the run with friends keeping her insider her bin, hoping seeing them would perk her up and thinking maybe bringing her inside was a bad idea and scared her more.
After an hour I brought her back into the garage and put her in her old brooder to rest. I went and checked on her an hour later and she was dead. Looked like she kicked out at the last minute because all the shavings were pushed away.
What do you guys think happened? I'm so bummed out. All that time, effort, energy not to mention getting attached and now I have nothing to show for it. I just hope she wasn't sick. She did poop neon green poops, sign of not eating.
I should mention, I checked for parasites and she was clean, also I highly doubt it was worms since she wasn't on grass only construction sand from Home Depot. She did have minimal grass clippings.
I feel she was traumatized from the change of living in the coop? I feel silly saying that but is that possible? She looked to me very scared like she had suffered from some sort of trauma.
Any thoughts?
She was in a flock of 7 other chicks. 5 of them are 7 weeks and she was in a group of 3 that are 11/12 weeks old. Everyone had been out in their sand run together all day for 2 weeks. I was overdue on putting the chicks out in the coop full time because it just was not finished.
This past Wednesday night (2 days ago) it was warm enough (low of 53 at night) and the coop was finished so I put them all in at night together. I checked on them before bed and all was well, they weren't roosting but they were all huddled together and looked fine.
I opened the door early Thursday morning before work and had someone come check to make sure they left the coop and went into their run around 11:00am. To my surprise everyone let themselves out. When I got home at 3:00pm I knew something was wrong with one of them.
She was slumped over standing, wings and tail low and lightly panting. Everyone else was pecking and scratching away Happy as clams. The high that day was 73.
So I took her inside my house (noticing she felt very skinny and remembering I would have noticed if she felt thin when lifting her into the coop the night prior) tried to feed her scrambled eggs, regular water and sugar water with a soaked qtip and she refused. She LOVED scrambled eggs prior so I know she wasn't feeling well. I had hoped a night indoors quiet and safe would do the trick but this morning she was worse. I tried again with the water and this time tuna another favorite of hers and she wouldn't touch it.
I tried putting her out in the run with friends keeping her insider her bin, hoping seeing them would perk her up and thinking maybe bringing her inside was a bad idea and scared her more.
After an hour I brought her back into the garage and put her in her old brooder to rest. I went and checked on her an hour later and she was dead. Looked like she kicked out at the last minute because all the shavings were pushed away.
What do you guys think happened? I'm so bummed out. All that time, effort, energy not to mention getting attached and now I have nothing to show for it. I just hope she wasn't sick. She did poop neon green poops, sign of not eating.
I should mention, I checked for parasites and she was clean, also I highly doubt it was worms since she wasn't on grass only construction sand from Home Depot. She did have minimal grass clippings.
I feel she was traumatized from the change of living in the coop? I feel silly saying that but is that possible? She looked to me very scared like she had suffered from some sort of trauma.
Any thoughts?
