Woke up this morning.. All goslings dead..

[Puddle Foot Farm]

We don't have AC in that room.. It's the room we keep the chickens in too and it's unfinished, so it's always warm in there. With the light on, it gets REALLY hot in there. I'll try to figure something out.. Wouldn't hypothermia take longer to kill? They were fine last night. Perfectly fine.

 

[ruth]

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Just a few weeks ago I had a brooder of baby chicks in my bathroom and though it is really hot here (99+) I still had a light on them at night. They were about a week old. They were fine around midnight when I checked on them but the towel on brooder floor, around waterer was wet so I changed it and went to bed (didn't realize waterer had a leak or wasn't level). Next morning around 7 a.m. they were all spread out, soaking wet, either dead or dying. Apparently the power had gone out during the night for just a few hours and the chicks panicked and ran all in the waterer which caused it to really leak and spill and they got soaked and died of hypothermia. Fortunately, I was able to revive almost all of them with a hairdryer. I had learned from the first episode, when it happened with the ducklings in the brooder, that if they weren't stiff they were probably still alive and could be revived eventhough they showed no sign of life, no movement, no breathing, and looking like they had been drowned. It was hard to believe they could have died of "cold" when the bathroom had to be 80 degrees all by itself. It got so hot in there during the day that I would turn the light out and just turn it on at night. It's the getting wet part that kills them, not so much the temp. Baby goslings and ducklings can't stay out of the water so a heat lamp is needed to help dry them off - they have no mama to get under when they get wet and chilled.

 

[Puddle Foot Farm]

Only one of them was wet. That one was stiff, and the other two were dry.. They were dead though.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I'm so sorry you lost them but I'm pretty sure it had to be that they got chilled. They may have dried before you found them. There's not a whole lot of other explanations for sudden death, all at same time, of three baby goslings. At one week old, they need a light if they are inside at night. If the room gets too hot try using a lower wattage bulb - even a 60 watt light bulb would work - just something they can get under if they get cold.

 

[Puddle Foot Farm]

Update from my mom on the state of the goslings when she found them.. The stiff one was the only one wet, and it was like "someone licked her". Not soaked. The other two were in sleeping positions together on the other side of the brooder, not stiff, but dead. I'm pretty sure it was a poison.. Maybe mould from their hay which was in our garage. I really don't think they got chilled.. They've been without light for a while since it's so warm in there all the time. They have a milk jug waterer, so it'd be very unlikely (in my mind) for them to all get that wet. They can just get their heads in.

I dunno.. We're having a 5 hr (each way) road trip on Friday probably to go get some goslings.

 

[ruth]

Maybe if you gave us a recap we could figure it out. You said they stay inside but you said they were grazing at your organic store and swimming and drinking a lot of chlorinated water. Try and detail exactly what they were doing before you put them to bed. Were they freeranging? Also, what type of food(s) are they eating? What type of bedding? I don't believe it has anything to do with chlorinated water - all of our (everyone's) birds drink chlorinated water. You said they were only one week old but you also said they had been without a light for a while. You live in Maryland - it can't possibly be that hot in an "unfinished" room of your home. I checked Maryland temps and while most of Maryland is 80s by day the temps drop to low 60s at night. They need 90 degrees (consistently) and a lamp to get under.

Try and describe the final day as best you can. It would be good to figure it out before you come home with the other baby goslings. I still think they got chilled. You said two were on top of each other. They wouldn't have to get wet to get chilled. Have you tried setting up a thermometer in the room and check the temps at night? I would. In my brooder bathroom it gets really hot during the day when the sun is pouring through the window and the heat is coming in from outside (our home is 100 years old and also uninsulated). But at night, the room is too cold for the chicks so I have to turn on the light. Off by day cause it's an Easy Bake Oven in there, on by night cause it's suddenly a fridge.

We really want to help you but need more information.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I highly doubt that it was from the chlorinated water. I have always brought my ducks and goslings into the pool which has chlorinated water, and I have never lost one. Im guessing that they were too cold.

 

[rufus]

Was there a water heater or furnace near them? Sounds like carbon monoxide to me. Were they in a garage with an automobile running? Birds are real sensative to this. The air could have been fine up where people are breathing, but bad down there where they were.

Rufus

 

[Windchyme]

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I don't think so, we have super chlorinated water here that all the geese and ducks drink and swim in....can't use this stuff on my wild yeast bread mixture because it kills it instantly.

 

[Windchyme]

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I have had heat in an unairconditioned part of the house kill a whole group of ducklings. Was it unusually hot the night they died??