Possible Crop Impaction - Our Chicks Passed Away Suddenly :(

[klandis]

My wife and I are new to raising chicks and just dealt with an emergency where we lost most of our flock. We originally purchased 14 chicks and kept them inside until they had most of their feathers. We moved them out to the coop this past weekend, where they were more fascinated with the pine wood chips, rather than their own food and water. My wife said to me, "It seems like they are eating a lots of wood chips." Us, being the young naive chicken owners didn't think much of it. We closed the coop and carried on with some yard work. We checked on the chicks about 30 minutes later, and 11 of the 14 were dead. It happened so fast and suddenly. As we were trying to keep the 3 remaining alive, we discovered what "Crop Impaction" was via Google, and proceeded to massage the Crops of the remaining two for a few hours. We were able to save them, while the third was gasping for air and died in our arms. The 2 survivors are alive and well. We have since replaced the deceased chicks with new ones.

My questions are, how do we prevent this from happening again? And what caused them to have a fascination with eating wood chips suddenly, when they had wood chips inside our home for the first 6 weeks and didnt seem to eat them? It was recommended to us by our local feed store to use PittMoss, but they seem to peck and eat that as well. Perhaps we are gun shy and they aren't really eating it. For the time being, they are just on paper towels until we get some questions answered.

The deceased chicks were a variety of Isa Brown, Rhode Island Red, Starlight Green Egger, Sapphire Gem, and Cinnamon Queen.

The attached image is of our 12 new baby chicks sleeping, while the 2 more mature chicks are on Lookout!

 

[coach723]

I'm very sorry for your loss.
A crop impaction wouldn't kill them in 30 minutes. I would be more suspicious that there was some kind of toxin involved. Pictures of your coop set up might be helpful. Was the food, water, and pine chips from the same source you were using in the brooder? What was the temperature outside? How old were they?

 

[nuthatched]

I'm sorry for your losses. I'm not saying it's not a crop impaction but gooogle is tradionly wrong at a correct diagnosis. What were you feeding them, the brooder temperature, where we're they located? It's highly unusual to loose them all at once for impaction. Does Your heat lamp say safety coated or shatter proof? Any candles or air freshener? any chance of co2?

 

[klandis]

I'm sorry for your losses. I'm not saying it's not a crop impaction but gooogle is tradionly wrong at a correct diagnosis. What were you feeding them, the brooder temperature, where we're they located? It's highly unusual to loose them all at once for impaction. Does Your heat lamp say safety coated or shatter proof? Any candles or air freshener? any chance of co2?

Thanks for these questions, because I did not consider them! I am actually unaware of the temperature but it was a 75 degree day and they were in the coop for a short amount of time. They are still eating the Purina crumbles that were recommended to us. As far as the heat lamp, I will look into that. No candles or air fresheners. We felt the crops of the dead chicks and they were all enlarged and hard. As far as the ones we saved, they had large crops and we were able to massage them enough for them to finally poop.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I have always used wood chips and I've had curious chicks eat a few but never enough to kill them, let alone a dozen. Something else is going on. You mentioned you closed the coop...is there cedar wood involved in the equation anywhere? You said their crops were hard so they would have had to been eating wood chips for longer than half an hour. Something else is definitely going on and needs to be sorted before any more chicks are put in the same situation

 

[Kiki]

It is extremely unlikely that that many chicks died that quickly from a crop impaction.
Are you sure there is no wet feed in your coop?
No moldy wetness anywhere?

 

[Lenny loves chickens]

Sorry for your loss

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We moved them out to the coop this past weekend, where they were more fascinated with the pine wood chips, rather than their own food and water. My wife said to me, "It seems like they are eating a lots of wood chips."

And what caused them to have a fascination with eating wood chips suddenly, when they had wood chips inside our home for the first 6 weeks and didnt seem to eat them? It was recommended to us by our local feed store to use PittMoss, but they seem to peck and eat that as well.

We closed the coop and carried on with some yard work. We checked on the chicks about 30 minutes later, and 11 of the 14 were dead.

I'm sorry for your loss.
Are you using Pittmoss or Pine shavings?

Do your chicks have access to grit?
How's the ventilation in your coop?

Photos of your coop/housing may be helpful.
Do you have older chicks with younger ones?

 

[klandis]

I'm sorry for your loss.
Are you using Pittmoss or Pine shavings?

Do your chicks have access to grit?
How's the ventilation in your coop?

Photos of your coop/housing may be helpful.
Do you have older chicks with younger ones?

We were using pine shavings, but I believe the bag said it was specifically for horse bedding...so perhaps the flakes were entirely too fine.
The coop has ventilated windows but I may cut holes into the sides and add a few solar powered fans.

 

[klandis]

It is extremely unlikely that that many chicks died that quickly from a crop impaction.
Are you sure there is no wet feed in your coop?
No moldy wetness anywhere?

correct. The bedding was fresh out of the bag and very dry. Food was fresh out of a sealed bucket. As far as I could tell, everything seemed fine from a mold/wetness standpoint