tinydogfarms
Hatching
- Apr 24, 2025
- 2
- 0
- 4
Yesterday afternoon seemingly out of nowhere, 4 of my 17 chicks (hatched by me April 1) started convulsing and died within minutes of each other. I immediately moved the others out of the brooder they were in and cleaned it and changed the food and water and bedding (pine shavings) and put them back. Another two chicks were standing still with feathers fluffed and eyes closed. One of them convulsed and died about an hour later. The other one just stood around and had at least one watery poo that I saw.
I say seemingly out of nowhere but the more I researched and read, here are my thoughts.... they were indoors and not going under the heating pad at all anymore so I took it out on Saturday. It was probably 70-75 degrees where they were and I kept an eye on them and they were doing great. On Monday I moved them to another room of the house and they were still all good. Tuesday night we had a cold snap and I think that room may have briefly gotten down to about 60 and stayed around 65. I was changing food and water a couple of times a day and I didn't notice anything wrong but that's not to say I couldn't have just missed something in passing.
I moved the brooder back to a warmer room and put the heating pad back in. The other chick that was lethargic is now fine and they all seem fine today. I also started them on Corid just as a precaution but I've come to the conclusion that they got cold stressed and then maybe something got them that they would have otherwise been able to fight off. I can't really find any smoking gun that would cause a chick to "suddenly" convulse and die so quickly - other than a toxin but I've ruled that out for the most part since the rest seem to be fine.
I'm heartbroken and feel horrible. This was my first time hatching chicks and of course my favorite one died. Just trying to get to the bottom of this so I can maybe avoid it in the future.
I say seemingly out of nowhere but the more I researched and read, here are my thoughts.... they were indoors and not going under the heating pad at all anymore so I took it out on Saturday. It was probably 70-75 degrees where they were and I kept an eye on them and they were doing great. On Monday I moved them to another room of the house and they were still all good. Tuesday night we had a cold snap and I think that room may have briefly gotten down to about 60 and stayed around 65. I was changing food and water a couple of times a day and I didn't notice anything wrong but that's not to say I couldn't have just missed something in passing.
I moved the brooder back to a warmer room and put the heating pad back in. The other chick that was lethargic is now fine and they all seem fine today. I also started them on Corid just as a precaution but I've come to the conclusion that they got cold stressed and then maybe something got them that they would have otherwise been able to fight off. I can't really find any smoking gun that would cause a chick to "suddenly" convulse and die so quickly - other than a toxin but I've ruled that out for the most part since the rest seem to be fine.
I'm heartbroken and feel horrible. This was my first time hatching chicks and of course my favorite one died. Just trying to get to the bottom of this so I can maybe avoid it in the future.
