Chicks Dying! Please Help!!

[Beacon Point Ratite Ranch]

Hello again. I'm in need of some help. I have been hatching out chicks and haven't had issues in the past, but recently I started getting into some of the more exotic breeds and the chicks keep dying on me. They start out fine - eating, drinking and running around like perfectly healthy chicks -, but then between 10 days and 1 month old, they just stop eating and drinking and waste away!

I have lost 6 appenzeller spitzhaubens (which is every single one I had), 15 seramas, 6 polish cresteds, 4 d'uccles, 10 silkies and 5 ayam cemanis. The brooders I use are set up the same for all my chicks. I have hatched out hundreds of babies and usually lose 1 or 2, but this is entire hatches this is happening to! I even bought some of them at the feed store in case it was something to do with my incubator, but they died too! I don't get it. I hatched 40+ brahmas 2 weeks ago and haven't lost 1, but these specific breeds keep dying on me.

I have tried treating for coccidiosis, feeding medicated feed, putting hydro hen and then poultry nutri-drench in their water and rooster booster in their feed, adjusted the brooder temp, set up a separate small incubator as an ICU, force fed them chick mash and even resorted to subcutaneous fluids, all to NO AVAIL! Nothing helps! Once they start to fade, it's like they've just decided to die and nothing I do will bring them back!

Can anyone help me? I really want to raise these breeds and it's heart-breaking to keep losing them. Almost daily, I find another one gone! It's gotten to the point where I approach the brooders chanting "Please, no dead babies." over and over in my head.

 

[azygous]

Losing so many chicks points to something toxic in their environment. The first thing to consider is the water source. If you use unfiltered well water that is high in iron, it may be binding with bacteria and killing the chicks. Or perhaps your tap water from the city is contaminated with heavy metals from old lead pipes.

The air where you are brooding them may be polluted by exhausts from gas appliances, welding equipment, paint fumes, etc, if adjacent to a work shop, or fumes from inappropriate bedding such as cedar. If bedding is of very small particles, chicks may be ingesting it as they hunt instinctively for grit.

Feed may be the issue. If the feed has a very old mill date, it may be contaminated by mold or bacteria.

Lastly, somebody may be feeding the chicks inappropriate treats behind your back that they cannot digest without grit.

All of these sources I've pointed out have been reported by other chick keepers here on BYC over the years as things that have caused death in their chicks.

 

[Beacon Point Ratite Ranch]

Losing so many chicks points to something toxic in their environment. The first thing to consider is the water source. If you use unfiltered well water that is high in iron, it may be binding with bacteria and killing the chicks. Or perhaps your tap water from the city is contaminated with heavy metals from old lead pipes.

The air where you are brooding them may be polluted by exhausts from gas appliances, welding equipment, paint fumes, etc, if adjacent to a work shop, or fumes from inappropriate bedding such as cedar. If bedding is of very small particles, chicks may be ingesting it as they hunt instinctively for grit.

Feed may be the issue. If the feed has a very old mill date, it may be contaminated by mold or bacteria.

Lastly, somebody may be feeding the chicks inappropriate treats behind your back that they cannot digest without grit.

All of these sources I've pointed out have been reported by other chick keepers here on BYC over the years as things that have caused death in their chicks.

OMG, I hadn't even considered that there could be something wrong with the water. I've already ruled out the feed, the air quality and bedding and no one feeds the chicks anything inappropriate (I have security cameras. I would see it when I check the footage.), but we do have a well and we have been having an issue with it recently where it keeps flooding the yard. I'm going to buy bottled spring water for the chicks and send out a sample of our well water for testing. I'll keep them on bottled water until I get an answer and, if it turns out there's something wrong with the water, get the well fixed and cleaned. Thank you for giving me a possible cause. I'll update when I hear back from the lab on the water quality.