Hello all,
I got my first set of chicks in end of May. One of the chicks pretty early on seemed more tired then the rest. Something was off. Then eventually it sounded wheezy and almost like coughing and then died at about 5 weeks. All of the other chicks were fine. An emergency vet friend assumed it was something congenital because if it was a respiratory disease he would expect more chicks to be affected. That I moved on from.
Now another of our chickens had scissor beak. She ended up being our favorite. We weren't too worried about her because she was the largest of all the chicks. Then recently the others started to surpass her in size so I was worried she wasn't eating enough, but she certainly wasn't wasting away either. I was considering hand feeding her and then suddenly found her dying.
My pullets (around 7 weeks) have started to lay on top of eachother when sleeping (they have roosts). She was found at the bottom of the heap barely alive. I'm struggling because I don't know if we weren't giving her enough attention as a scissor beak (she was always our most active) or if the chickens are suffocating eachother.
We recently moved their brooder (in Canada and we are having an unusually cold Spring so I haven't moved them to the coop yet). So I moved it back. I don't think they're cold because they are feathered. I can't figure out why they are pilling on top of eachother. I don't know if I'm being paranoid and the two things aren't connected.
Just hoping for some guidance. I'm very anal when it comes to animal care and I didn't expect to lose two out of our nine chickens. Especially past chick age. The first death was not a complete surprise, but the second I was not expecting in the slightest.
- They were vaccinated
- They were fed medicated feed for the first 6 weeks then switch to regular
- My two that died are buff orphington hatch mates (my only two)
- All the rest seem happy and healthy and were from a different hatch
Thank you for your guidance. Sorry about the long post.
I got my first set of chicks in end of May. One of the chicks pretty early on seemed more tired then the rest. Something was off. Then eventually it sounded wheezy and almost like coughing and then died at about 5 weeks. All of the other chicks were fine. An emergency vet friend assumed it was something congenital because if it was a respiratory disease he would expect more chicks to be affected. That I moved on from.
Now another of our chickens had scissor beak. She ended up being our favorite. We weren't too worried about her because she was the largest of all the chicks. Then recently the others started to surpass her in size so I was worried she wasn't eating enough, but she certainly wasn't wasting away either. I was considering hand feeding her and then suddenly found her dying.
My pullets (around 7 weeks) have started to lay on top of eachother when sleeping (they have roosts). She was found at the bottom of the heap barely alive. I'm struggling because I don't know if we weren't giving her enough attention as a scissor beak (she was always our most active) or if the chickens are suffocating eachother.
We recently moved their brooder (in Canada and we are having an unusually cold Spring so I haven't moved them to the coop yet). So I moved it back. I don't think they're cold because they are feathered. I can't figure out why they are pilling on top of eachother. I don't know if I'm being paranoid and the two things aren't connected.
Just hoping for some guidance. I'm very anal when it comes to animal care and I didn't expect to lose two out of our nine chickens. Especially past chick age. The first death was not a complete surprise, but the second I was not expecting in the slightest.
- They were vaccinated
- They were fed medicated feed for the first 6 weeks then switch to regular
- My two that died are buff orphington hatch mates (my only two)
- All the rest seem happy and healthy and were from a different hatch
Thank you for your guidance. Sorry about the long post.
It is hard losing any birds. I am really sorry you lost your buffs.
