Post Mortem Diagnosis

[julesapple]

We lost a 48hr old chick this afternoon. It was one of our precious Coronation Sussex.

They have been eating & drinking well in the brooder since Saturday, nothing abnormal. This one chick started a sort of gagging motion, like it couldn't swallow or was gagging on something or gasping for breath. There was nothing in it's throat as far as we could see. We tried water and then a few drops of olive oil, working on the premise that if there was an obstruction we could help move it to the gizzard.

The chick faded fast, but never stopped the gasping/gagging motion. Typically, I couldn't get any internet when I really needed it to get some advice.

Has anyone ever experienced this with a chick and/or got any idea what on earth it was?

Jules

[jessmorris]

Oh dear, how distressing! I know a vet who does PM's if you want address.....

[squibbs]

Sounds just like one of my chicks a couple of hatches back - refused to do anything other than gasp - either a respiratory or cardiac problem I thought - anyway it just got worse over a few hours so I did the deed.

It was a bit small for an amateur post mortem and the rest of the hatch did very well.

If you do find out what happened let me know

[julesapple]

I'm thinking along the lines of something congenital that only manifested itself when the chick became more active - such as a heart defect or blood clot.

The only other thing is that the chick picked up a small piece of bedding and ate it, and it pierced the aesophagus. To this end we now have the four remaining chicks on finely shredded newspaper.

It'll be harris hawk dinner today, so we might find a bit of bedding if DD watched Jakk eat.

There is no sign of anything similar affecting the others thankfully.

Jules

[RichmondHens]

It does sound like it choked on something. Are they with a hen or under a lamp? I put hand reared ones on flat sheets of newspaper as they do have a tendency to eat/peck at shavings. When with a hen the hen monitors what they eat and they then seem to have more idea of what to do and what not to.

Sorry you are not having much luck at the moment.

[SuzyB]

I just lost one of the chicks I collected on Sunday. She was lethargic last night, worse this morning, not eating or drinking and clearly not right when I got home from work. Tapped her beak in water, she had a tiny bit but then didnt have the energy to open her eyes or lift her head. She had her beak open gasping but I put that down to laboured breathing. She rolled over, flapped her wings a few times then went.

Maybe August will be a better month for us hey Jules?

[julesapple]

I just lost one of the chicks I collected on Sunday. She was lethargic last night, worse this morning, not eating or drinking and clearly not right when I got home from work. Tapped her beak in water, she had a tiny bit but then didnt have the energy to open her eyes or lift her head. She had her beak open gasping but I put that down to laboured breathing. She rolled over, flapped her wings a few times then went.

Maybe August will be a better month for us hey Jules?

I hope so Suze.....I know that, in the big scheme of things, the problems we've had are small, but soooo annoying. Especially the ones that could have been avoided with common sense and organisation.

The BH, bless him, is trying to persuade us to have one more hatch but I'm not inclined to. My youngest son wants us to set another lot of eggs because he's been at school and has missed most of it. The logistics are putting me off though - space requirements and not wanting more babies than we can cope with (not that the same things put me off having four children, and I wanted more) and I have this pressing feeling that the year is going on, even though we've only just started Summer vac, and we don't want fluffies in the cold.

Oh yeah, and my Dad is having open heart surgery on August 10th, so we may need to drop everything and run at short notice.

I just don't know what to do, and determination to succeed is not a good reason to hatch.

Jules

[its hilly]

For what its worth Jules I hatched some in early september last year and they were really hard work. They didn't gain weight as fast as the earlier hatches, and were too young to go in and snuggle with the bigs when the cold weather struck, so had to go in a pen in the barn. In the end I had to give the leghorns to another keeper with warmer quarters. The others struggled through, but I wont do it again without snug quarters and a big indoor run for them.