# Chick Dead of Mysterious Causes



## Lokibinian (May 11, 2017)

Hi, I'm new to this website, but my female blue silkie chick, just barely two days old, passed away today at approx. 12:00 am.  I do not know what caused this. I got her with 9 other chicks from My Pet Chicken, all different breeds, all female, except for a buff silkie male. At first, I suspected she might have gotten trampled by the others, but the other silkie was perfectly fine. Her leg was skewed outwards. I thought it was spraddle leg, so I used a band-aid and stuck them together. She couldn't walk and ended up falling over every time she tried. She didn't eat anything, or drink, and I separated her from the rest, set up a separate heat lamp, and placed her in a separate brooder. She still didn't eat or drink, and suddenly, it looked like she was dead. I picked her up, and she flopped around, boneless. She was barely alive, and I fed her a crumble mash and water with a dropper, and she ate and drank a lot. She went to sleep. I fed and gave her water every hour or so, and she looked like she was recovering. She was stumbling around, eating from the syringe fine, but her condition deteriorated rapidly at 12:00 am, and her breathing was rapid. She threw up a bit of water. Slowly, she stopped breathing altogether. I have no idea what sort of disease this was. It's definitely not Marek's, because she was able to stand and walk for a bit, her legs were not paralyzed, just extremely weak. There were no other symptoms, either. I've seen pictures of chickens with Marek's and she did not resemble them at all. It's not spraddle leg, either, because it was not both legs that were sprawled out, just one, and she could walk, albeit very awkwardly and uncomfortably. If it was spraddle leg, she would not have died, because I fed her and gave her water regularly. So can anybody tell me what caused this problem?


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## DwayneNLiz (May 11, 2017)

mareks doesnt affect chicks that young

more than likely it was from shipping stress she just did not thrive

i am very sorry you lost her  i would do a USPS insurance claim


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## Wyorp Rock (May 11, 2017)

DwayneNLiz said:


> mareks doesnt affect chicks that young
> 
> more than likely it was from shipping stress she just did not thrive
> 
> i am very sorry you lost her  i would do a USPS insurance claim



X2  Sorry for your loss.

Shipping stress or possibly what you initially thought - being trampled during shipping.  Silkies can suffer terribly from injury, some of the symptoms you describe are similar to what you would see if she bumped her head somehow.


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## Lokibinian (May 12, 2017)

Thank you both for the answers. The death was devastating to me and my family, and I appreciate everything.


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## TwoCrows (May 12, 2017)

I am so sorry.  It is never easy to lose them, very heavy on the heart.


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