5 day old Welsummer bantam with bulge on lower belly - HERNIA????

[AndreaS]

Ah yes...I've heard the mirror suggestion before. I use a piece of hardware cloth to separate off a section of my big brooder- making sure to include area under the heat lamp & away from it. I use this as my "hospital" for chicks, that way they can still see the others. I only kept Ruth separate for one day. She wasn't getting picked on and I figured she would prefer to be with the others.

 

[AndreaS]

Good Morning. Have you heard anything from MPC yet?

I think I'm going to send them an email and let them know about Ruth, and I have another chick from this order that is severely cross beaked. I wonder if something is going on with one of the hatcheries they order from?

I've been thinking of you and your little welsummer chick. How's she holding up?

 

[ImportTheBest]

I'm so sorry for the delay. Yesterday was one of those days nothing went right and the kids were crazy LOL!

Ok, Shannon from MPC called yesterday morning. They'd spent the day on Monday researching and trying to find more information for me, etc.

Apparently our chicks are quite far from normal as they say they've never even seen anything that size on a chick before. I did mention your chick and that she's passed during surgery, and so on. They were all so very sweet and it was a great chat about making sure that I know about gut health in chickens, so that we can keep her healthy and make sure she never strains to poop etc. We talked about powdered probiotics, AVC with the Mother (Or any ACV is better than none), plain yogurts, and so on. Because they aren't vets they can't say for sure she has a hernia and not an infection, but the hernia does seem more likely. They advised me to get her diagnosed by a vet to be 100% sure, but I am certain enough. They said they'd be refunding me for her (I didn't ask for it) because it would have been a defect she would have been hatched with, especially considering she's not full grown and laying - the main cause of a hernia. We also talked about her possibility of having a heart defect like your chick did, and them and I both agree that she probably wouldn't make it through surgery either, besides it not really being financially possible right now anyway.

She was great to talk to, and I was very happy with our chat. She also asked me to keep her updated on the chicks progress, problems / how well she's doing. Partly to see how well she does and partly to have more info on hand in case they have someone else with this issue.

She's back in with her hatchmates right now. Her belly feathers fluffed up a bit and so her bulge is not as noticeably pink right now. She's still eating, drinking and pooping and despite the visible discomfort of the bulge, she's still determined to bound around, peck at odd spots on the brooder wall and so on. There was a fair amount of wing flapping and bounding around when I added her back, but zero pecking, so I am praying it stays that way. The flapping stopped quickly and they seemed to be settled in together again.

I'm praying she grows and the bulge doesn't, so far it's the same as the last pics.

OK I have left the kids to their own devices too long, I better dash! I'll be back later to check for replies!

 

[AndreaS]

Hey, Sorry for the super late response. We went out of town for the last half of the week. I emailed MPC about Ruth and Gertrude (my little cross beaked chick). Haven't heard back from them yet, but I do wonder if something is going on with one of their hatcheries. There was another girl on Ruth's thread that had an older Salmon Fav chick who had what seemed to be a hernia as well.

Odd. How is the little one doing now?

 

[ImportTheBest]

I'm so sorry for not seeing your reply sooner! I forgot that I had subscribed with no email notification.

Did you end up hearing back from MPC? My refund did come through btw.

Millie is actually doing well! She's quite the skittish one so I haven't gotten to hold her much in the past few weeks since they went into the coop, because I can't catch her, lol! Anyway I managed to finally get hold of her yesterday and tried to peek and feel up her hernia unsuccessfully because her feathers have come in very well and I can't really get a good view of the hernia as it's too well covered. I tried to feel her hernia bump bit what I felt seemed more like a sharper ridge from mid belly to between her legs, not a bulge like before. I need to catch her again and once she's settled get a better feel or peek because I'm not sure sure if I felt it right??

I'm not too worried about her right now though. She was the first one on the roost once i set it up, and she was the first one up on side beams before that. She's the fastest runner and the best at bounding out of the way of my hands reach. She eats, poops, drinks and does everything the other's do. So time will tell if she survives the laying portion of her life, but as strong and full of life as she is, I feel positive there is hope for her body to handle it well enough.




Millie is on the right - this was about 2 weeks ago and she's definitely grown more since then, as have the others!