AAAARRRGH! Help?

[MsAyianna]

Oh! Oh! And there's the chick with curled toes. I'm not sure how much physical therapy will help...it looks like the whole foot is folded? It will be day 3 for this chick and I've done some stretching, but there's no significant progress. Today, I'll be making it a little bandaid foot thing.

And then there's this poor quail that I think something might actually be wrong with it. It's right wing looks like there's blood pooling under the surface and the toes are umm...well, the tips aren't alive. It's definitely not normal. No signs of this from any other chick.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

So, an update.

I actually slept last night - not by choice admittedly. I've been up but for 12 hours in the last 4 days as a result of the A) struggling heating element kicking out beeps all the dang time before I realized that it wasn't because of my A/C, B) stress, C) vigilance in making sure the temperature was correct with the new non-digital thermostat (a pain, let me tell you!), D) watching for potential hatching issues (I had more than a few die in the shells before they could break out and the humidity level was good), and finally E) whatever was going on with the chicks.

At this point, I'm not convinced that it was dehydration itself, but rather secondary to what might have actually been eye goop. I had a few quail this morning still not bright eyed or no eyes open at all. I took them all to the bathroom where one had a little hard line and I was all 'hmmmmmm!'. A little warm water and some coaxing and that came off and the chick's eye opened. Okay, so...maybe some microbiology involved. At this point, with all the other issues, I'm not surprised. I did make them all drink some slightly concentrated electrolyte water, just to give them a boost, and put them back in the brooder box.

As a result of my crashing out for 6 hours (included in the 12 listed for the last 4 days), I woke to one dead chick. I'm positive that being awake sooner or staying up a little later to make it drink more would have made a difference, but...this is life.

I did have another chick hatch this morning. It's day 20! I have another in the shell pipping. It's not sounding as strong as the other, so I'm keeping a very close eye on it.

Meanwhile, I did move everyone back to the brooder box and made a little tent around the light to keep the heat in. It doesn't get too warm, but they can stay warm enough and it's easy to get out of for water. The food is sprinkled everywhere for convenience, grip, etc.

MAN I have a headache. I need more sleep, but I don't want to risk more chicks. What's a gal to do?

you are correct, it is what happens when we raise chickens(or other poultry) you cant function without sleep and could make mistakes, better to lose 1 chick than lose you
you are doing very well with the limited stuff you have
great job
get some rest

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Oh! Oh! And there's the chick with curled toes. I'm not sure how much physical therapy will help...it looks like the whole foot is folded? It will be day 3 for this chick and I've done some stretching, but there's no significant progress. Today, I'll be making it a little bandaid foot thing.

And then there's this poor quail that I think something might actually be wrong with it. It's right wing looks like there's blood pooling under the surface and the toes are umm...well, the tips aren't alive. It's definitely not normal. No signs of this from any other chick.

make shoes for the 1st, cull the 2nd unfortunately, better to not make it suffer

 

[MsAyianna]

Ah, what we do for the love of dinosaurs...

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Ah, what we do for the love of dinosaurs...

we do love our dinosaurs

 

[cooleo]

Honestly I think its your incubator I have to of the same kind I bought of eBay and their is non stop problems with them you have to watch daily the turners constantly die and temp fluctuates and also my one over heats if gets to hot inside good luck last batch I had 96 egfs and only hatched 4 of them very bad 21 days in incubator good luck

 

[cooleo]

I have had chicks hatch with the folded foot usually ended! Up dying because they don't learn how to walk around and get food and water also had problems with beaks that were offset I think its genetic I got a buff silkie from hatchery and arrived fine after month beak grew crooked and now it s dead had to put it down wasn't good losing a lot of weight and starving

 

[DwayneNLiz]

I have had chicks hatch with the folded foot usually ended! Up dying because they don't learn how to walk around and get food and water also had problems with beaks that were offset I think its genetic I got a buff silkie from hatchery and arrived fine after month beak grew crooked and now it s dead had to put it down wasn't good losing a lot of weight and starving

some is genetics, some is incubation problems

many of the things you have listed can be corrected

 

[MsAyianna]

Well, I might have to revisit those shoes soon...

I did nap and woke to another dead chick. Ah well.

I did the thing everyone says not to do, but...I had more than a couple die in-shell, so I delicately helped a chick out with my nearly razor-sharp nails. It's been trying to pip for over a day. The shell came off easily, but the membrane was dry, presumably due to being pipped for so long without progress? I had tried putting warm water on the shell, pipping around for the chick, and just waiting, in that order. Anyway, the chick was bright-eyed and is drying off now.

As for the one with toe issues, is it possible that it was due to pecking? There's no increased redness that I assumed was pooled blood in the wing anymore.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Well, I might have to revisit those shoes soon...

I did nap and woke to another dead chick. Ah well.

I did the thing everyone says not to do, but...I had more than a couple die in-shell, so I delicately helped a chick out with my nearly razor-sharp nails. It's been trying to pip for over a day. The shell came off easily, but the membrane was dry, presumably due to being pipped for so long without progress? I had tried putting warm water on the shell, pipping around for the chick, and just waiting, in that order. Anyway, the chick was bright-eyed and is drying off now.

As for the one with toe issues, is it possible that it was due to pecking? There's no increased redness that I assumed was pooled blood in the wing anymore.

i assume that your humidity is probably low hence some hatching issues but who knows
i would have helped too, good job
not sure about the blood/dead toe one could be a multitude of things