Advice on a chick....

[kburen]

Well, only one of my chicks even tried to hatch. It made 2 pips and that was it. After 2 1/2 days, I knew it was still breathing (I could see through the hole that it pipped and could hear it chirp), so I decided to help it out. This was on Day 25 (last night around 5). I got it out without any problems, there was no blood, but it still hadn't absorbed all of the yolk sac. As the night went on it got a little more engery and this morning had wiggled around and stretched out a bit and chirped at me a few times. It had so much dried goo on it that it wasn't able to fluff out any at all when it dried (in fact it was stuck to the papertowel in the bottom of the bator). It hasnt tried to walk any on it's own (it COULD be deformed, I think its feet look a little funny), but it's completely stretched out now, head uncurled too. I got some unflavored pedialyte at the store on my way home from work. I put some of it in the top from the pedialyte and sat the chick up to dip its beak. It drank a good amount of it, dipping and drinking several times on its own. I warmed up a washrag with very warm water and wrapped the chick up and tried to get as much of the goo off as I could. Within 10-15 minutes of drinking it started to try to open its eyes and look around (it hadn't done this yet). I put it back in the bator since it's the only chick and I know it's a good warm and stable temperature. Is there anything else that I can do to help this baby make it?

 

[pgpoultry]

Sounds like you are doing pretty well
You may need to clean the chick up more if it is matted down and prevented from getting around due to this. Make sure the chick is on a rough surface to prevent spraddle legs.
Carry on giving the supplements (if the electrolyte replacer does not contain sugar/glucose add some to the water).
Offer chick starter.
Please post a pic.

Good Luck

 

[kburen]

Will post a picture later tonight...I have one but can't upload here at work (I teach and all of the photo upload pages are blocked). I plan to wet the rag again with warm water and try to get more stuff off him (we've been calling it a him, just because we call all animals him's unless we know for sure it's a her lol). He seems to be getting more and more energy. I didn't think it could use it's legs, but it seems to be trying more and more. It does look like it has curled toes, and we're going to work on that this weekend to see if we can fix it. He drinks, but won't eat yet. Even though he was 25 days before he hatched, I'm not sure that he was fully developed. We're hanging in there with him...he's sure a strong little booger!