Assisted Hatching with Poop in Egg

[Rose Connor]

Hello. We were just hatching our first clutch of Cortinux quail eggs and fifteen of them came out fine. The first day that they hatched, one egg had pipped but over a period of thirty hours there was no progress unzipping it's shell. Unable to leave it like that, we went in and successfully assisted it in escaping from the confines of it's shell, having had allowed it to push it's way out itself. Now, after more than thirty-six hours, it is out of it's egg, but it has an enlarged backside, and what appears to be green poop is left in the shell. Is there anyone that could advise me what to do? I want to give it every possible chance to make it.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

Poo left in the shell is pretty common in chickens. As far as the big backside is th yolk gone ? Probably hasnt absorbed it all . Some triple antibiotic back there would be good.. No "cain' aka pain reliever . just the regular triple antibiotic is good. Congrats on the hatch , welcome to BYC !

 

[Rose Connor]

The backside is the same color green as the fecal matter. As for the yolk/backside, we haven't removed it from the incubator due to fearing that it will get cold. As for the triple antibiotic, are there any possible alternatives? I've always heard that it isn't good to use on animals.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

take a warm wet paper towel and get the green off its bum. There are so many here that use the antibiotic ointment including myself . Its the kind with the pain reliever in it that is no good. toxic actually . If you dont want to use it just keep it very clean. That needs to come off though because if it dries on there it wont be able to poop.

 

[Rose Connor]

It wasn't green due to the feces, and it had pooped twice throughout the night. I'll make sure to keep it as can as possible.

Should I be worried about it not eating or drinking at this point?

 

[WVduckchick]

Can you post a picture of it?

 

[Rose Connor]

I'm sorry for the late reply, I actually underwent surgery earlier today, so I've spent a lot of time resting while having my mother care for the quail in my stead.

Overall, the little one is doing much better. The mass on its hind has receded, though we are still going to keep it separate until we are confident that it is fully healed up. It has been eating on its own, though not much, and we have been needing to assist it when it comes to drinking. It has a lot of energy and actively tries to escape our hands when we are holding it, so we are taking that as a good sign.

It's toes are curled in, in a way that makes walking around and balancing difficult. The little one's balance seems to be on it's ankle, rather than the actual foot. We are planning on giving it a couple of days before making "shoes" for the chick.

As for photos, I'll be willing to snap some tomorrow if you would still like to see.

While on the topic, I have some concerns about some of the other quail babies.

The first concern is that, today, we had lost one due to an unknown cause. Yesterday this individual seemed to have been doing fine, but later today we had found him laying on his side, legs kicked out. He was unable to support himself, and was even having a hard time holding his head up. He wouldn't eat, though he did seem to be interested in water. We separated him from the rest of the chicks, in a warm but smaller box, and when we returned to check up on him, we found him without any life. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could have caused this? Is it something that could possibly spread to the rest of the little ones?

The second concern is one of the living chicks. Ever since hatch this chick has seemed lethargic and strangely introverted, moving away from the rest whenever they would come near her. Not only that, but she was having a hard time walking yesterday due to a mild case of splay leg, which seems to have worked itself out. Today, though, she would just stand around with her eyes closed and head down, yelling at the others whenever they would leave her. I haven't been able to get her to eat, though I have gotten her to drink a little bit. Even when picking her up or gently nudging her to see if she would make her way towards the food or water if woken, she wouldn't care. She would just settle back down and pretty much ignore my attempts to get her to eat.

 

[Binki]

I'm sorry for the late reply, I actually underwent surgery earlier today, so I've spent a lot of time resting while having my mother care for the quail in my stead.

Overall, the little one is doing much better. The mass on its hind has receded, though we are still going to keep it separate until we are confident that it is fully healed up. It has been eating on its own, though not much, and we have been needing to assist it when it comes to drinking. It has a lot of energy and actively tries to escape our hands when we are holding it, so we are taking that as a good sign.

It's toes are curled in, in a way that makes walking around and balancing difficult. The little one's balance seems to be on it's ankle, rather than the actual foot. We are planning on giving it a couple of days before making "shoes" for the chick.

As for photos, I'll be willing to snap some tomorrow if you would still like to see.

While on the topic, I have some concerns about some of the other quail babies.

The first concern is that, today, we had lost one due to an unknown cause. Yesterday this individual seemed to have been doing fine, but later today we had found him laying on his side, legs kicked out. He was unable to support himself, and was even having a hard time holding his head up. He wouldn't eat, though he did seem to be interested in water. We separated him from the rest of the chicks, in a warm but smaller box, and when we returned to check up on him, we found him without any life. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could have caused this? Is it something that could possibly spread to the rest of the little ones?

The second concern is one of the living chicks. Ever since hatch this chick has seemed lethargic and strangely introverted, moving away from the rest whenever they would come near her. Not only that, but she was having a hard time walking yesterday due to a mild case of splay leg, which seems to have worked itself out. Today, though, she would just stand around with her eyes closed and head down, yelling at the others whenever they would leave her. I haven't been able to get her to eat, though I have gotten her to drink a little bit. Even when picking her up or gently nudging her to see if she would make her way towards the food or water if woken, she wouldn't care. She would just settle back down and pretty much ignore my attempts to get her to eat.

Hello, hope you're recovering from surgery okay!

It's good to treat curled toes and splay legs ASAP "while they're still soft" - much better chance of success. Toe shoes are easy compared to splay leg braces, you definitely need a second pair of hands, glad it turned out okay

How are the chicks now? What percent of protein is their feed? Are you crushing/blending it to make it easier to eat? Is it medicated?

For weak chicks I like to syringe them some slurry of their water and feed, well actually I prefer to use water and Tropican baby bird feed, it's a powder at petsmart and I have brought some birds back from near death, both quail chicks and wild birds, by dribbling some watery mix along their beak especially the corner of the best where they instinctually swallow.

It's slow but eventually, if the food peps them up, they will start asking for it and you can thicken it up for them to gobble down