can a chick live without its yolk sac?

[fowlwoman1]

I was just wondering this, since I had a bad hatch and one of them totally lost his yolk sac. He was 9 days old today when he died of apparently an infection in his abdomen.

 

[arlee453]

If the yolk sac wasn't absorbed but instead was severed or tore off before it could be completely absorbed, it would probably have left an opening (like a wound) for bacteria to enter that would cause infection and death.