Chick born with clenched feet

[muircheartaigh]

Hi all,

I am new to incubating chicks and just recently hatched 28/32 in my incubator in a dry hatch. Sadly, I lost four barred rocks but two of my EE chicks arrived with complications. One was born with a twisted beak and a missing eyeball, while another needed assistance getting out of a 75% zipped egg and although he/she is getting stronger both of his/her feet are clenched. Could it be Marek's or a result of a rushed hatch? I assisted the hatch along by adding moisture to the incubator and peeling away the dehydrated membrane that wasn't vascularized. It looked as though the chick were baking alive inside the egg and it was chirping frantically.

I need advice on the best practices and best ethic of care to take for both birds. Should they both be culled or is there quality of life ahead for them? Currently, I am hand feeding softened chick feed and water in gatorade bottle caps to the bird with malformed feet while the other is in the brooder with the other successful hatchlings.

In culling, is the preferred method decapitation with shears? I want to do it the most ethical way possible and I have my apprehensions about culing the chicks. However, if it needs to be done, I'll have to do it. In nurturing/hand raising the chicks, what do most of you suggest in terms of culling deformed/malformed/weak chicks.

Thanks,

Justin

http://maccurdyfarm.wordpress.com

 

[Farmer Viola]

Hi all,

I am new to incubating chicks and just recently hatched 28/32 in my incubator in a dry hatch. Sadly, I lost four barred rocks but two of my EE chicks arrived with complications.

One was born with a twisted beak and a missing eyeball, while another needed assistance getting out of a 75% zipped egg and although he/she is getting stronger both of his/her feet are clenched. Could it be Marek's or a result of a rushed hatch?

I assisted the hatch along by adding moisture to the incubator and peeling away the dehydrated membrane that wasn't vascularized. It looked as though the chick were baking alive inside the egg and it was chirping frantically.

were the eggs your own, or from somewhere else?
are both chicks with deformities of the same breed?

too high incubation temperatures can cause deformities, but I would think it would have affected your whole hatch not just one. I would consider the missing eye a severe deformity and cull it right away. The feet can probably be fixed. Feet issues can also be from too high temperature. I would recommend calibrating your thermometers and/or adding another one just for comparison sake.. also never rely on the thermometer on the incubator itself, it does not read from egg level.

for future reference, chirping frantically is good it means the chick is alive and strong. it is when the chick becomes weak from struggling so long that you need to help it out. I know it feels like you just want to help the poor thing!

when I assist, I will help with the shell and keep the membrane moist. then I place the egg back in the incubator and make them break out of the membrane alone. It usually takes at least 12hrs and I think that time is crucial, they need to go through the struggle of getting out (just my opinion, not saying you did anything wrong!)


Quote: Yes I would cull the eyeless one.. I have used sharpened scissors before. If you use scissors, or garden shears, here is my advice.. get the sharpest ones possible.. and look at the gap between the 2 blades. garden sheers could have a 2-4mm gap!!!! this is NOT good for cutting necks, it will NOT cut cleanly it will twist. you need the 2 blades to be very cloes together, and very sharp. Use a sure hand, do not hesitate, you must cut through in 1 motion. I usually do it inside a cardboard box because there is blood, drop the body and the head in the box, then I can close the box and not see it anymore. sorry to be graphic. it is not easy to do.

knives and axes work when you have a large chicken with a large neck but I think scissors are good for chicks...



For the foot problem, can you take a picture? I have fixed some bad feet before. but you will have to be diligent and make a cast for the foot every day. I fixed 1 foot that was so bad. the chick was shipped. it was walking on the ankle like a peg leg with the foot twisted upside down underneath the peg leg. the ankle joint was swollen huge from being walked on and the middle toe was broken.

I set it in a cast (need a helper/2nd pair of hands for this) using electrical tape and light cardboard. you can also use band-aids but they stick to the skin worse than electrical tape. if you use band-aids, use baby-oil to take off the sticky when you remove it and go verryy slow. use hand sanitizer to remove the baby oil before re-casting the foot. I use tweezers to adjust the toes to be straight when I stick them down.

here is a picture of the foot I made for that guy I WISH I took a before photo. his foot healed PERFECTLY I was so proud


here is an informational link about creating chick sandals/boot/cast:
https://sites.google.com/a/larsencreek.com/chicken-orthopedics/leg-braces



edit-
I found this, maybe it will help:


omg wow sorry this post is so long!

 

[muircheartaigh]

You went above and beyond. Thank you for a very detailed bit of advice. I especially found the table at the bottom to be very helpful. Sadly, the chick with the malformed feet passed away in my hands last night. I tried to hydrate him with an eye dropper but it was to no avail. I think I will calibrate my incubator as I felt the temperature was too high over the course of the hatch. It kept going up to 100 even though I set it at 95 degree Fahrenheit. I think the culprit was high temperature as the eggs hatched beginning on day 19 (1) and day 20 (7 more), before the rest of the batch came. I will take your advice and chip the shell away but allow the chick to break out on it's own. However, close to 24 hours had passed since the egg was mostly unzipped. I'll be acting more quickly the next time around to assist by pipping. The chick with the missing eye is not growing as quickly as the others, which is probably due to Marshmallow's (My son named her/him) scissor beak and his difficulty eating as rapidly as the others. I'll have to build up the courage to end her/his life. As someone who has delivered many calves, I've never given up on an animal (breached, malpresented, complicated) so it's hard to cull an animal before it's life begins.

Thank you for your post and your tips for correcting malformed feet. It's something I can try in bettering quality of life for chicks born with those issues. Incidentally, both chicks born with deformities were Easter Eggers and according to the breeder, it's been a problem in their line, which I was unaware of. You live and your learn.

 

[Farmer Viola]

You went above and beyond. Thank you for a very detailed bit of advice. I especially found the table at the bottom to be very helpful. Sadly, the chick with the malformed feet passed away in my hands last night. I tried to hydrate him with an eye dropper but it was to no avail. I think I will calibrate my incubator as I felt the temperature was too high over the course of the hatch. It kept going up to 100 even though I set it at 95 degree Fahrenheit. I think the culprit was high temperature as the eggs hatched beginning on day 19 (1) and day 20 (7 more), before the rest of the batch came. I will take your advice and chip the shell away but allow the chick to break out on it's own. However, close to 24 hours had passed since the egg was mostly unzipped. I'll be acting more quickly the next time around to assist by pipping. The chick with the missing eye is not growing as quickly as the others, which is probably due to Marshmallow's (My son named her/him) scissor beak and his difficulty eating as rapidly as the others. I'll have to build up the courage to end her/his life. As someone who has delivered many calves, I've never given up on an animal (breached, malpresented, complicated) so it's hard to cull an animal before it's life begins.

Thank you for your post and your tips for correcting malformed feet. It's something I can try in bettering quality of life for chicks born with those issues. Incidentally, both chicks born with deformities were Easter Eggers and according to the breeder, it's been a problem in their line, which I was unaware of. You live and your learn.

Aw I'm sorry about the malformed feet chick... it never gets easy. and culling is far worse. if you have someone with a strong stomach who will do it, it is worth it.

I have my husband cull chickens. but with chicks, I do it myself... I hold them in my hand and they feel warm and comforted, never scared. they do not have any fear before it happens, I think it is worse for the human than the chicken.. keep in mind that if this chick were kept alive, it would have a hard time eating and drinking and would probably be malnourished it's whole life. it would be the weakest, and the other hens will know and will pick on it. it would also be the most likely to die first in a predator attack. by doing the humane thing now, you are not drawing out it's sad (and possibly painful) life.

it wont last long, and then you can go back to holding the healthy fuzzybutts you DO have and don't think about it anymore..

Agree on the too high temp, especially if you had some hatch early... I actually have 4 thermometers. I start out with all 4 in there before I set eggs, to make sure they all agree. then I reduce to just 1 device that I trust. there are calibration methods for thermometers and hygrometers if you don't want to run out and buy more! I would have at least 2 devices though.

last thing.. I do not know what your humidity was but it bears mentioning... too high humidity can also cause troubles. I like the dry incubation method (see link in my signature). the basic idea is that you add zero water, allowing the egg's natural evaporation to regulate their own humidity. anywhere from 25-45% is acceptable without adding any water. I have had 80-100% hatch rates with this method, I highly recommend it!

and, if the breeder is seeing deformities crop up like this, he/she needs to change their breeding program. it can happen from too many years of line breeding (inbreeding) and they need to add some new genetics to prevent it from continuing in future chicks. SO, don't blame yourself completely, it sounds like some/most of it was the fault of the breeder...

 

[muircheartaigh]

I dry hatched this time around keeping humidity between 25 to 40%. I'll definitely have to invest in a small size thermometer to help calibrate my new hovabator genesis 1588 so that the early hatch does not repeat itself. Even though I had a hatch rate of above 80%, it saddens me that I lost four PBR chicks in the end without pips. I will definitely do the dry hatch from the beginning the next time around as I only found out on Day 10 on my first hatch. I ended up with a 28/32 hatch rate this time around but I'm hoping, with your advice, that I can get that above 90% and keep it there. Now it's time to clean/sterilize the incubator and do my first hatch with my hatching eggs from the farm. Thanks again! This forum continues to be a God send for poultry husbandry.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I dry hatched this time around keeping humidity between 25 to 40%. I'll definitely have to invest in a small size thermometer to help calibrate my new hovabator genesis 1588 so that the early hatch does not repeat itself. Even though I had a hatch rate of above 80%, it saddens me that I lost four PBR chicks in the end without pips. I will definitely do the dry hatch from the beginning the next time around as I only found out on Day 10 on my first hatch. I ended up with a 28/32 hatch rate this time around but I'm hoping, with your advice, that I can get that above 90% and keep it there. Now it's time to clean/sterilize the incubator and do my first hatch with my hatching eggs from the farm. Thanks again! This forum continues to be a God send for poultry husbandry.

Nice, it sounds like you are moving onward and upward. Like Rafiki said, the past hurts. You can either learn from it, or run from it.

(ok I may have watched the Lion King recently....)

Glad I could be of any help to you!