Chick born with issues, need advice on diet, etc...

[funnybirds]

We had a little Polish chick born three days ago with a foot bent inwards and a pea sized exposed yolk sac. (yolk sac is almost gone now) He was last born, was leaking dark fluid, was half zipped for many hours and his shell was stuck to the bottom of the incubator. I ended up assisting the hatch.) There were temp issues (spikes and drops) during incubation. The other three chicks are fine however.

I think he/ she is a loud , fiesty , determined little chick who has a good shot at life if I don't dork it up to badly.

And here are the questions:
How much sugar do you add to the water when you guys say "water with sugar"?

How many times a day should I be offering food and water? I've been using a tiny needless syringe and hes taking 0.5 to 1.0 mls every 2-3 hours of very diluted hard boiled egg yolk and sugar water, or just plain sugar water.

What else can I feed him to get his strength up? He is not interested in chick starter at all.

Is yogurt ok or should I wait?

Since he can’t really stand yet, I can't have him in with his hatch mates. Has anybody else had chick ortho issues and when did they integrate their chicks with the rest? (I've got him semi supported but separated in a small box in the brooder)

I’ve seen the pics of spraddle leg, but what do they call a bent foot? I need to know what to search under.

I've noticed a lot of chicks with issues are last born. What are some of the reasons for this?

Thank you for any information or stories of your birds with similar issues you can share.

 

[SilkieWiki]

Hey Fun Bird, Congrats on hatching your polish chicks.

We had a batch of silkies and the last one to be born also had spraddle leg and the bent foot. He ended up being born with weak muscle tone and couldn't grow or ever really walk after the first week. Feeding wise we gave them chick starter and bread and milk. They never really liked the chick starter only the bread and milk warmed up in the microwave. Water wise i think your doing a good job i used to have a small container with water in the cage and lifted him up and dipped his beak in the water and he would drink on his own. I didn't know about a sugar water method but I'm gonna look into that later. I had my silkie isolated from the others since he would get picked on and stepped on by the other chicks. Try the to splay leg treatment of binding the leg back into the right position and wrap it around the foot also so that their together.

Note this has only happened to me once out of my hatching's so you might want advice from others with way more experience and know a lot about the topic.

I hope your chick turns out fine and i wish for the best.

 

[tallyho]

I can't comment on diet but I had to get some help with an orthopedic problem. Here is the thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=5227036#p5227036

I hope it helps. I did an early intervention with help from this info and now we can't even tell the chick had a problem. It was bad and sad though...a little curled up foot, hobbling around.

I hope your chick makes it and isn't too spoiled by all that TLC and the goodies.

 

[funnybirds]

Thanks a lot . Made a little bandaid shoe for him. With the help of hubby.
Man that's some tricky stuff.
Looks like he had a little pasty butt going on too. Got him cleaned up.
He's not a fan.
He's eating more at each feeding.
Still on fluidy stuff. Hopefully when he can walk he
can start feeding himself.
Thanks again.

 

[funnybirds]

Well little bird is gone. Died yesterday.
So sad.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sorry to hear the little chick died, you did all you could.

 

[tallyho]

So sorry. You worked so hard to save it. Poor little thing. hugs to you....