Chick - failure to thrive

[Lizzy733]

I'm really not sure what to do for this little one.

So this one hatched successfully on it's own early on the 15th, and I noticed its navel was leaving a few spotty blood patches on the paper towel in the incubator. Not enough to be worried, but notable.

I gave it time to fluff up and gave it a once-over before moving it to the brooder. The navel area was slightly exposed, so I dabbed on a bit of betadine and gave it a chance to rest up in the heat.

I've shown it the water and feeder multiple times, but never seen it actively drink or eat. It does seem to be getting a 'little' more active, but it is constantly sleeping or secluding itself from the rest of the brood, which are all fiesty and healthy (even the ones with rougher hatches).

I gave it the smallest bit if polyaid yesterday and just finished offering about 2ml of warmed water with ACV, for a bit if a vitamin boost today and to keep it hydrated, but not sure if it really has much of a prognosis.

It has a few other fiddly issues, a crooked middle toe on one foot and it was either pecked in or has a deformed eyelid on one side (The eye is intact). It wasn't too keen on opening it's eyes post hatch, but I didn't inspect too closely at the time.

I could possibly tube feed, I have one tiny enough, but just getting polyaid down was rough enough and I'm not sure their crop capacity at this age. - might be too much of an aspiration risk.

I did try to vetwrap the crooked toe to the straight ones, but couldn't get it to stay on.
It has a pretty prominent navel scab, about the size of a sunflower seed, minus the husk.

At what point should I know if it's coming right? Anything else I should be trying?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you have photos?

The chick is around 24rs old now? I would give her another day to see if she comes around. She may be failing since there's issues and of course your already questioning whether she's going to make it.
I would still try to get the polyaid into her a couple of times a day. Offer some soupy chick starter and see if she can manage that.

 

[Lizzy733]

Do you have photos?

The chick is around 24rs old now? I would give her another day to see if she comes around. She may be failing since there's issues and of course your already questioning whether she's going to make it.
I would still try to get the polyaid into her a couple of times a day. Offer some soupy chick starter and see if she can manage that.

She's actually just started showing an interest in food since I posted this. It may be that the water+acv I gave her earlier finally helped get her over the bend.

Tried splinting her toe, but she's not so low on energy that she can't fight that and she's already lost the vetwrap somewhere in the brooder. Couldn't even keep the toothpick splint in place. It's only the middle one and all the other s are good.

My front camera is busted and getting in-focus pics from the selfie cam is like pulling teeth.

Couldn't get anything focussed enough to really show what's going on with her eyelid, but I tried. Doesn't help that everything's black on black.

Her navel is well concealed in fuzz and I won't flip her at the moment as it seems to stress her out. Since she's showing some improvement, I'll leave that for now.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The toe is minor and something I really wouldn't worry with unless it really starts to curl under. Crooked toes is usually due to incubation problems - you may want to look that up.

With chicks - most of the time all you can do is keep working on hydration and encourage eating. Too many issues, then cull.

 

[Lizzy733]

The toe is minor and something I really wouldn't worry with unless it really starts to curl under. Crooked toes is usually due to incubation problems - you may want to look that up.

With chicks - most of the time all you can do is keep working on hydration and encourage eating. Too many issues, then cull.

Thanks,

Yes, it's a Chinese incubator and our first time using it. It was in a well insulated location for most of the incubation, then moved to a more accessible location for lockdown. We had high losses in specific locations in the incubator after lockdown, so suspecting there were issues after the move. We were using calibrated thermometers and hydrometers, but I was only monitoring the center for lockdown.

Eggs were also shipped though and some had a rough journey. We ended with 7 out if 22 with 12 making it to lockdown. Other losses never internally pipped.

Will be waiting a few weeks for the chick to get closer to leaving the brooder and will start quail eggs (and go for pickup). Thinking about adding ceramic false eggs or rocks to the brooder to help with temp as it was much more consistent when the incubator was mostly full.

The little one seems to be staying on the food, but haven't seen her drink independently.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Staying on the food is pretty good, are you giving a wet mash so she's getting some fluids?

 

[Lizzy733]

Staying on the food is pretty good, are you giving a wet mash so she's getting some fluids?

No, but she's reliably drinking from a syringe, so don't mind topping her up till she figures it out or I catch her using it.

She's also getting around the brooder and standing a bit more, so good signs at least.

 

[Lizzy733]

I caught it finally drinking on it's own last night, but then it passed this morning at 1 week old.

I have a sneaky suspicion it might have had a gallop heartbeat. Its chest always seemed to be pounding, but I don't have a stethoscope at home, so could never properly check.

I've seen a duckling with that once and the energy levels and attitude were very much the same. Considering it had the bad eyelid and crooked toe, other congenital issues would not be surprising.

Thankfully, the rest of the hatch is thriving - including the two malposition hatch assists.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I caught it finally drinking on it's own last night, but then it passed this morning at 1 week old.

I have a sneaky suspicion it might have had a gallop heartbeat. Its chest always seemed to be pounding, but I don't have a stethoscope at home, so could never properly check.

I've seen a duckling with that once and the energy levels and attitude were very much the same. Considering it had the bad eyelid and crooked toe, other congenital issues would not be surprising.

Thankfully, the rest of the hatch is thriving - including the two malposition hatch assists.

I'm sorry to hear that