Chick hatched today with what appears to be prolapse vent! Help!

[danimajor1988]

Hey everyone, I incubated some eggs from my hens. The incubator broke during incubation and only 1 hatched. I had a late egg I started 4 days after the others which was malpositioned and pipped externally last night because it was unable to pip internally. I proceeded to start the assisted hatch and widened the air hole, I put her back in the incubator after applying some coconut oil to exposed sack and set her facing up before heading to bed. I woke up this morning and she hadn't moved so I carefully removed more shell and helped pull the sack away from her face and body to help her out a little then put her back. A Couple hours passed and I returned to see her out of the remaining shell but not trying to stand up or anything like the other chick was at this point. I noticed her vent looks odd like maybe a little yolk is attached to it or maybe a possible prolapse. Also her legs look odd like they may be splayed. Any advice besides culling would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully someone out there has had something similar happen. I understand the risks of assisted hatch and researched it thoroughly before hand so please, no harsh words for assisting the hatch to begin with.

 

[6BeachChicks]

@Eggcessive @azygous @Wyorp Rock

 

[danimajor1988]

I've had time to do more research on the forum here and it sounds like it may be the yolk wasn't finished absorbing. It has continued shrinking through the day and the picture below is what it looks like now. Any different opinions would be helpful but the chick is still alive and doesn't appear to be getting worse. I'll post more updates for those in the future that experience issues like this.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How's your chick doing?

Is she still in the incubator?
I agree, it looks like an unabsorbed yolk sac. Is she able to push herself about at all?

I would apply a little triple antibiotic ointment or bacitracin on the exposed tissue (gently wipe it off first with betadine, chlorhexidine or saline). Place the chick in a paper towel lined coffee or tea cup and leave her in bator for a day. See if she will finish absorbing the yolk sac and start pushing against the cup to strengthen her legs.

You can still give drops of fluids if you wish, hopefully she will take it in.
For this little one, I would mix a little sugar with warm water, crush up 1/4-1/2 tablet B-Complex and mix it all up really well. Give her 2-3 drops every few hours.

The B-Complex contains B2 (Riboflavin) which is helpful for leg health. Poultry Nutri-drench would be fine to give it you don't have B-Complex, but it does not contain B2.

Hopefully there's no infection as she absorbs the sac.
Keep us posted on how it's going.

 

[danimajor1988]

How's your chick doing?

Is she still in the incubator?
I agree, it looks like an unabsorbed yolk sac. Is she able to push herself about at all?

I would apply a little triple antibiotic ointment or bacitracin on the exposed tissue (gently wipe it off first with betadine, chlorhexidine or saline). Place the chick in a paper towel lined coffee or tea cup and leave her in bator for a day. See if she will finish absorbing the yolk sac and start pushing against the cup to strengthen her legs.

You can still give drops of fluids if you wish, hopefully she will take it in.
For this little one, I would mix a little sugar with warm water, crush up 1/4-1/2 tablet B-Complex and mix it all up really well. Give her 2-3 drops every few hours.

The B-Complex contains B2 (Riboflavin) which is helpful for leg health. Poultry Nutri-drench would be fine to give it you don't have B-Complex, but it does not contain B2.

Hopefully there's no infection as she absorbs the sac.
Keep us posted on how it's going.

Thank you so much!! I mixed up some electrolyte water and gave her some drops last night and she drank them. I put some antibiotic ointment and coconut oil on the area being absorbed to keep it moist and put her back in the bator overnight. When I woke up this morning she was finally on her feet chirping loudly at me. I got her out and put her in with her sister that hatched 4 days earlier but the older chick doesn't seem to understand what's going on because she's been alone with Humans for company. So she ignores her or pecks at her, which I can't have her doing until the baby dries off completely and can walk. But anyways the baby chick made it and seems a lot stronger and more alert. She finally opened her eyes as well. From what I read because of the way she hatched and was positioned and from the unobserved yolk, she's like a premie baby and needs a little extra time to do the things the other bird was ready to do immediately. Here's some pictures of baby now, hopefully this will help others as I had a hard time finding pics for this specific issue anywhere. Thanks so much I love backyard chickens and the community of people here. It's the first place I go when I need to learn something about chickens or need advice or help. Always somebody to help!

 

[danimajor1988]

I'll post more when she dries off and more later when she's a little older so we can see if this issue has long term affects.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm glad to hear she made it overnight and is perking up a bit.
Hopefully all will go well, please do give us updates on how she's doing.

 

[6BeachChicks]

Glad she’s ok!