Chick hernia?

[Huckleberrypie]

Woke up to find one of my cream legbar chicks hatched -- this is my first experience hatching eggs. My first unequivocally female (of course) chick has what I'm wondering is an umbilical hernia or worse, maybe it's her intestine I'm seeing? She doesn't look good. Is there anything to do for her, or is it more humane to put her down? (That's a chunk of shell stuck to it)

 

[Pyxis]

I can't really make out from this picture whether it's intestine, or whether it's some of the yolk sac that hasn't been absorbed. The latter will probably be fine with proper care, and it would dry up and fall off with no harm to the chick, but the former would require her to be humanly culled.

Any chance you could get some clearer pictures?

 

[Huckleberrypie]

I think it must be intestine -- it has started to dry out now and looks like dried blood/tissue. She also had a pretty long umbilical cord running from her shell. The chick is listless and laying on its side. I had another chick pipping that I didn't want to jeopardize by opening the incubator, since I don't have prior experience...

Unless you feel otherwise, I will cull her. That's what my gut says, and now that the other chick pipped.... This stinks! Also, for the future, could I have intervened (had I been awake and caught it earlier) or was this unavoidable?

 

[Pyxis]

Actually that may be just the 'sac' that the yolk was in. I had one like that earlier this year. In about a week it had dried up and fallen off. Intestines look kind of worm-like. This is a chick with intestines out:

I would give yours some time and see if it perks up.

 

[Huckleberrypie]

Ok. I'll give it a bit. I moved her to her own incubator so she's not getting trampled. Thank you for your reply!

I'll update with the outcome...

 

[Huckleberrypie]

As the day wore on, it became apparent that the chick couldn't balance; she would twist her neck up and arch back, and couldn't stay on her feet at all. Researching that, I landed on wry neck and gave her some Vit E and selenium and chick electrolyte water last night. At 1:30am, she was sitting on her belly instead of laying on her side. This morning she was standing!! As the morning wore on, I decided to put her in the brooder with the other chicks, hoping she would start to eat at their example. She was holding her own, for sure! So encouraging. I spent a lot of the morning in there with them, watching and making sure she wasn't in distress. Feeling confident, I left them for an hour or so, and when I came back she was sleeping underneath the Brisea heater but not very responsive. It was clear that the spunk I'd seen from the beginning while handling her was gone. I placed her back in the incubator thinking maybe she needed warmth or quiet, and she went downhill fast. A few minutes later she passed on. It was such a high morning, and then such a sudden crash. I'm sure I made errors along the way, but even my very bird-experienced sister was surprised. Thank you for your help. I'm glad I gave her a chance, but I guess it was just not meant to be.

 

[Pyxis]

I'm so sorry. You did all that you could.