*I am not a vet, everything here is from personal experience and Googling* I wanted to share the story of one of my chicks in case in helps someone else. From the incubator this chick exhibited what looked like a soaking wet back end that appeared to be due to clear or yellowish liquid leaking through the naval. She was somewhat listless sitting under the heating plate only to come out to drink excessive amounts of water. When Nutridrench was administered a few drops at a time, she would perk up and eat medicated starter. I gave her a couple of baths in order to clear off the liquid, but it would reappear within 8 hours. Googling her symptoms seemed to fit Omphalitis (aka mushy chick syndrome, egg yolk infection) likely due to picking up bacteria through the unhealed naval from the exterior of one of the shells in the incubator. Poop was normal when it appeared, though there wasn't much because the chick didn't really eat at all. All other 14 chicks were healthy.
Most resources said that pretty much all chicks will eventually die, and one resource (https://cluckin.net/omphalitis-or-mushy-chick-disease-and-how-to-prevent-and-treat-it.html) suggested that if the chick survives, it may be a lifelong carrier of the bacteria that it picked up, which in the case of salmonella or ecoli could be spread to humans. Even though the chick seemed like it could potentially survive with enough care, I didn't want to risk dealing with ecoli or salmonella in my flock. I decided culling was going to work best for this chick and my flock in general. This was done on day 4 after hatch.
I went through all the manners of culling since I've never had to dispatch a chick before, and didn't like the idea of the suffocation methods via carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide because of the potential for suffering if done incorrectly. Here's what I did, and it worked very well and I will use it in the future. I used my extremely sharp kitchen shears that I use often for cutting up chicken carcasses for soup, so I knew they would be very effective. I held the chick under a heat lamp until it fell asleep, and as quickly as possible decapitated the chick. It never even woke up and was over in seconds. I'm glad that the suffering was minimal and I was able to offer it comfort in its last moments since the warmth of the heat lamp seemed to really relax the chick.
Most resources said that pretty much all chicks will eventually die, and one resource (https://cluckin.net/omphalitis-or-mushy-chick-disease-and-how-to-prevent-and-treat-it.html) suggested that if the chick survives, it may be a lifelong carrier of the bacteria that it picked up, which in the case of salmonella or ecoli could be spread to humans. Even though the chick seemed like it could potentially survive with enough care, I didn't want to risk dealing with ecoli or salmonella in my flock. I decided culling was going to work best for this chick and my flock in general. This was done on day 4 after hatch.
I went through all the manners of culling since I've never had to dispatch a chick before, and didn't like the idea of the suffocation methods via carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide because of the potential for suffering if done incorrectly. Here's what I did, and it worked very well and I will use it in the future. I used my extremely sharp kitchen shears that I use often for cutting up chicken carcasses for soup, so I knew they would be very effective. I held the chick under a heat lamp until it fell asleep, and as quickly as possible decapitated the chick. It never even woke up and was over in seconds. I'm glad that the suffering was minimal and I was able to offer it comfort in its last moments since the warmth of the heat lamp seemed to really relax the chick.
