Hi BYC friends,
Here's some updates on Dusty's condition and another worry I have now. Is there a chance that some infection could have somehow passed to the eggs she was sitting on? Here is what happened:
I cleaned Dusty's wound daily and treated her with cephalaxine. After two days, the infection (white pus and bad smell) in the wound had completely gone away and the inflammation subsided. I stopped the cephalaxine after 5 days because it didn't look like she needed more and her droppings were getting a bit loose. I gave her probiotics for a week and she seemed fine. Very dedicated to sitting on her eggs
Her poop firmed back up, but still with a greenish color. She ate less food the closer she got to day 21 of her sit, but that's normal for her.
Her hatch started on Day 20 (November 1). It was messy and staggered. She is a good broody who got her last clutch hatched quickly, so I think the staggered hatch was due to extreme weather variability we are experiencing right now. We're on the equator and the rainy season is off to a hot, humid, stormy, thundery start with a lot of fluctuations and I think that affected the developing chicks.
She had four eggs in her clutch. One chick emerged early. It seemed healthy and strong. On day 21, another egg began moving. The other two eggs looked like duds, but didn't smell, so I left them.
Well, the second live egg pipped yesterday late morning on Day 22, and the second chick emerged at about 10 hours later at 8pm last night.
(I hate staggered hatches. Anything and everything can go wrong. I usually don't let hens set at this time of year because I've learned that the drier months are more successful for clean, quick hatches. But I wanted to take advantage of Dusty's broodiness to let her isolate without depression so her wound could heal.)
So (sigh), yesterday at some point in the afternoon, the poor first chick died. The chick was very vigorous, showed no signs of drooping or lethargy. It was active and curious, drank water, and ate a bit of feed after it's first 24 hours. The first poop I saw it pass was liquidy, but then solid after it ate it's first feed. I'm thinking perhaps it had some infection -- or, more likely, Dusty accidentally killed it by treading on it.
I had checked on them yesterday around noon. I was really concerned that Dusty hadn't been able to get up to poop in a whole day, but the pip in the egg was enlarged and I didn't want to do anything to disturb the hatching.
When I returned to check on the situation at 4pm, I found that Dusty just could not hold her poop anymore. She had pooped in her nest, then moved her three eggs about a foot away from the mess. The poor 2 day old chick was lying dead in between Dusty and the mess of poop.
So she either killed it by treading on it in all the stress of pooping and trying to move her eggs. Or the chick was overcome by some sickness and died. But given that the chick seemed fine at midday and was dead four hours later, the first cause seems more likely.
I've never had a sick chick or problem with coccidiosis. All my chicks are hatched by broodies and in small clutches on clean sand bedding.
The second hatched chick appears healthy as well. I tossed the two other eggs today, one had some brown spots, and Dusty's already sat for 23 days now. I guess all I can do is hope that there isn't some bacterial infection being passed from Dusty to the chicks. It would be sad for her to lose both.
Any thoughts or advice? Thank you in advance for reading.
