Documentary on yolk sac/umbilical preemies

Somshine

Songster
Aug 14, 2022
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Figured I'd post this in case anyone else went through the same thing. This is my third hatch. I've noticed two of my hens that lay extra large eggs we're doing okay through incubation but seem to take a turn after lockdown and either weren't coming out at all or we're having difficult hatches. Now I did get a few healthy chicks from these eggs with no issues. But the issues I've had every hatch were always in these eggs. They were coming out not ready. The first two from the hatch before last were massive umbilical bleeds. I was able to get them under control and they are now perfectly normal almost 9 week old chickens. One of them drowned in the egg. Something I am noticing very common with these premature hatchlings. They all seem to have too much juice going on in the egg. It's almost like they're hatching prematurely to get out of it. The hatch before last I had one pip and juice and yolk dripping out of the egg and it never did hatch. This past hatch I had two that died in the egg. Never even pipped. One came out perfectly fine and another started to zip but it was a wide gaping zip and had a lot of juice. I was worried about it drowning in the egg like the last one but I did not want to open the incubator so I used a long wooden skewer to reach through the air vent and tilt the egg to allow all the juice to run out the best I could allowed it to roll back upright and left it alone. The chick hatched and was again premature. This time no bleeding no umbilical issues but a yolk sack clearly hanging out. Because there was no bleeding I did not want to open the incubator as I had another one who had already externally pipped. So I figured since these were stragglers and I had already removed the other chicks I would just leave it in there. Knowing it would be dangerous to have that hanging out with other chicks stepping on it but knowing I had no other chicks to step on it I figured it was the best thing to do. Slowly but surely it did pull the yoke in. But at some point when I went to bed another egg hatched and I believe that chick probably stomped on it. Pulled that one out, left this one in. Because I got up to a lot of blood but where there had been a yolk sac there was now an empty bag that looked kind of like guts. Knowing that these could be part of the digestive system and the intestines I wasn't sure what to do. But I know the chick was acting perfectly normal and walking around with this hanging from it. I almost culled the chick But I couldn't bring myself to do it because it was in every other way acting so healthy. When it hatched there was a lot of green goo in there like it had taken its first poop in the egg. It was covered in slime and yolk and some shell pieces and never did fluff out. I finally pulled the baby out and decided I needed to attend to this chick. Thoroughly check the other eggs and saw that they would not be hatching. I decided to see what I could do with this little chick. I first soaked it in warm water for quite a while in my hand until everything loosened up and I gently brushed everything out of its down with a toothbrush. I used some hemos to pinch where it looked like a good spot above this bag hanging out and got no reaction from the chick. I slowly snipped some of it. No blood. So I took a big gulp and snipped it. Left about a fifth of an inch hanging down of what looked like a tube of flesh. Packed a little antibiotic ointment in it wrap the chick in a clean washcloth to absorb all the water from its bath. No blood no discomfort the entire time from the chick except when I first started putting the water on it. It quickly got used to the warm water and calmed down though. So once it was mostly dry I put it in with the other chicks. Pulled it out a few hours later and it had a little dried nub where I had snipped but was otherwise acting perfectly normal and healthy. But I knew there was a possibility that this was part of its intestines and this would only be temporary while it was still living off of its own resources. It began to eat and drink with the other chicks which was a very good sign so I kept watching for the last good sign. Everything coming out the other end. Was not able to catch it pooping. But it also was not failing. It was thriving just like the rest and eating and drinking. Finally I decided I couldn't take the suspense anymore so after it ate and drank I decided I was going to hold it until it pooped. Sure enough big fat healthy chick poop in my hand. Absolutely doing fine and the only difference from the others is the color of its fluff, like the rest of them lol I went with my gut and I'm glad I did. I wish I could explain this from a medical perspective but I'm not a professional. I just had a gut feeling that if this was supposed to be inside of the chick it would have had a blood supply and some sense of pain. Anyway there is the documentation and here are some pictures.
 

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I cannot promise everyone will experience the same thing I did but I do know this chick is thriving. I did make sure there was no pain and blood supply and I did not go too close to the body. I kept this chick alone in the incubator and allowed the bag to be left alone until it started looking like it was getting tacky and drying up before doing this process. So about 7 hours after hatch.
 
I think a lot of people probably do intervene and cause more harm than good when the chick maybe did not need intervention. But I think a lot of people tend to think that these chicks born with umbilical bleeds or yolk sacks hanging out are always a case of that. I'm here to tell you, a chick will come out prematurely on its own. And I can't help but think it's because it's a healthy strong chick that needs to get out of that egg because of poor moisture loss. I'm feeling more confident with the more experience. If this happens again I may even feel confident enough to try to intervene by getting those juices out if I'm not lucky enough to have a wide gash over an inch long in the egg. I'll have to feel it out on whether it would be better to try to suction it out or make a bigger opening to where I can be sure I can pour them out without rolling its face into them first. Hopefully this dry hatch will be the solution to my juicy egg problem. But I feel a little more prepared and a little more experienced if that's not the case as I have successfully treated two pretty bad umbilical bleeds and now an unabsorbed yolk and had the chick bounce right back and thrive as if it never happened by 48 hours later.
 
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5 weeks old now and still just like the others! Very sweet inquisitive personality, sure hope it's a girl! I don't feel like we're going to have any issues!
 

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Great thread! I read it all.... about 2 and half days ago, I had 2 eggs hatch out of 12. These are my own eggs, rumpless tufted Araucanas...

Using a Nurture Right 360 - A friend had borrowed it and she interrupted the cycle. When I started it up, I didn't think to make sure it reset to factory settings. After a couple of days, I suspected the turner wasn't working, but I wasn't sure. I'd hit the test button and it seemed fine. By day 8 I knew something was wrong. I finally figured it out. Heartbreaking, really.

The first chick took forever to get out of the shell. I thought I was going to need to assist. The second pipped on day 22 and was out on day 23, but it was a nasty mess. Goo everywhere and I realized the chick's back end was a train wreck...the yolk sac had not been completely absorbed and the vent had something going on there too...I got it out of the incubator before the other one noticed...put some Neosporin on it the first day and later dipped it in iodine to help dry it up better. Yesterday, more Neosporin, but it I was worried the vent may be blocked. The chick is in such a mess, the down hasn't fluffed on the back half. It tries, but cries like it hurts....

The hatch mate is beginning to eat and drink, but this one isn't - although it is spry, it preens and stretches and pecks at it's surroundings (in between naps lol). So tonight, I brought it in and put it's back end under warm running water and quickly cleaned off everything - carefully avoiding the navel area....the chick seemed to enjoy it lol! Cheeping happily and nestled in the dry cloth afterwards, I gently blow-dried it a bit and put it back in the brooder...There is a screen dividing it from it's hatch mate, just in case! Hopefully, over night it can fluff up the down in the back and the appetite will kick in too...

I took several pics and none were good! This is before I washed it up tonight... Near my index finger, the yellow stuff, I think, is residual yolk (or maybe poo?) that hardened up. It's difficult to see, but the dark spot is the navel, still healing up a bit. It's larger in reality, the pic only shows a little of the navel. You can see the down hasn't fluffed, it's just stiff and stuck to the poor chick.

It's a tiny little thing, but I think it has tufts on both sides (Yeah!) - my first hatchling to have that 💕😁... I sure hope it survives 🙏
 

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Last night I just started a new small incubator batch on only these large and difficult eggs and then a few normal ones for comparison. I'm doing a dry hatch to see if that solves the moisture and drowning problem. I'll update!
 
It is also worth noting on the hatch before this I had the same juicy egg issue. But the chicken only made a hole in it instead of a partial zip. I believe because the head was by that hole this is what allowed it to breathe and do okay for most of the hatch day. I believe it is when the egg got rolled by another chick so that this hole was on the bottom that's when the fluids drowned the chick. It had been alive in there for quite a while and there was nothing running out of it. When I came back in and checked and saw there was no more movement or breathing that I could see from the beak I could see through this hole I also noted juices coming out of the hole. So I believe that's what happened as it got rolled around to where it's breathing hole was not on top and it drowned in the juices. Luckily on this one the chick had partially zipped. It was a zip a little over an inch long but kind of wide and gaping as the membrane was wet. This allowed me to see where the chicks head was so I knew what direction to roll the egg in and pour out extra fluid and keep the chicks face out of it. I could see it was still breathing when I let go and it rolled back right. So that's a major aspect. I was lucky enough to have a large enough opening to drain the fluids. I would be scared to try to create one as that can do its own damage if the membrane still has blood supply in it. But also if the opening is too small to pour out fluid while keeping the chick's head above it, by rolling it or newly hatched chicks rolling it you could be drowning it in the process.
 
Almost 5 days and perfect! You'd never know!
 

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Still going strong!
 

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