Documentary on yolk sac/umbilical preemies

[Somshine]

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.

 

[Somshine]

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!

 

[Somshine]

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.

 

[Somshine]

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.

 

[Somshine]

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.

 

[Somshine]

Another thing I've learned is that it is best to not open your incubator. Especially when you have eggs pipped. You do have to weigh out the pros and cons of doing that. But after having a few issues in my hatches and eventually realizing some of them needed to come out either because they had been in there a while and we were now waiting on issue eggs or because having them all in there was clearly exacerbating the problem with the issue eggs what I did is I got prepared to do this quickly. Took a big huge syringe and sucked a full syringe out of the water reservoir. Put some water in the microwave and got it hot. Not boiling hot or anything something you can still put your finger in without burning it. Had a box for the chicks a bag for the trash and everything I needed sitting right next to the incubator. Decided my plan of action which was chicks in box first quickly clean up trash and close. So when it was all prepared had everything I needed around me had my husband lift the incubator top straight up as to not let more humidity escape than necessary. Snatched up all the chicks quickly put them in the box snatched up all the trash quickly put it in the bag close the lid made sure it was sealed and then used the syringe to add the hot water back to the port. Had this whole process done and my humidity right back up to 75 in about a minute. If I feel confident enough to assist one of these eggs with increasing the opening or with a syringe to pull out fluids my plan is to do what I said above but also have a very warm damp washcloth to wrap the egg in while I work on it. But it will have to be an evaluation of where the incubator is at as a whole and where the other eggs are at as far as determining what chances I will take. Definitely got to weigh your risks and benefits.

 

[Somshine]

And I guess because I documented all of this I should go ahead and also include the two from the previous batch. The umbilical bleeders. This was clearly an emergency even though there were chicks in various drying stages and eggs in various hatching stages. You're wasting precious time and humidity trying to get this chick out and leave the other ones in there the way my incubator closes. So now I have learned that when hatch day starts I have a small box that I keep halfway on a heating pad on low next to my incubator. I have about six layers of paper towels on the floor of it. I take a hand towel and clip the short edges to the top sides of the box on the side with the heating pad to where the middle and length of the towel droops down low into the box. This way they have something to run up underneath that prevents drafts and heat loss. Then I take another towel and lay it across the entire top of the box and roll it back to leave an inch or two for ventilation. Both times I've had to do this with a few chicks I would have preferred to have left in the incubator to completely dry although many were dry. I just couldn't risk wrestling them and trying not to close the incubator on a leg and the precious time it would take to take some out leave others and so on. So everybody that was hatched got snatched up and moved into this box. They were happy, cuddled together dried very nicely and not a single one of them got chilled or distressed. They also were not bowling the problem eggs around anymore. The umbilical bleeds I solved two different ways. One still had some hanging. I quickly tied it with a thread and held the wet chick wrapped in a clean dry wash rag holding pressure on this area under my shirt up against my body to keep it warm. The second one had nothing hanging off to tie. I am a dog groomer so I have styptic powder. Dotted that on there wrapped it up held pressure and did the same thing. Both of these had to go into the above box by themselves for a while as I could not risk other chicks opening them up. But the box worked so well I felt confident not struggling and losing precious time and humidity trying to keep other chicks in the incubator and trying to close it quickly without pinching their toes off that from now on when I have to intervene I feel comfortable removing them even if they are not dry and using this box. You still have to think about your pipped eggs and your humidity. These are all a lot of things to consider and I would recommend if your hatch is going well leave it alone leave them all in there and follow standard protocol. Don't ever do these things prematurely just because. But here are some tricks that worked very well if that is not the case. Always go through the entire process in your head, have it down pat, have everything you need right next to you in a line in order of what you need to help you remember in the heat of the moment and be prepared to do it quickly and methodically if you have to intervene. Hopefully this might be of help to somebody! I'm still hoping for that perfect hatch. But in each hatch that I've had an emergency to intervene with and I've gotten more confident in techniques to help without compromising the rest. So far I've managed to keep my interventions to helping chicks that probably wouldn't have survived without causing any collateral damage. I've lost a couple that I may have been able to save with some intervention had I been confident enough. But I've saved everything I've intervened with so far and I've taken no collateral damage. And I'm slowly building an arsenal of tricks and procedure and confidence to hopefully not lose anything anymore out of fear of intervention. I know the most important part though is to have a thoroughly thought-out plan of action, be entirely prepared and organized and ready to be quick and methodical at go time. I'd love to hear any feedback!

 

[Somshine]

Hopefully I will not have to do these things in 3 weeks because this dry hatch will solve my juicy egg, drowned/ premature chick problem on the ginormous eggs from the two hens that have been my problems each hatch. They are my best daily producers and have massive eggs. I really want their babies. I know some chicken breeds can be quite fussy to hatch and although these are just barnyard mixes that shouldn't fall in that category I feel like the size of their eggs might be placing them there. So hopefully some fine tuning on these particular eggs will make that a possibility. If they continue to be a problem after a dry hatch I will write them off as to not cause undue suffering or breed something with a genetic predisposition to having hatch issues. But in the process I've learned how to address these issues and hopefully have figured out a way to successfully hatch these eggs while avoiding these issues by a more specific approach to their incubation needs. We will know in 3 weeks whether I have a solution or whether I need to get over having babies from these two stellar hens. Happy hatching!

 

[Somshine]

My two beautiful hens with umbilical bleeds now almost 9 weeks old and thriving! I sure hope this new little rescue ends up being a hen too

 

[Somshine]

Almost 5 days and perfect! You'd never know!