Thank you! Firstly for your response but secondly for now giving me hope for any future chicks that may prolapse some of their intestines. Although we don't have any round ended tweezers I now believe it is possible to save them. However I do think perhaps that depends on the case as well. We have in the past had to put down two chicks BC if intestinal prolapse. One pulled out a couple inches and before we knew it the hole had almost completely closed cutting off blood supply. The other hatched with its intestines out and wrapped tightly around its ankle. I believe I would probably rinse the intestines if out with sterile saline or gentle iodine before replacing them. That being said I would love more information on that part. Now thirdly thank you also for giving me hope for this little chickie. I should mention that this egg is not wet and squishy inside at all that I can see. I don't believe this chick could drown in the mess, suffocate if it turned probably, but I also don't think it can turn. Poor thing is so very glued in there but it isn't shrink wrapped again it's unlike anything ice ever seen. It's as though it had no membrane on top by the air cell. I really have no clue if this chick is appropriately formed as it's so curled up I can't tell what I'm seeing. I believe it's the back. Poor baby. And such a large egg too I'm not sure why it's so badly positioned. I will be checking on it and hoping to see some blood having been absorbed from the membranes down the sides of the egg in a couple hours. We will see. If it doesn't make it I will be eggtopsying and will take pictures but I'm not sure how I'll post them as my phone hasn't allowed me to post them for some time. I'll probably use DH2B's phone. Also before I forget I did add a couple drops of warm water to the air cell end of the egg just a very little to try and keep the membranes on the egg walls moist and hopefully allow the chick some relief from the glue. My hope is that if the chick absorbs alk or most of the blood them I can assist. At this point it's hard to know if the blood is still absorbing or if it is too much that the chick couldn't survive. I believe without the yolk it's too much to lose. I don't want it to have too much more to deal with. More later. Thank you all keep the advice coming.I just went through two instances with 2 separate chicks that correspond directly to your issue. This is what happened and what I did. (I'll try to not write a novel)CHICK #2 Was a breech chick. Super strong with the will to live. It was shrink wrapped but had internally pipped. I left it a long time because I was out combining and wasn't in the house to attend. Which is why it was probably shrink wrapped because I missed the drop and didn't get water added. I opened the large end to confirm diagnosis. Arteries still had blood at that time so I used a Q-tip to moisten the membrane. Put him in my container in the incubator making sure his pip was up. Added a wet paper towel in the container and covered it with a sandwich baggie to keep moisture in. Pics below.
Opened at the end. (see the beak)
Magnification of the internal pip
Waiting for the blood vessels to shrink Once the blood vessels were shrunken I carefully peeled the shell and membrane from the chick. I left the wet chick to dry in the container in the incubator. When he was half dry I discovered a small amount of intestine had popped out...presumably from his navel? If I remember correctly, I left the chick to sleep for a bit with the intestine out while I got my tools together. This allowed the yolk sac to shrink a bit as the chick absorbed it to give more room to replace the intestine. I had previous experience with intestines on chick #1 and this is why I choose to wait before replacing anything.
Peeling the shell and then membrane off carefully
Left to dry
The chick's intestine
Intestine replaced. I cut a bandaid in half, lengthwise so I could make an X bandage. I used an X bandage on CHICK #1 and found this works really well.
X bandage keeping wound covered
Top view of X bandage on CHICK #1 CHICK #1 Chick #1 was breech in an egg that was under a new broody mom. She had pecked a chick earlier but I left the egg thinking it was safe.
She pecked the egg prematurely, broke the yolk sac and made a hole in the chicks abdomen. It was impossible to tell anything from the mess of sticky yolk and blood the chick was in. I "thought" the chick only had the yolk sac sticking out so I used a bandaid and bandaged the bum/yolk sac area so the chick could absorb any remaining yolk overnight. I placed the chick in a small container (as previously shown with Chick #2) and left the chick overnight. I made the X bandage the next day because I wanted to clean the chick up and see how the yolk sac was doing. I was worried it wouldn't be able to poop with the bandaid I had used. The X bandage covers a wound/escaping intestines securely but still allows the chick to poop.
It was then I became aware of the perforation of the chick's abdomen and that it was a loop of intestine hanging out of CHICK #1. The bandaid kept the intestine moist enough. (And this is why I chose to wait with CHICK #2 before replacing things) Caught off guard I carefully replaced the intestine with round end tweezers that were NOT sterilized. I also felt I couldn't clean the chick up because of the perforation in the abdomen. So the intestine was carefully replaced as is. The small amount of tissue from the yolk sac was dried and I carefully removed anything that looked safe to remove.
After the hole was healed and the chick got a bath.
No sign of damage after the chick was fluffed out.
Chick #1 on the left. She's now the bigger of the chicks. Chick #2 was healed in two days and the X bandaid was taken off. I gave no antibiotics because I felt the container, and paper towels etc were clean and the intestine was not damaged or dirtied. Chick #1 was given antibiotics; a water soluble powder consisting of Tetracycline HCL and Neomycin sulfate. It was impossible to measure in a per chick amount because the powder is meant to be mixed in large amounts. I guessed at the tiny fraction amount of powder on my 1/8 tsp measure spoon and got the chick to drink the concoction throughout the day. This chick was left in with the other chicks and I couldn't treat the water. I gave the chick the antibiotic for 6 days, one day extra than I planned. I had read threads on here about peritonitis and decided on this antibiotic from posted material from Casportpony. @casportpony
I kept the X bandage on for 3 days. Bathed and cleaned the chick up on the 3rd day as well. Both chicks did healed quickly with no sign of damage. Both did exceptionally well and never missed a beat. I thought I'd lose chick #1 to peritonitis for sure. I'm still quite tickled AND pleasantly surprised they both made it. If your chick has the will to live it certainly can make it.
