I have a sticky chick. I ended up having to help it hatch. It seems to be getting a little stronger now. My question is he is completely sticky all over. His feathers feel like he has way to much dried hair gel in. So what do I do? How do I get it off. How long should I wait before I do something. Also from being stuck the way he was in there seems like his leg might be stuck out to the back. Does anyone have any suggestions??? Please help!!!! I am new at this and don't know what to do. Michelle
Warm wet washcloth and place him back in the bator til dry. Repeat as necessary. Dry clean only...lol
Thanks, should I wait until he is a little stronger to do this? Are they able to go to the bathroom when they are sticky like this. I know gross question but, I guess I really need to know. I don't think he can walk either, I don't think I know what I have gotten myself into. I couldn't just sit there and watch him die though. Ugggh!!!!!!
I had the worse sticky chick ever last Easter. Found her 2 days after everyone else had hatched. She pipped the bottom of the egg and I didn't see it until I was cleaning the unhatched eggs out of the incubator. She couldn't even uncurl her little body after I got her out of the egg. I cleaned her with warm washcloths, gave her drops of diluted poly-vi-sol in sugar water every couple of hours, and kept her warm in the incubator. 24 hours later she was a bouncing, perfect fluffy chick. Good luck with your sticky chick!!
You could gently rub him with a wet, warm q-tip and try to clean him up in small areas. Maybe spend two to three minutes cleaning him and then let him rest in the toasty warm bator for half an hour. Since you had to help him hatch, I'm going to suggest (just suggest!) that he may have something wrong with him that might be causing the weakness, the stickiness and the odd position of his leg. I had one chick who I helped hatch, thought he was sticky from a bator issue (though none of his siblings had those problems) but discovered he had major physical deformities. Not fun, but part of the chicken raising experience. Hope the rest of the hatch is going well!
you can rinse him off with warm water.. stick chicks feel like they have glue stuck to them.. so using warm running water gets it off faster than a warm wet washcloth.. as soon as you have the goo off towel dry and put back in the bator to dry off... as for the leg.. sounds like if the bath doesn't help you may have to hobble the chick like they do for spraddle leg.. you can use a bandaid which was been cut lengthwise or even pipe cleaners.. I'll see if I can find the link which has pics
i also use the rubber type shelf liner from walmart (with the little holes in it) as a brooder liner to help give new chicks traction.. Do you have any pics of the chick to make sure I'm on the right track as to what you need to do? http://www.poultryhelp.com/spraddle.html has info on spraddle leg as well as some pics for more info on leg and foot issues: https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry scroll down to "Leg Hobbles to treat Splayed Leg"