late hatchers

[AmyLynn2374]

OP's better half here. Attaching pics of these late kids. Concerned about the feet of the smaller one.



Both are eating and drinking well. This little one has curved feet. He gets around alright but I'm concerned about those ltitle feet. We did have them on newspaper and he couldn't get around at all on that so I swapped it out for straw and that's easier for him. I'm totally ok with keeping him (or her) as a special needs guy if they don't straighten out. My question is, has anyone dealt with this before and is there anything I can do to help straighten them out?

Curled toes are usually easily straightened out with a boot/sandle. Here is a great link for help:http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/spraddle-leg-in-baby-chicks-what-is-it.html
They are adorable.

 

[bcostley]

I had the same question recently. As noted above you can splint. We tried to splint but failed and our chick resolved on its own.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/969005/chick-with-lame-foot#post_15118770

 

[keiferlou]

Will definitely try the boot! Thanks!

 

[scflock]

Will definitely try the boot! Thanks!

The boot works, I've done it twice. Also a good move putting her on straw. The texture will give her something to stretch out her toes and grip

 

[keiferlou]

I'm so sad to say that the little guy passed away yesterday

I managed to make the boots for his feet and he wasn't able to get around well at all at first but by yesterday morning when I left for work, he was doing alright with them so I was optimistic and looking forward to snuggling him when I got home. First thing when I got home, I went to check on him and found him laying under the lamp, gasping for breath. I snatched him up and did my best to give some mouth to beak but he just didn't make it. He had some serious fluid build up on his chest and lower neck. I was optimistic but it just wasn't meant to be. I was sure getting attached and had just decided to call him Trooper. The other one was calling for him. It was so sad.

Lesson learned. No more hatching past day 24. Thank you all for your help.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I'm so sad to say that the little guy passed away yesterday

I managed to make the boots for his feet and he wasn't able to get around well at all at first but by yesterday morning when I left for work, he was doing alright with them so I was optimistic and looking forward to snuggling him when I got home. First thing when I got home, I went to check on him and found him laying under the lamp, gasping for breath. I snatched him up and did my best to give some mouth to beak but he just didn't make it. He had some serious fluid build up on his chest and lower neck. I was optimistic but it just wasn't meant to be. I was sure getting attached and had just decided to call him Trooper. The other one was calling for him. It was so sad.

Lesson learned. No more hatching past day 24. Thank you all for your help.

Awe. Sorry to hear that.

 

[scflock]

That's the dark side of helping, and why I rarely do it any more. I had one that I booted, named it Cobbler, and he was looking better after day 3. Day 4 I came home from work and he had died. That's tough after you've tried so hard. Sometimes they just aren't meant to hatch. I shut down late day 23 now

 

[AmyLynn2374]

That's the dark side of helping, and why I rarely do it any more. I had one that I booted, named it Cobbler, and he was looking better after day 3. Day 4 I came home from work and he had died. That's tough after you've tried so hard. Sometimes they just aren't meant to hatch. I shut down late day 23 now

My nn out of my next to the last hatch was an assist. He seemded perfectly fine. I noticead after 24 hours that he had extreme pasty butt-the diarhea kind, no matter how I cleaned him him butt got worse and worse. Tried the ACV, didn't help, but for the first week, that was the only thing that was apparent. He acted fine, ate fine, he was smaller and not growing though. A couple days after a week he died, but I knew it was coming -about 12 hours earlier he had taken a turn for the worse. Obviously there was more behind his reasoning for having trouble hatching-but for that one case that died, I have helped 4 others that have made it and been perfectly healthy. If I stopped helping because I lost the one, my maleposition pullet that is giving me some nice eggs wouldn't be here today. Not to mention a couple others. A couple of them might have been ok w/or without help, but I know for a fact Lucy would never have gotten outta that egg..lol

I candle 24 hours after the last hatcher if I have had no action -if there are no internal pips or obvious signs of life (and it's been 48 hours since the first one hatched) I start tapping into the air cells.
My last hatch I eggtopsied the night of day 20. After 32 hatchers and no action I candled. Found one to be alive and moving, so he stayed in (and decided to join us on day 21-punctual little thing). I had no doubt the other two were done and eggtopsied to find two extremelt shrink wrapped chicks. I don't see the need to drag it out.
If I can see a sign of life, I can't not try. I agree, after day 24 there's not much hope that a hatcher would be healthy/completely normal even if it lived. I just can't intentionally "plug the plug".

 

[WVduckchick]

Heartbreaking story. Sorry for your loss keiferlou and wynn.

 

[keiferlou]

*Update on the surviving chick feather kid*

I debated sharing this with you fine forum folks because I felt stupid when I figured it out but I also had to laugh really hard at myself because it was like, WELL DUH! I like to find the bright side and the humor in any situation so even though I couldn't save Trooper, there's this....

I figured out why those two hatched so much later than the rest. Also, I know why they seemed much smaller than I was expecting and why the baby noises sounded so different.

They were guineas. Yup.

Impostors!

We had three pearl guineas that I had given to my best friends dad because while they were cool, they were total a-holes to the rest of the flock and were beating everybody up. I didn't know they were laying. Never saw them go in the chicken house during the day or anything to make me think they were laying. So when we started that hatch, we just assumed the little eggs were from Alien, our little Bantam. Well, you know what happens when you assume! Anyway, we lost Trooper and my youngest decided to name the remaining one E.T because we thought it was from Alien.

I was refilling feed and water for all the chicks yesterday and was getting frustrated with E.T. because he was racing around, trying everything to avoid being picked up. The other chicks don't care. What is your deal E.T.?? I finally got him picked up and he was not having it so I was talking to him and he was calling for his brooder mate and it hit me. This is a dang guinea! I don't know a lot about guineas (obviously) but really looking closely at him once I realized, I can see it now.

I wasn't looking for guinea because I didn't know they were laying and I had given them away so long before this. We really just thought they were very small Bantams. That explains everything!!

He's doing great and is big enough and certainly fast enough now that he's in with the chicks and getting along perfectly.

So, there you go. I'm still laughing at this