Lethargic chick

[Lekastberg]

We have a couple chicks from a local school that hatched them for an elementary class that we agreed to take and eventually integrate into our flock. As you can expect there was varying degrees of survival and splayed legs from improper incubation (a whole other subject I won’t get into right now) but one of the ones that was strong in the beginning is now 4 days old and small and lethargic, I brought it into its own little area for a few hours, made sure the proper temp was reached and maintained, gave a little sugar water and egg yolk to try to kick start it so it could get the energy to drink and feed on its own but it doesn’t seem to be perking up. I know there can be issues from unclean drinking water but I refresh it constantly and it seems to be the only one that is in this condition. I guess I’m just wondering if it is just not able to survive or if anyone has any recommendations on what I can try? It’s late where I live and all of our supply stores are closed so I’m just trying to work with what I have to keep it going until morning. I’ve hatched babies successfully quite a few times and this is my first time running into this issue.

 

[azygous]

It appears you're doing everything that can be done. Continue the sugar water. Finely minced boiled egg and crumbled tofu have worked for me in the past. But the best thing for this chick would be Poultry Nutri-drench.

 

[FC16]

How’s it going? Try and do all you can as mine never made it

 

[Lekastberg]

It unfortunately didn’t make it through the night.. Tough to know exactly what it was but it’s a shame to see schools mass hatch chicks without proper incubation or care for the chicks post-hatching. About 1/3 of the 63 chicks we received (fostered some for 2 friends farms and keeping the rest) were born with splayed legs and/or curled toes because the incubator was too hot, they spent too much time on a smooth surface with no bedding before we received them or just birth defect. Not the biggest fan of schools doing this even though it is fantastic for the kids to experience! Been a long weekend of some crazy chick therapy but this one was my favorite so I was really hoping it would pull through!