Newly hatched chick has something hanging off it - unabsorbed yolk? Intestine? Help! PICS ADDED

[caitlinscarlett]

Our first ever chick hatched overnight but she has something hanging from her rear - I'm not sure if it's unabsorbed yolk or her intestine. It's red ish rather than the yolk colour.I'll post a pic as soon as I get into work - cant figure how to do it from phone. Our bantam chick hatched 5 mins ago and she looks fine. Our goat kidded overnight by herself too! Baby central here this morning! We'd hate to lose this one though so any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Lacrystol]

OK don't panic, I have had a chick do this too,only mine had a red bubble from her vent. Sounds like your chick hatched out to quickly Is this like a string hanging down? if so how long is this string? It could be the vein that hasn't quite absorbed all the blood, is your chick walking around and acting normal? Give me more information i maybe able to help. I doubt it if it's intestine...

 

[Lacrystol]

Sorry sounds like the Allantois is hanging, which is nothing to worry about, it will dry up and fall off...

 

[caitlinscarlett]

It's about an inch and a half long and not uniform in width - it bulges towards the middle. She is walking around a little and she tried to help the other chick out of her shell. She's still very gummy and the incubator was covered in dried up bits of yellowy stuff (yolk?) inside her egg shell is quite a bloody membrane and there is a little pool of bloody looking brown liquid in the bottom of the shell. The second egg looks much cleaner. The chicks were day 21 in their eggs yesterday... Thanks so much for helping!

 

[Lacrystol]

Definitely sounds like she got impatient and hatched out to soon, She'll be alright though once she dries up. What do you mean the Incubator was covered in dried up bits of yellowy stuff? the entire incubator, is this stuff on all the eggs? If she looks weak then I would give her some baby vitamins to help give her some strength but if she's acting and walking around normally, I wouldn't worry about her right now, once she dries up things should look a lot better for her...The yellow stuff in her egg shell does it look like yolk because once the chicks try to get out of the shell they tend to leave this substance that is kind of like yellow. to me it looks more like poop, whitiesh/yellow poop. Not sure if that's exactly what it is but definitly looks like it to me. LOL. The pool of blood isn't good, does the chick look like she's bleeding from this string thing that's hanging? if no blood that's a great sign, then she won't bleed to death. I would just wait until she dries off and see if this thing that's hanging doesn't shrivel up and then fall off after a couple of days or so..

 

[caitlinscarlett]

Pics show the thing on her bottom as well as I can photograph. It looks like it has blood vessels in it though - which is a worry. It does look like its starting to dry up at the end though. You can also see the yellowy (yolk?) stuff all over the incubator floor and on the thermometer in the top pic. The second chick didn't make anything like this much mess when she came out ... I hope she's going to live as these two are the only ones out of the eggs we put in who made it to hatch day ...

 

[caitlinscarlett]

I'm more and more convinced that this is an unabsorbed yolk sac and that it has burst during hatching. I'm tempted from what I've read to cut it off and cauterise because I'm thinking that will give the chick the best chance! This hatching business is far too stressful!

 

[Lacrystol]

I hear you about the stress of hatching, I see all the yolk, wow, I'm gonna have to agree with the bursting of the yolk. OH man, that's a shame, i would still try to give her some vitamins, see if you can get some strength to her. It's kind of hard to see the thing hanging in the picture but what a mess with the yolk. Have you tried to put some food in there to see if she will eat? They say a chicken can survive 3 days just on the absorbed yolk and in your situation it looks like that didn't happen so I would probably get some food to her right away. The only thing I would be afraid of now is infection, You got your hands full..

 

[caitlinscarlett]

I went home at lunchtime and she's doing pretty well considering - the "thing" is really dried up and looks ready to fall off. She's fluffed up nicely (except where she's a bit "yolky") and she's alert and pecking away at the floor! I don't want to tempt fate, but I think she might be ok! Hubby is on his way home now to move both chicks into the brooder and get them fed and watered - I told him to make her his priority as I'm worried she'll be in need of something extra cos of yolk disaster.

I'm desperate to have her survive and your help and support has been invaluable - keep your fingers crossed for her: I think we'll call her Hope! (assuming she's not a he!)

 

[Lacrystol]

AWEE, I'm so happy for you, got to give chickens some credit they are hardy little creatures. Sounds like she's going to be just find which is good considering you have two of them, you don't want the other one to be alone. Keep me posted.... and CONGRADULATIONS.. MOMMY...