poorly/sticky chick

[Alpops]

Hello everyone! Please can you offer me some advice on how to help my little chick....he/she hatched yesterday morning, 2 days early. He hatched out fine but had a large amount of unabsorbed yolk sac, and just lay on his side twitching for the morning (not helped by his recently hatched sibling sitting on him all the time). At lunch time he was still alive and calling lots, and his sibling was starting to peck at his yolk sac, so after much reading of this site, I popped him in a cup and then back into the incubator. He lasted the night....today I have been dribbling sugar water into his beak as he is too weak/not wanting to peck at anything and this evening he seems perkier, able to stand up in a wobbly way and open his eyes. He now has 3 more siblings that have all hatched out fine, so he is spending another night in his cup! His egg yolk has dried up so much that I was able snip it off, leaving him with just a little 'tail'. I am not sure what to do next!!! I am sure he won't do well on sugar water for long - what else can I dribble into him?? I have some goat vitamin solution....? Also he is caked in yolky bloody stuff that is hard and he is finding it difficult to move his eyelids. I have tried to sponge off his body a bit with soapy water but have only had limited success and don't want to use soap around his eyes....any ideas what I could use? The third thing...when he hatched and wriggled around and got trampled on, him and his sibling have managed to get bloody yolky gunk all around the incubator. I have been whipping the cup out every few hours in a super heated room to feed the chick and the incubator stinks. Apart from the one in the cup, there are now 3 other newly hatched, wet chicks in there and an egg with a hole in it....do I need to get them all out and give it a clean or is it best to just leave it and wait until the last egg has hatched and dried? PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[kuchchicks]

First off congrats on helping your little guy. You are doing all of the right things. At this point you do not need to worry about him too much with the sugar water. The yolk sac allows them to go a couple of days without eating. My chicks are very uninterested in eating for the first couple of days, only pecking a touch here and there. You can think about getting some Pedialite (unflavored) to use in place of their water. It will not hurt the other chicks. You can try to dip this little guy's beak in to get him a drink, but make sure you do not get it in his nostrils. You do not want him to aspirate. You can also get some Poli Vi Sol vitamins WITHOUT IRON and give 1 drop 3 times a day OR add to the water. I am sure he will continue to perk up. He sounds like he is well on his way.

As for him being sticky/crusty... You can help a little with that by giving him a warm "bath". I would not completely dunk him or anything but continue to use a wash cloth. Make sure you are using warm water but not so warm that it burns. Also try to do it in a bath room to help to hold some heat in and not allow him to get chilled. Try using baby soap because it is tear free and gentle. After you wash him up you can place him back in the bator to warm him up until he fluffs out. Now and then I have crusty chicks that just take a little longer to preen themselves but in your case I would be worried about his eyes being crusted shut.

Now your bator. Hatching like childbirth is a messy event. Bators do start to smell after a while you are hatching. Unless it looks like Texas Chain Saw Massacre I personally would hold off on removing everyone and cleaning it out until you are finished hatching.

Good job!!!

 

[Alpops]

Hi - thank you so much - it makes such a difference to know I've been on the right track!! It's our first lot of eggs that we've hatched so it's a bit nerve-racking!! You are right - I was dribbling in some sugar water this morning and noticed it was going into his nostrils :-/ I did stop but he is so skinny compared to the others I just worry about him fading away! Today is is standing up and alert anyway - he had a warm bath this morning in the bathroom which is like a sauna as I've heated it up so we can keep getting out of the incubator to 'feed' him, and with the amount of yellow that was in the water afterwards he should feel more comfortable now. He was even allowed out of his cup last night and all went well - his pecky sibling that was bothering him is in the pen with a 7 week old bantam (after much supervision!! They are actually now cuddled up with the little one under the big one's wing - so cute!) - so in the incubator we have the poorly one and 2 calm siblings and an unhatched egg. I will hold off cleaning then - I did mop up the liquid on the bottom with a kitchen towel but that's it.
What is Pedialite? Is it vitamins? Over here it will be called something different...
Thank you again

 

[kuchchicks]

I did not even notice you were in France... Sorry! Pedialite is electrolyte water for sick babies... Kind of like Gatorade...do you have that? Or something else that you give sick babies to replace electrolytes? You can also go to a feed store. They may have powder that you can add to chicks water. Poli Vi Sol is infant vitamins. If you get that make sure you get it WITHOUT iron.

Glad to hear it's going well!

 

[Alpops]

I've only just updated my profile to put on that I'm in France, don't worry ;-) could I just add a bit of salt to the sugar water for a day and then when he starts to peck around then feed him lots of veggies as well as grain?

 

[kuchchicks]

I would not do that. You could easily throw off electrolyte balance and could actually do harm. If you are not able to get electrolytes I think sugar water would be ok but would not do salt. If you go to a pharmacy and ask for electrolyte water for babies they should be able to hook you up.

 

[Alpops]

OK will do - thanks again!

 

[Alpops]

He passed away in the night

thanks for all your advice though - I thought you might like to know....

 

[kuchchicks]

I'm sorry!. I just lost a chick last week. It always is hard. You gave him the best shot you could. Be proud of your effort.