Post hatch yolk-belly chick - final Update

[MissPrissy]

The chick needs more than sugar water dribbled in its beak if it is going to have a fighting chance.

Since the yolk has not absorbed it needs good nutrients to help replace what is lost.

The weakness is not only from your having helped it hatch too early and the loss of what was in the yolk sac that is now drying up but from lack of eating properly.

Stop the sugar water you will create more problems for this chick. The sugar is most likely the reason it pooped.

Get some baby liquid vitamins - Poly-Vi-Sol - and give it 5 drops by beak daily. Make sure there is plenty of fresh clean water with nothing added to it. Scramble some egg and see if you can get it to eat off your finger tips. Once it is eating give it crumbles.

You must teach this chick to eat and to help it gain its strength.

The outcome of helping chicks to hatch in this condition is rarely if ever good. Most of them linger and die. If this chick doesn't perk up and seem to improve within a day of two of real nutrition being consumed you have to consider if it is more humaine to let it linger and suffer and die on its own or to end the suffering instantly. Animal husbandry comes with it a great responsiblity and some very hard choices to follow through with.

 

[LocoPollo]

Thank you MissPrissy! That is very helpful!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Sorry Loco, but I have read many places that it is good to give new chicks sugar water, if you con't have electrolytes. I did forget about the egg yolks. I don't want you to think I gave you wrong information. I do this with my own chicks, and other people I know do it as well. But if you are going to be hatching eggs, you should invest in some vitamin/electrolyte solution to add to the water. I paid about $4 for mine from the feed store.

 

[MissPrissy]

Sugar water is for a quick pick me up energy burst for weak and stressed chicks. It is best to have a very short use period and then with drawn. Other than that is doesn't have any nutritional value. It is not some miracle cure. It is over used and often is bad advise.

Chicks that continue with sugar water beyond a day often end up with pasty butt and other issues.

Sugar/honey/molasses etc are used to flush the chick out and are most noted for flushes to eliminate the bird when it has ingested toxins.

Sugar pulls water into the intestines and causes a laxative effect and lots of pooping.

It works the exact same way in humans too. Get a constipated baby and what do you do? You load them with Karo syrup and they poop.

Weakened chicks that are obviously ill from other reasons beyond stress need more intensive care with supplements that have a vitamin and mineral content their bodies can use to heal and grow.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Thanks Miss Prissy, like I said I do have the vit/electrolytes now, I had gotten some when i had chicks that were pecked by a hen. They didn't survive, but at least I now have it for future babies.

 

[LocoPollo]

Just a final update on the chick. He died this afternoon. He started this morning not being able to take fluids well. I got the vitamins, but he had trouble taking the drops, and that was when I knew it would be soon. Poor guy. He taught me a lot, though, and I am grateful.

 

[MissPrissy]

I am sorry. I was hoping it would pull through.

 

[havi]

Im sorry to hear about your loss.: hugs

 

[speckledhen]

Sorry about the little one, Randy, but you did great.

 

[cherig22]

Thank you all for posting your new babies coming into the world. It was wonderful reading, and thanks to MissPrissy for the information.

Cheri