Problems With Late Hatch Chick

[skullgrrrl]

Long story, a little bit shorter: I had eggs under a broody hen who abandoned them on day 6. She may have been off them for up to 24 hrs (hot day so I think they were ok) before I transferred them to an incubator. Humidity was too high for first two days, then I had a 7 hr power outage. After that the incubator was ok.

Day 17 I moved the eggs to another broody hen. Two chicks hatched on day 25 and another one was shrink wrapped and required assistance to hatch on day 26. I wasn't expecting much so was pretty surprised and happy to have three normal looking (i.e. no curled toes, spraddle leg, scissor beak) chicks.

One of the day 25 chicks has struggled since shortly after hatch. It appears slower, a little shaky and not as robust.

The other two chicks are doing just fine, running around, eating, drinking etc. The third chick has had pasty butt (which I've cleaned off twice) and isn't improving. Our temperatures (they are in an outdoor pen) have dropped and it peeps lots for its mother. She does sit on them, but not as much as this chick would like. It is eating but not as much as the others. I have poultry vitamins in the water.

Is there anything I can do to assist this chick? Did all the complications during incubation predispose it to being weak? I'm not too hopeful but I'd like to give it a chance.

 

[LaurEliz]

The complications could have made it weaker, but I can't be sure. I had one hatch completely fine on its own, act completely normal, eat and drink on its own, and then die suddenly about 4 days after it was hatched. In the same hatch, I had one that was shrink-wrapped and had to be assisted to get out, seemed a little off for the first few days, and it thrived afterwards and is completely fine to this day. Sometimes, I think it's just more of genetics and chance than anything that went wrong during incubation/hatching.

Besides making certain that it is eating and drinking and putting vitamins in water, I'm not sure what else could be done. If the mother and babies aren't separated from any other birds you have, I might try to do that if possible, just to be sure that nobody else would pick on the baby, but other than that, I can't think of any more advice, but I wish you luck!

 

[skullgrrrl]

The complications could have made it weaker, but I can't be sure. I had one hatch completely fine on its own, act completely normal, eat and drink on its own, and then die suddenly about 4 days after it was hatched. In the same hatch, I had one that was shrink-wrapped and had to be assisted to get out, seemed a little off for the first few days, and it thrived afterwards and is completely fine to this day. Sometimes, I think it's just more of genetics and chance than anything that went wrong during incubation/hatching.

Besides making certain that it is eating and drinking and putting vitamins in water, I'm not sure what else could be done. If the mother and babies aren't separated from any other birds you have, I might try to do that if possible, just to be sure that nobody else would pick on the baby, but other than that, I can't think of any more advice, but I wish you luck!

The hen and chicks are sleeping in a dog crate in a 4'x9' pen that's housed within my 1200 sq ft pen with coop for the main flock.

 

[LaurEliz]

The hen and chicks are sleeping in a dog crate in a 4'x9' pen that's housed within my 1200 sq ft pen with coop for the main flock.

Good idea

Hopefully your chick pulls through. It sounds to me like you're really doing everything you can to help him/her. Please keep me updated.