Red mass on newly hatched chick

[Bizichick]

I have a chick that hatched about 5 hours ago. It has a bright red mass protruding from its bottom. It looks like a piece of the cord may be shriveled and hanging off of the mass. I have been reading online, everything from its the intestines hanging out to unabsorbed yolk. Just not sure what to do. A little history of this little one......incase that helps figure this out.....this is my first time hatching chicks and I made the mistake of putting several eggs in on different dates. Therefore I am having to lift the incubator lots to care for chicks as the hatch. Which of course affects the humidity. I had a couple that seemed to be too dry and the chicks couldnt hatch so I got a little paranoid and think I may have created too much humidity. I dont have a monitor to tell. So far out of 10 eggs, 6 have hatched successfully. The crazy thing is that every egg has hatched 2-3 days past the 21 day mark. I have 5 more to go that arent due for a couple of days so I am hesitant to leave the chick in the incubator too long but Im not sure if putting her in with the other chicks is a good idea until I figure out the mystery mass. Just not sure what to do with this last one. Any suggestions? Just want to make sure I do whatever is right for chick #6.

 

[aveca]

can you show a picture? there is also a navel infection that new hatched can get..i cant remember the name of it but you can probably search navel infection in here and compare picture with what you have going on.

 

[Bizichick]

Great idea on comparing to a photo online. I would post one here but I am so new I dont think it will let me. I think you have to have so many posts before you can attach pics. Thanks for your response!

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

It is underneath the chick or on the vent itself?

 

[Bizichick]

looks more vent area. Way toward back...not on belly area. I am so new to this....I feel pretty lost.

 

[lakeeriechick]

did you figure out anything about the red mass? My last hatched chick has this red mass and it looks like it is part of the chick's bowel--like a distended bowel.

 

[Bizichick]

The red mass dried up for the most part and became about the size of a pea or smaller. You may want to watch your chick close for a bit because the first day mine was in the brooder, I found it on its back with another chick pecking the mass. After a day or so when it started shrinking the other chicks seemed to leave it alone. After that it seemed to grow again..although it looked pretty dried out. Im wondering if it just started collecting gunk when it would poop or dirt or whatever so it looked like it was bigger. Over a 2 week period it slowly detached from the chick a little at a time. Once it was all dried up and looked like it was trying to come off, I put a few drops of vegetable oil on it and gently pulled just a bit to get the mass to start to detach then left it alone. I think that the issue with my chick was an unabsorbed yolk. If thats the case with yours, I hope this helped some. Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

 

[lakeeriechick]

Thank you for your reply. I have the chick out of the incubator and separated from the other chicks. We will see how it goes>