Sick 2 day old Delaware Chick - photos

[Stevenson]

I had to help this poor little chick out of the egg...it was the lone survivor out of 24 del eggs that I received (spent 3 days with USPS - other eggs did well). It is now 2 days old and I never really expected it to live. It appears to be gaining some strength, but has a problem with its rear end. At first I wondered if it had a pasty butt, so I tried to clean it off without much luck until it pooped on me - which I thought was probably a good thing. I have kept it by itself in the incubator to try to heal up and be ready to go in with the rest of the chicks...but I need to clean the incubator for my next hatch.

Can you help me determine what (if anything) I can do to try to help this poor little chick?

 

[kathyinmo]

I would run warm water over the area to be sure it is cleaned up. Not much else you can do. If it is meant to live, it will. Sadly, some just don't make it. Long ago I quit "helping" chicks to hatch. I learned that if they need help, there is often some other problem which they ultimately die from.

Good luck!

 

[Stevenson]

Thanks Kathy....I'll give it a shot. I think I am done helping as well.

 

[PepsNick]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=461786&p=1

Check out that thread. Warm water is good, you don't want to overwhelm its system with antibiotics. If warm water doesn't work than I think euthanizing is necessary.

 

[Stevenson]

I put warm water over it...and I am going to give it until the morning. If it isn't better, I think I'll put it down. I hate to do that, but I do think it's the right thing.

 

[PepsNick]

 

[cochinGurl]

maybe mushy chick syndrome. im dealing with that myself... good luck, hope he pulls through!!!

 

[Stevenson]

Well, when I woke up this morning the chick seemed to have a little more spunk. I had to get it out of the incubator so I could clean it out for another round...so I decided to put it out with the others. It seems like it is doing ok. I don't think we're completely out of the woods yet, but things seem to be looking up.

 

[kimandrich]

Glad to hear he is doing okay. Hope he gets better!

 

[math ace]

It looks like it wasn't hadn't absorbed its yolk sack like it is suppose to on Day 20. ... I hatched a chick that looked like this!

My chick was the runt of the group and did not get to hatch on its own AND had to hatch on Day 20 due to personal issues on my end.


The only thing I did was
1.) washed the area - - just once after it was a few days old.
I didn't do it earlier because she was a runt and born premie. I did not want to stress her out more than life was doing.

2.) I noticed that it was not drinking . . . so we gave it gatoraide - a syringe full ( small syringe) every 30 minutes one evening for 4 hours.
The other chicks were drinking and eating, but not this little one. It just didn't seem to know to drink or it had gotten so dehydrated
that it didn't want to drink. Either way, we only did this ONE evening. After that, I figure the bugger had to get it together or
not make it. She was drinking on her own the next morning.

I would of rather of used pedialyte or something without SALT in it . . . . but gatorade was all that I had on hand

She is still the runt of the group, but seems to be thriving and will be 3 weeks old this weekend! That horrid mess on her butt took 10 - 14 days to disappear totally. It got smaller, turned black, and eventually fell off.