Sick 2 day old peachick.....At a loss what to do.

[Peacrazy]

Ok so a little background info....these were ebay eggs. 18 eggs only 10 fertile, 8 to live to hatch day. One died in egg it was backwards, 6 hatched on their own, of these 6 two are slow eaters 1 not interested in food or water....not that i have seen. And the other chick is interested.... just watches everyone else eat then walks away. i have been hand feeding these two and so far seems ok...not great but alive!
As for the last one and my biggest concern.... This chick we will can it SP (its a silver pied) was having trouble in the egg. It didn't crack it's own egg. It was a day behind the other so I candled it and couldn't see any movement. So we decided to put a small hole in the shell where the air bubble was. We saw movement...not much but it was alive. So 8 hours later looked again....this time no movement....great it's died So i removed part of the shell that was exposed by the air pocket....took a few drops of warm water from the incubator and wet the inner membrane. He's alive....really???? So with the blood vessels showing through the inner membrane ....we put a small hole in the membrane without disturbing any blood vessels...OK Sp can breath now! we waited 8 hours....still no progress! I put a few drops of water on the membrane....ok the blood vessels have have receded. So we pulled back more of the membrane. We waited 8 more hours.... still nothing! But Sp is alive. So I pulled his head free....so I could see if the blood vessels in the back were still there....they were so we WAITED! The next day he came out of the shell....but he never stood up. ok so now what's wrong with him. We looked at his legs one foot was curled like he was gripping something and one was strait out like he had never curled his toes... this foot was cooler than the other. So here came physical therapy. We slowly curled the toes and loosened the tendons in that foot.... we took the other on and placed it straight out between two pieces of trimmed band-aids. ( saw it on here somewhere... it worked) For the deformed foot I made a wire brace to help keep the toes turned right. Ok feet done.... so the little guy is in the brooder.... kinda sitting up and trying to walk around....ok better. So he is weak can't go with the others. So i leave him the brooder....place a little food and water in there.. no nothing not even an interest. Oh i forgot to mention that this little guys head was and is still swollen...well its his neck right behind his head. So I decide to mix water and hard boiled egg in a syringe tube and feed him a little....as I have done with the other slow eaters.
ok this should be fine....I was dead wrong... He can't swallow!!! So i turn my choking chick upside down drain the water mix and he lives but is gasping for air. Great went to his lungs. Nothing to do now but wait....after awhile he was back up and trying to move about the brooder. My husband convinced me to try again the next day.... can't live with out food and water but might die trying. Oh this will be fun. Same thing happens but this time after he starts breathing I set him on a wash cloth on the table and he starts flopping around and before I can catch him he falls to the floor. Seizure really! Sad part is I think the fall dislodged the food particles in the water mix. So breathing again and in a few hours back to his normal weird self.

Ok all that said..... I am at a loss what to do for this baby. I have restarted his breathing twice he keeps hanging in there. I feel like I'm letting him down cause I don't know what else to do. We do not have an Avian vet any where near us. Internet not helping. I have been trying to find info on pea-chick anatomy.

SO HELP IF YOU CAN!

 

[new 2 pfowl]

First of all, I am not an expert by any means.
But it sounds like you may be incorrectly tube feeding the little guy.

If you take a look at this article (on a different topic, and about adult peas):
http://www.unitedpeafowlassociation.org/OralMedicationDosingofPeafowl.html
You can see that you have to be very careful about exactly where you are putting that tube.
It is very easy to put something down the trachea by accident.

Also, do you have them under heat lamps?
From what I read here, this is very important.

Hopefully you'll get more experienced advice, we have some real experts here!
Good luck.

 

[Peacrazy]

Thanks for the reply.... he is still in the brooder ( its our other incubator) So that I can control the temp. He cann't move well and and heat lamp might get to hot or if he got to far out he could get cold. As for the water.... yeah it goes down the right side... what i was doing was adding a drop to the front of his beak and letting him push it down or throw it out.... he would try to swallow on his own and get choked. I have not tried to to tube feed him. We do that with sick calves but I'm not comfortable doing it with a pea chick.

 

[AugeredIn]

The sad fact is that some just will not make it but I have learned that it is far better to do NOTHING for the first 48 hours after hatching and only then possibly intervene. People are generally paranoid about peafowl eating and drinking. They are not like chickens. They dont hit the feed and water like chickens. A peafowl can go about three days after hatching without touching food or water just from the yolk.

I would let him be. Let him get his bearings. It takes them a little while anyway after they hatch to even to half way be able to stand up. I have always thought windows in the hatcher is a bad idea. It is hard to see them come out of the egg and struggle. It is just so tempting to think something is wrong if they don't immediately stand up.

 

[AugeredIn]

PS...Hatching it the way you did was the right thing to do. You at least gave it a chance.

 

[Peacrazy]

Thanks for the advice....He hatched out Sat evening or Sunday before church. So tomorrow is day 3. I have found a small tube....guess if he is still alive and can't eat tomorrow I will try to tube him. tube all the way to the right and and see what happens. I figure .5 to 1 cc should be enough and not over feed him. Got to lean some how...but this just stinks!

 

[AugeredIn]

Can the chick sit up or stand?

 

[Peacrazy]

It does sit up and kinda low crawl around the brooder. If you hold it sometimes it will sit pretty tall in your hand.

 

[birdeo]

chicks do not need feed until day 3, they are living off their yolk sacs until then. Water is offered on day one but they don't usually touch it until at least day 2.
The swelling behind the head on the neck is prob. the pipping muscle .
Tube feeding is not needed at this point in time, your forcing food into it when it does not need it.
Also, the plastic pipettes are great for getting PAST The windpipe ( the small hole at the back of the tongue) and down into the esophagus ( throat ) when medicating/feeding birds with liquids.

 

[Yoda]

Birdeo is correct, even though the bird is out of the shell it is still developing, this is why it still has the yok sac inside it to provide nurishment while it finishes developing. Just leave it alone til it gets up on it's own and eats and drinks. It is going to try but it's head is swollen so it will take longer. Just because an egg is "behind' doesn't mean the right thing to do it crack it open. Some eggs take longer then others. I put all the eggs in the incubator the same day but I have all different growth stages. Some eggs have a small body, some are of a heart beating and some are just starting out. You need to candle each egg to get a look at what stage it is compared to the other eggs. When it pips it will be it's time to hatch. There are a lot of people who seem to be having to help a chick to hatch this year and that is sad. If the chick pipped and started to zip and then stopped and when you check it the bird is actually stuck then I would say help it but do not "help" it cause the other eggs hatched first. The incubation period is 26-28 days just because a few hatched theirs out in 25 does not mean that everyone's should. Once you drilled the hole and see it is alive place a wet band aid over the hole so the membrane doesn't dry out and watch the egg.
I had a backwards chick that just hatched yesterday. It pipped at the pointy side then the next day it pipped at the middle exactly a straight line from the first pip and then it pipped at the air sac end and somehow the entire egg opened up lengthwise and the chick "fell" out with it's yok sca still out and the cord still connected. I left it in the incubator for about an hour then removed it and into the brooder with the yok sac still hanging. Today almost all the yok sac is absorbed and the chicks feet are under it but it used it's feet to turn itself inside the egg so I do believe the feet will need taping. I will give the chick a warm bath tomorrow if the yok sac is gone cause the bird has dried blood still over it's body.