While this surface is slippery (the poult was put here only to take the photo), even on non-slip surfaces, this poult can't stand up. In addition the neck tends to be weak with the head flopping around. It hatched early Friday morning, and never managed to stand at all. While fairly active, it wouldn't eat or drink (any water by dropper would just seep out of its mouth). The first days it would flip over onto its back, but by the third and fourth days, that tendency had ceased. It died on the fourth day.
The turkey hen laid about a dozen eggs this time and usually hatches them herself. This batch didn't do well. One poult is healthy, but most of the others either died in the process of hatching or were found dead (in a similar stretched out position) it wasn't until I took the remaining eggs (of which this was the only one in the process of hatching) and placed it by a kerosene lamp (a typical African village incubator) that I now think that the others hatchlings must have had a similar problem. But what is it? It doesn't seem like straddle or splay leg, and with the weak neck and complete disinterest/incapacity to eat or drink, I couldn't do much to save it. Has anyone seen such a syndrome and have an idea of the cause?
