THIS CANNOT BE NORMAL... chick died in egg (GRAPHIC PICS ADDED)

[Highlander]

I have the Suro too. First hatch in it went perfectly, second hatch last week was a disaster. The chicks didn't start hatching until day 23, the last one needed help on day 25. Some of the eggs were filled with gooey liquid which dried rock hard when it came into contact with the air so the chicks were pipping then getting glued into the shells. I ended up having to help most of them but I lost quite a few. I used my Spot Check thermometer to check that the temps were accurate - the middle of the bator was perfect but the sides were a half to one degree cooler. The humidity was also a little out but not enough to cause such awful issues I don't think. Do you have accurate temp/hygros that you can check your settings with? Sorry you are going through this, I know from experience it is horrible, especially when you pay money for a machine that is supposed to take all the stress out of hatching.

 

[teresa-78]

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Thankyou, and I am sorry you have had to go through something similar, its just awful, and nerve racking, thinking shall I help, shant I help.... also once I helped them out the panic incase they die, because you have helped them out.... I am glad this is my last hatch for the year, until spring, I dont think I could cope just yet doing it again.

No I have not got any other temp/hygros, as I did not think I would need them... I did not think it would be different in the incubator, and the ones all around this egg hatched, ita all so confusing lol...

 

[teresa-78]

Well day 26... no sign of anything happening, so we recandled and the chick was not moving and veins dissapearing... it had sadly died within the past 2 days

We opened the egg to see what may have caused the chick to grow so slowly... it appeared to have not formed normal as you can see from the pics added, any ideas on what could have gone wrong would be greatly appreciated.

 

[suzettex5]

Ok, I HAVE to say... GRRRROOOOSSSSS!! Sorry, had to say it. I dont think I would be able to eat out of that bowl again.

On to what happened... it looks like some kind of bacteria or mold got ahold of that chick. (just going by the tanish bumps all over its body) I havent done many eggtopsies this late into incubation, but the yolk looks to be either in the wrong place, or very rotten.

Could it be a breed specific genetic defect? With frizzles (I think) if you breed a frizzle to frizzle you get a deadly gene that can kill chicks during incubation, all the way up to hatch day.
You could have had a cooler spot just where that egg was that caused it to develope abnormally, and to have gotten a later start than the other eggs.

I would be doing some serious dis-infecting of my bator if this happened to me, just to be extra sure it wasnt a pathogen that could infect future eggs.

I do feel for you and the chick, its never a happy thing when one doesnt make it, for any reason. I wish you many 100% hatch-rate hatches in the future!

 

[Titania]

hmmm. Yeah, maybe bacterial or some kind of infection? But, I can't tell very well, it looks like the spine didn't close up in the middle picture. Is that what it looked like in person, like the neural tube didn't finish developing? Kind of like spina bifida in a chicken? Or is its feathers just making it look that way? I really don't know...but it looks like the development didn't finish right so I would guess a genetic defect that stopped some enzyme process or the cellular communication or something along those lines