twisted duckling

[Isaac 0]

@Isaac 0 ?

Sorry I did not get this tag.

meh i give up this forum foreby papaerrain

Sorry, we couldn't be more of a help to you.

 

[Isaac 0]

a duckling pipped yesterday and finally made it out today. i noticed it was falling over in the incubator while drying out and saw there was 'egg goo' (dunno what it is, wet green/brown stuff seemingly attached to inner membrane of shell) which meant it was trying to drag the egg around while trying to move. the goo got twisted around the duckling's leg too. once it dried halfway i took it out and gently unwrapped the goo and got it off. but there is something wrong with the duckling - it can't stand (feet fall forward, like it can't get onto it's feet, almost as if the feet are 'backwards' (though i am used to chickens so maybe this is normal placement)) and its neck is twisted to side. if i hold the neck in place it seems almost normal but then when letting go it flops back to the side. it keeps trying to get to its feet and failing. i dipped its beak in water for a drink but it won't take any crumbs yet (bit early anyway)

what caused this? is it fixable?

Without a picture of the navel area, it'd hard to tell a cause of death. If the duckling was still absorbing yolk, the area may have become infected with omphalitis.

 

[PaperRain]

It happens. I posted something about foamy poop and pretty much made a journal entry of it due to me only posting lol. Only one person responded, which I’m greatly for!
The part that bothered me the most is there is so much abundant information that leads many internet browsers to this forum about foamy poop = sick. Turns out mine were cecal and despite years and years of forum activity, not too many (whether here or other sites) will mention that it’s possible that foamy poop is cecal. It does get frustrating but at the same time, sometimes we just have to go with our gut instincts and figure it out ourselves. Iwonder how many chicken owners have had unnecessary anxiety about foamy poop due to search results on Google or another search engine thinking their babies are sick & perhaps over treating when it’s simply cecal or just an upset tummy/crop. This was me. The good part from it was I now have pretty much all first aid for the future lol.
If you want a poultry buddy, feel free to DM and we can chat somewhere else or here.

 

[Cazook]

yolk was absorbed. i never saw it poop. it never ate, i tried to massage it to poop but nothing. i think it was just a messed up chook.

sorry to be ornery, i'm just pissed off that the duck died and i could do nothing. i mean no offense.

 

[Cazook]

its legs never worked and its feet never worked. always 'squashed'

 

[Cazook]

(there was no problem with the yolk/tummy area).

 

[humblehillsfarm]

why did noone care about this post btw. every post here gets a response and not this? you could've helped.

I'm sorry. I've been posting for days about a hen losing feathers around her vent and no responses. Sometimes the right people just aren't on here to answer your question, or no one knows the answer. Poultry keeping in is hard and we are often left with unanswered questions. This was NOT your fault. I've sat and watched babies eat pine shavings and am baffled that any ever survive to adulthood, but they do. It's hard to see those sweet babies pass, but it happens. Please don't blame yourself.

 

[Trisseh]

i had 2 ducklings that hatched from my last batch that were similar, both took much longer than normal (even for a duck!) to hatch, when they did they had “goo” stuck to them, and then both were showing neurological signs - holding themselves in odd positions, unable to hold their heads straight, unable to stand. They also had an odd smell to them. One of mine for sure had omphalitis; tried treating it but yeah, there isn’t really any fixing that... the first duckling to hatch was fine, no issues, the next was dopey and floppy and a little stuck to its shell, and the last was extreme. My feeling on these ones is that 1. My ventilation was inadequate, and humidity was too high once the first hatched, 2. My incubator was dirty from the dirty eggs (not mine, I purchased them, and 3. I may have waited too long to investigate.

It’s hard to lose them, but sometimes it happens. The first of these 2 to pass was similar to yours, except that it somehow wedged itself between the wrap on the heating pad and the frame holding it up, even though it was duct taped together. Go figure. I sometimes feel that the ones that aren’t meant to make it, somehow ensure they don’t.

These forums are great, soooo much info and so many knowledgeable people, but there are a ton of threads posted and updated constantly. A lot of us don’t always get every notification either, so sometimes if someone is tagged, they don’t even know it.
Sometimes it helps to hop on a similar thread and link back. It’s hard to keep track of so many threads at one time.

 

[Trisseh]

Also. Not every baby with omphalitis will be that classic presentation of mushy chicks with big abdomens or an obvious navel issue. The clinic I work at sent some broiler chicks to the lab to do a necropsy on; to look at those chicks, they didn’t look bad, unless you took a really close look at the navel which was ever so slightly raised. We got a report back that they were septic from omphalitis. The partially absorbed yolk sacs inside the chicks were infected, but you couldn’t tell that from the outside.

 

[Cazook]

i got upset about the death and took it out on the forum. i know i've had good advice here, it's just hard at this time. sorry guys. thanks for your responses.