Urgent help please - chick pecked by siblings

[longday]

Maybe not anything that can be done now, but I have a first time (but very dedicated) Australorp hatch 4 eggs yesterday. She abandoned one that was born this morning plus 2 eggs. I set up an emergency incubator and brought the abandoned chick and eggs inside.

Later in the morning I moved the hen to an isolation cage and when I moved the chicks, I added the abandoned chick with them because it had been doing so well. It had the sac still attached though, and maybe that was the problem. I checked on them a couple of times through the day and mama seemed to have accepted the chick with the others. I just went to check again though, and the chicks were pecking at the bottom of the abandoned one and it's in a bad way. Not massively injured by the looks of things, but clearly not well.

I brought it in under the light again, but is there anything else I can do? It seems like I can see a little yolk, so they must have opened him up a little. Is there anything that might help?

 

[longday]

Actually, never mind...by the time I posted this and went back to check, he was dead.

 

[abserbean]

You shouldn't put a chick in with momma hen if there is unabsorbed yolk or an umbilical stump. I would start this little one on electrolytes and an antibiotic in the waterer, bacterial infections are very common with an open abdomen. You can use duramycin or sulmet in the water, but I think the duramycin is better. Chick will have to stay on meds for seven days, and can't go back until completely healed, or they will kill it. And if they don't kill it, infection will. There is a med that will help dry the stump, but I can't remember the name. Keep the baby away from other chicks until finished with antibiotics, even if the stump is healed, to prevent contamination to the other chicks if there is a bacterial infection. Good luck!

 

[abserbean]

oh, just saw your update, so sorry. He was facing a pretty tough battle though.

 

[longday]

Thanks for the response. I guess this was a newbie fail. I thought that if mama accepted him back, all would be well. I didn't count on his siblings being such jerks.