What happens if you can't get all the "sticky" stuff off the chick?

[littlels]

I have seen a few threads about the "Sticky" chicks, but I haven't found the answer to what I am looking for yet. We hatched some chicks out on Wednesday and one of the chicks had the sticky glue over most of him. Enough so that he couldn't get his wing away from his body. We used warm water and eventually got his wing separated but it did cost him quite a few little feathers in that area. He is kinda bald in a lot of places due to being so stuck. I have given him some little warm water baths and have been able to get most of the goop off of his back, etc, but I can't get it off the top of his head! His head feathers are just slicked back and tight. I have carefully put warm water on that area, but with their heads being so little and with how wiggly they are, it is hard to really get in there and scrub it out especially with their eyes and nose so close. What happens if you can't get all the sticky stuff off of the chick? Will it actually harm them or will that glue eventually kind of flake off or pop off when the other feathers come in? Also, because he is so bald am I going to have to keep him separate from the rest of the gang for awhile or will he do ok with the rest. They are just under a heat lamp and it seems as though he would be colder than everyone else.

Any thoughts?

 

[they'reHISchickens]

Eventually it will wear off and disapear as the fluff goes away. In the meantime, does the chick stay under the heat more than the others? If not, ignore it. I have already washed new chicks with running warm water and blow dried them to unsticky them. I figure they can't get any wetter than in the egg!

 

[gryeyes]

Eventually it will wear off and disapear as the fluff goes away. In the meantime, does the chick stay under the heat more than the others? If not, ignore it. I have already washed new chicks with running warm water and blow dried them to unsticky them. I figure they can't get any wetter than in the egg!

What they'reHISchickens said!

 

[littlels]

LOL! That's actually what I did. I first did the bath and felt bad because he wasn't drying off very fast so I whipped out the hair dryer and had my poor husband hold the hair dryer while I held the chick and fluffed through the unstuck feathers a bit.

I actually still have the chick in the incubator. I have moved all the rest out to the broader box except for this one and one other one that hatched real late and seemed to need a little extra time to be steady on his feet. The chick peeps a walks around the incubator a lot. I haven't seen it eat or drink anything (I put a little in the incubator for them). I'm just so afraid he's going to freeze in the broader...

 

[notinoz2007]

this happened to us a few weeks ago. i had 2 sticky chicks that i kept in a cardboard box away from the rest of the hatch. they had a stuffed animal and i lowered the heat lamp so it was closer to them, but still allow plenty of room for them to move away from the heat. i gave pedialyte w/water for the first few days because my chicks also werent interested in food. if you do it this way you have to introduce the chicks back together slowly. i did this by adding a few more to the box daily til i felt confident that i could add them all to the brooder and they could figure out their order without harassing the little sticky ones too much. after about 6 days they were all back together. the sticky goes away on its own for the most part, they're 19 days old now and i cant tell where it used to be.

 

[kelidei]

I also just experienced this a week ago... I had one little one that was so stuck it sort of looked like Quasimodo all bunched up.... but by the end of the day a good part of the goop was gone and by the next evening s/he was just as fluffy as the others. I have learned on BYC that unless the chick is in distress most times they don't need our help... nature takes care of it... So.....I am working on becoming a minimal interventionist... IOWs I spend a lot of time sitting on my hands