# Chick hatched with yolk unabsorbed - HELP



## Squirrelgirl88

I posted on BYC - no one is answering. I have a chick that is 24 hours old. she hatched with some of the yolk still attached, unabsorbed. She's standing and peeping, so I don't want to give up on her. She is weaker than the others, and now after 24 hours the yolk sack has dried to a glob on her belly.

Since this is a chick from my poor deceased rooster, I am desperate to save her.

Any suggestions?!


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## ragdollcatlady

Keep a little neosporin/ triple antibiotic ointment or iodine on it to keep out infection. I would feed her softened chick food with a little hard boiled or scrambled egg yolk. Good luck!


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## ragdollcatlady

Keep a little neosporin/ triple antibiotic ointment or iodine on it to keep out infection. I would feed her softened chick food with a little hard boiled or scrambled egg yolk. Good luck!


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## Four Winds Ranch

As long as it is eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom, and if you can stop it from getting an infection, theres good chance, it will be fine!!!!!
Good luck!!!!


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## Squirrelgirl88

She's not eating or drinking on her own. I have a syringe and I'm getting fluids to her drop by drop. I put chick starter in the water and I'm getting it into her with the syringe too. She's weak, but she's standing and fighting me. She doesn't want to stay in the little box I have her in. 

Until she gives up I won't either. 

Funny that I posted on BYC three hours ago and not one reply. I knew my BYH members would answer me!


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## Fluffygal

How is your wee chick doing?
Polyvisol baby vitamins without the iron helps too. Put some drops in the wet mash you are feeding her.
Hope she improves for you.


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## Squirrelgirl88

Little one gave up her fight last night. She hung on much longer than I expected. Disappointing to only have 5 hatch and lose two. 

This chick hatching thing is harder than it looks!


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## Southern by choice

What kind of incubator are you using? 
I assume its an incubator as the momms always seem to have that 100% thing going on. 

Sorry you lost her/him. 

Just so you know that is usually the outcome. I haven't experienced it before but from what I've heard/read it is often best to cull it immediately.


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## babsbag

Southern by choice said:
			
		

> What kind of incubator are you using?
> I assume its an incubator as the momms always seem to have that 100% thing going on.
> 
> Sorry you lost her/him.
> 
> Just so you know that is usually the outcome. I haven't experienced it before but from what I've heard/read it is often best to cull it immediately.


  You gave it your best, that is all we can do.

A broody hen is worth her weight in gold, but I have 7 of them right now   Please someone take them from me.

I have an incubator that I bought off of Craigslist for 10.00. It is an old Marsh Turn-x. It only holds about 15 eggs, 10 if they are extra large, but I swear that thing could hatch a rock. They told me it didn't work, but all I had to do was adjust the wafer thermostat and clean it up. I have the water bottle adjusted for humidity that I want and I plug 'er in and in 5 minutes it is up to temp and ready to go. I walk by it a few times a day and move the little dome lid, which in turn moves the eggs and I am done. I make sure the water bottle stays full, last about 3 days and the humidity doesn't budge. I don't raise my humidity for the hatch, always runs about 35-40%. If I have good eggs my hatch rate is about 90-95%, shipped eggs, not so good. Right now it has 15 guinea eggs in it.

I have an old Styrofoam incubator that I will use to stick the chicks in as the hatch. My only complaint about my 10.00 find is that it gets very cramped in there quickly when they start hatching, especially with ducks. I don't abide by lock down either. I will reach in and grab the chicks once they are dry and move them out if there are a lot in there. I break all the rules.

The last eggs I hatched were from a broody hen that abandoned them. I didn't even know what day she was on, so no lock down at all, I turned them until the day they hatched. I got 5 out of 7. Then I gave the chicks over to a Buff Orpington that had just hatched a few of her own. Worked like a charm, she didn't even bat an eye as I stuffed them under her wings. What a good mom.

I really do love broody hens, just not 7 at once.


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## Southern by choice

Squirrel Girl- I just remembered. You had a CRD issue, more than likely MG from the symptoms. Hatching eggs in an outbreak of MG will cause high rates of loss in chicks/hatching eggs. Did you treat the eggs before incubating? MG is transmittable from hen to egg, depending on how many days the outbreak had been going on the infection rate goes up. Maximizing between 3-5 weeks, but rates can still be high up to 9 weeks. Hoping you get your Roo!


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## Squirrelgirl88

Ok, stupid question. how do I "treat" the eggs?

I set 15 eggs, 5 hatched, two died. Of the two that died one had the yolk sack, the other died after zipping. No yolk sack on that one.

All of our hens seem healthy and the surviving three chicks are doing well.

Rooster was sick for about a week before I set the eggs. 

I suppose I shouldn't be disappointed, but its hard not to want them all to hatch - or at least half.

Southern - thank you so much for all of your help.


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## Squirrelgirl88

Sorry missed the first question - I bought a Little Giant incubator and egg turner. I also purchased two different thermometer/hygrometer set ups to monitor the environment. (one digital, one not)

First hatch was 100% fail rate. The eggs didn't even develop - we broke them open after 27 days.

I would LOVE to have a broody hen. Even if I have to sell chicks on craigslist to get rid of them!


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## Southern by choice

First ,,, there is no stupid questions! 

I will get you the recipe. It is very precise and the procedure needs to be followed to the "T". 
It is relatively easy. BUT the Tylan Powder is Pricey! The great thing is you can do this with all eggs you incubate or hatching eggs brought it. Especially important if you get eggs from anyone who shows poultry. #1 transmission of poultry diseases are at shows.

I will fish it out for you and send it or post it when I do.


As far as the incubator... I have read bad reviews on the little Giant so that could be a factor. 
My little one is the hovabator from GQF- 1588 Genesis Hova-Bator with turner. 100% hatch on fertilized eggs... we do look with a candling light at days 5, 11, 18  we have had a few shrink wrapped but I think it was more my fault... from my very first hatch and I kept opening the lid and let the humidity drop too low.  
 Is the bator still air or circulated?
What temp is your thermometer reading and what was the humidity ranging? 
Is the bator set up in a relatively temp controlled room? 

The fertility of the eggs... did you check them? MG can pretty much effect that also. Remember with a CRD they have it then show symptoms in an outbreak. Not all birds will. I have a good bit of info about  it on my website... if you would like to read it I will send you my web address.

Touchy subject here but I will present some options for you. Since you only have a few birds you may want to consider culling them... I know, I know, I love my babies too... but if you can do it and you start over with hatching eggs and do the dip treatment you will eradicate MG and ILT from your property . There are some other steps to take as far as disinfecting and cleaning etc. But you can start over and have a "clean" flock. Long term benefits. You cannot 100% prevent Crd's in your flocks as wild birds, car etc can bring it in... but you can do strict biosecurity and do what you can. 
Some strains of MG are very nasty... they are not all equal if you will. Some strains are so bad the birds can get triggered over and over ... other strains maybe one -two outbreaks a year. I would weigh if putting the birds on anti-biotics for 7-10 days then having to dispose of those eggs and for the following 21 days...  then there is long term, it effects productivity and fertility. 

I suspect MG and not coryza or ILT the symptoms may appear the same but if you are experienced you can usually tell. 
The worst case I ever saw of MG was a breeder that hatched out chicks and in the first days they were gasping so badly I couldn't believe it. Whatever strain he had it was bad. Usually the carrier birds in a non-event cycle has only a 1-2 % transmission. Many chicks are just born carriers and may never hhave a trigger with symptoms. 

I guess this is a very long winded way of saying ... there are many factors at play here. I really don't think you are doing anything wrong at all... just a lot of crappy variables your dealing with.

Let me go find the recipe... I have two and one is better than the other... like a dummy it is on a paper copy... not on the computer.
Gonna take a bit to find where I have filed it. :/

It will get better!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Squirrelgirl88

All of the surviving chicks seem perfectly healthy. Honestly all of my hens seem perfectly healthy too except for one that is too old to lay anymore. She's about 3 and gave up on my last fall. With 7 hens I get 5-7 eggs a day and the only other problem we've had is an occasional mild case of bumble foot. If the wouldn't roost in the rafters and then "drop" down 12 feet to the ground in the morning, we probably wouldn't have that problem either. Witnessing those crash landings in the mornings is almost comical. 

None of the Hens have been vaccinated for Mareks or anything else. We wormed everyone just after Christmas after noticing some weight loss in two hens. No other problems since. 

The rooster came from an individual that had MANY birds (both chickens and turkeys) and had even just brought some home from the fair when we adopted our boy in September. She may have brought home any number of problems with those birds. At the time we adopted him he was about 18 weeks old. I suppose he could have been a carrier all this time. He was maybe a year old when he died last month. He had been fine up until the week before. 

Culling the whole flock is not an option unless the eggs are unsafe for consumption, or they are ill and need to be euthanized. Even if the eggs were useless, I can't see myself being able to part with any of them. 

As far as a "pricey" fix for something, I'm currently spending $200.00 per month on heart medication for an older dog. I'd switch the whole family over to Hamburger Helper every night if my animals need medical attention. I would have taken that poor little chick to the vet if I could have found one that didn't laugh at me when I asked if they treated chickens. 

Obviously without a Rooster I will not be incubating any more eggs this year. I know the Little Giant is not the best on the market but I couldn't validate spending more than I did for it. The sale price for the incubator and turner was $60.00. Shipping four chicks would have been $50.00, so I convinced DH that I could hatch chicks all summer if I needed to and still be ahead. That was before the Rooster died.  I kept the Incubator away from drafts and did not move it. the thermometer that came with it (mercury based) always stayed at 100 - I bought a digital reptile thermometer and it read about 101. The humidity was difficult to maintain. The wells in the bottom of the Styrofoam didn't hold much water. I put a sponge in next to the egg turner and kept the humidity as close to 45-50 as I could and then higher (65 +/-) after day 18. They started the hatch the night of day 20. I'm wondering if the heat and humidity were too high and that is why the unabsorbed yolk and somewhat early hatch happened.  This incubator stuff is not easy at all! How do these elementary school classes do this and I can't! I have so much appreciation for broody hens now! 

I am much appreciative of all advice. We've only had chickens about two years and unless I can find it on the internet or read it in a book I have no expert to learn from. And like I said the vets around here think the only thing to treat a chicken with is barbecue sauce. 

Thank you again for your assistance.


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