Umbilical Hernia?! Or something worse?!

[CHICKEN CRAZY1]

We received our chicks about 12 hours ago and I recently noticed one was cheeping sort of in distress and not being as active as the other chicks. It is drinking, though, and doesn’t seem sick. I went to look at it’s vent to check for pasty butt and noticed two bumps! (One was the vent, the other something I had never seen before in a chick.) After some quick searching, I learned chicks do have umbilical cords and “bellybuttons”. But it said those were usually brown. This was reddish pink. I got very concerned when I learned that if there is trauma to this, their bowels can come out! Is this a hernia? Or something more serious?! Help!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How is your chick doing?

I would keep her separated out so the other chicks don't pick at that.
It does look like an open navel to me. Where did the chicks come from?
You can try helping her. It's hard to know whether to push that back in or not, but keep the exposed tissue moist. Bacitracin or Plain Neosporin would be good to put on it.
Put the chick in a coffee cup lined with clean paper towel or something soft. You don't want that exposed tissue to get soiled if she is moving around. Keep her warm and see if you can some fluids into her.

With exposed tissue she could develop an infection or the tissue may die. If she declines further, consider putting her out of her misery.

 

[chickens really]

That looks like a prolapsed vent to me. I'm not sure what you can do if that's the case.

 

[CHICKEN CRAZY1]

Thank you for your for advice. Sadly, chick didn’t make it. It was too far progressed for me to do anything. I feel so bad about it.

I don’t think the hatchery was to blame. The open navel was very hidden by the chicks fluff and I didn’t see it so I am sure the hatchery didn’t. They were from Murray Mcmurray hatchery. We have had very good experience with them. The first order we did had a 100% survival rate into adolescence, which I am still amazed at. This time one didn’t make it through delivery, plus another died tonight, in addition to the chick that this thread was about, but that is out of 38 chicks. I am not sure why the one died tonight. Everything looked fine on it (no pasty butt, pecking, etc.) they have enough space, food, water, and their temperature is consistent with no drafts. Maybe they got scared by something and smothered it in a corner?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry it didn't make it and you lost another one.
Not sure about the other one that died, could be a number of things from shipping stress to failure to thrive.