EMERGENCY Smashed egg, day 19-20, chick chirping and struggling

[MissLavender]

So I have a clutch of eggs under a broody hen and one got smashed. Much of the shell is gone, membrane exposed and torn in several places, but there is no bleeding or veining whatsoever that I can see. I have the chick in the incubator right now with high humidity. Chick is struggling and chirping, and the membrane appears to be drying up. I have never dealt with anything like this before. What should I do?

 

[MissLavender]

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Put coconut oil on the membrane to keep it from getting shrink wrapped

 

[cottontail farm]

Oh boy. Poor thing. Would a moist paper towel work? Hopefully someone else will chime in.

 

[MissLavender]

Okay, I did the coconut oil and that seemed to help. Am I going to have to assist it in hatching?

 

[chickenpolo]

Can you tell if it has absorbed the yolk?, if there aren’t active veins, it may be ready to hatch if it’s at 20 days...

 

[MissLavender]

This is the current situation:

Can you tell if it has absorbed the yolk?, if there aren’t active veins, it may be ready to hatch if it’s at 20 days...

 

[chickenpolo]

I’m not an expert, but I’d say that chick looks all set to hatch- it appears it has absorbed the yolk and that there are no active blood vessels. It almost looks like it struggled so much to get out it broke the shell apart? Maybe it was in an abnormal position and struggled to unzip normally?? Just a guess. If you don’t see bleeding I’d say it’s ok to carefully try to get it out the rest of the way. Just remember to stop if you see any blood.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You could start helping, just stop if you hit a vein.

 

[cleoandtheflock]

I’m not an expert, but I’d say that chick looks all set to hatch- it appears it has absorbed the yolk and that there are no active blood vessels. It almost looks like it struggled so much to get out it broke the shell apart? Maybe it was in an abnormal position and struggled to unzip normally?? Just a guess. If you don’t see bleeding I’d say it’s ok to carefully try to get it out the rest of the way. Just remember to stop if you see any blood.

@chickenpolo said it lovely!