Should I help this chick hatch or it is ok?

[gavinandallison]

Quote:
Moisten the membrane with warm water and enlarge the hole if you can with a set of tweezers, keeping the membrne moist - i use q-tips and a bowl of warm water. Just make sure the hole is big enough for it to breathe properly, ok? let me know soonest how you are doing..... if it bleeds slightly then stop.....

 

[yinepu]

ok.. since you have run into blood .. make sure the membrane is moist and wrap the egg with a wet paper towel making sure you don't cover the beak and return it to the incubator..

 

[evers310]

the blood vessels you can see in the last picture are what I'm worried about now. the bits of blood when i pulled at the membrane seem to be coming from in-between the 2 membranes? is that the case? does this mean it hasnt absorbed everything yet?

i am just not sure what im looking at.

its peeping away now because now i am in my brooder room where its warmest and it hears the other chicks that have already hatched. it seems really healthy which is a good sign.

and im guessing it hasnt tried to move to hatch because it just cant. the air sac is still full and its so cramped. it tries to move.. it almost feels like its trying to use its wings.. like fluttering but it just cant move. it keeps its beak outside of the hole so thats good atleast as far as it being able to get some air.

what should i do about how its emerging from the egg?

should i try to take ALL of the membrane off so its completely soft and see if it can break thru? should i puncture the air sac to give it more room? should i leave the membrane alone other than keeping it moist?

so many questions!!!

 

[yinepu]

since you have seen blood leave it alone for awhile.. the chick's struggles will send a signal to the veins to stop the blood supply.. it also needs this time to finish absorbing the yolk...
Just give it time to sort things out.. if you rush it too much now you will only cause problems.. so take a big breath.. go fix a cup of tea and let the chick handle things for a bit..

 

[gavinandallison]

I agree, give it say an hour and go check on it....... you may be able to peel back some more membrane by then....

 

[gavinandallison]

Quote:
Anymore progress or news?

 

[wiliamsmith4444]

The big question is tell when you need to intervene. Like I said, you are there looking at it. I'm not. I usually don't help until I see yellowish foam start to come out of the pip hole. That means it is about to choke to death. You may decide to try earlier, but for me that is the now or never moment. I don't save all of those, but I do some.

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[gavinandallison]

Quote:
I have helped (well we) 3 eggs zip, 2 have gone on to be great birds - one we will be showing this fall, one had a leg deformity so it had to be culled. A hard thing to tell when, i give a zipped egg about 12 hours before i will intervene.....

 

[yinepu]

I've helped hundreds of chicks hatch.. been doing this all my life.. and unfortunately I'm not a "spring chicken" any more.. lol

 

[evers310]

<3 Time for an update! ...and a very happy one at that!

What I ended up doing was: I went ahead and took that egg out of the incubator and worked with it as per your advice I just first started peeling back the egg shell where it had already separated from the membrane, all the while keeping the membrane moist with water and a q-tip. I then wrapped him up in warm wet papertowels and placed him in a box under a heat lamp in my brooder room where its already hot and humid. I didnt want to put him back in the incubator just because even with the papertowels on the membrane was drying out really fast and i'd have to keep opening the incubator and this way I could keep a better eye on him anyway. I'd wait a while and just keep working with the membrane as the vessels seemed to recede or dry up.

What I've come to realize is that my humidity level is too low in the incubator because the other egg that had cracked the shell finally broke thru the membrane and started going to town, zipping right along but as I kept checking on it thru the windows on the incubator I noticed that his membrane too was turning white. Same thing with a 3rd... so I've just treated all 3 the same way. Not hatching them completely out so they can still work their own way out of their shell and gain their strength. I am happy to report that chick # 2 is all fluffed out and dry

chick #3 and the 1st egg are only connected to their shell by their umbilicals and are working a bit then resting etc..

Here are 2 pictures for you! The first one is of the egg that started it all (lil blondie) and chick #2 which is now all fluffy and dry The 2nd picture is of lil blondie grasping my finger when i touched its toes omigoodness it just made my heart melt!

I have about 15 or so more eggs in the incubator so its gonna be a long weekend im sure!!!

link for larger image: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aqg2-m_b8hYR5j1JNWAxIpXYquk_qaMCjwO9lAPAKWU?feat=directlink

link for larger image: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ovuneeT2Grcph0quklx185XYquk_qaMCjwO9lAPAKWU?feat=directlink