*UPDATE* Baby hatched on his own obviously before he finished absorbing and now his yolk sac is not fully absorbed!!!! 😩😩😩

[AmyA248]

Update to my long and stressful week long story.

Baby decided to hatch on his own after i lubricaded the membrane.
He is about 80% out and I can see his yolk sac wasn’t done absorbing!

He’s laying on my chest now while I write to you because I didn’t want him to struggle anymore.

Now what do I do?
This has been overwhelmingly stressful and I need more help. I’m so sorry…

Blessings,
Amy

 

[KRack]

I had a chick with an unabsorbed yolk sac. A lot of people said it had a low survival rate, but he was totally fine!! Spunky as all get out. Not sure if it’s the same for ducks, but don’t just accept a bleak outcome if that’s all you hear or read!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Cool! I just read this post so I don't know most of the story but I think I remember you had assisted the hatch and pulled off too much shell? Either way that's so great the duckling is doing well! Hatching always makes me so anxious even though I use broodies now. I never know when to assist or if or how much and I lay awake all night when they start hatching worrying something will go wrong that I could have prevented. This last hatch I assisted and it worked out but it didn't make up for the two I didn't assist the hatch before that didn't make it. Oh well, live and learn!

 

[casportpony]

That looks pretty good to me. I suggest putting it back in the incubator, 'cause keeping it warm enough on your body is difficult, and I hate to see it die now.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

He needs to be in the incubator to finish absorbing the yolk and to finish drying off. Picture how a premature baby at a hospital has to be in the incubator for a little bit to keep them at the proper temperature. However, that yolk sac doesn’t look to bad from your pictures and while you could put him in a cup in the incubator I usually do not when I only have one that has hatched or if they have a very large yolk sac. Otherwise they absorb the yolk just fine without a cup unless they are being trampled by other ducklings. Despite it looking like struggling to us that is them trying to gain their muscle strength since they hatch with none, but need muscle strength to walk shortly after hatching. When ducklings are assisted hatches they need all of the strength they can get and moving around like that is a good sign. It’s kind of like with kids you have to let them crawl around and take some tumbles to learn how to walk. I would recommend swabbing some plain original antibiotics ointment on his navel to prevent infection. Make sure you start the clock for when he should start eating after he has finished absorbing the yolk so 24-48hours after full yolk absorption is the time frame when you should expect him to be hungry. Do not try to force feed him before as he is living off of the yolk and that’s how a lot of people choke/aspirate ducklings. Also with being an assisted hatch he might take longer to walk and there is a very high chance of a vitamin deficiency. I would highly recommend getting some Poultry Cell from your local farm store that is what I use for all assisted hatches to prevent vitamin deficiency. I would recommend 1tsp of it in a sauce cup size cup of water. That way is it more concentrated. I raise a breed that hatcheries won’t touch due to their hatching issues and for years now with great success I have been hatching that breed of ducklings every spring. I also received most of my hatching information from a retired avian vet.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Update to my long and stressful week long story.

Baby decided to hatch on his own after i lubricaded the membrane.
He is about 80% out and I can see his yolk sac wasn’t done absorbing!

He’s laying on my chest now while I write to you because I didn’t want him to struggle anymore.

Now what do I do?
This has been overwhelmingly stressful and I need more help. I’m so sorry…

Blessings,
Amy

I agree with the others, put him back in the incubator, on something soft