Abandoned duck egg. Need help asap

[Miss Lydia]

And the chicks with the duckling pecks can hurt. Sweet pics

 

[CayugaJana]

Babies can be so excepting!! I bet with Mommas watchful eye, they will be lifelong friends!

 

[lilnuggets]

Chicks are a good substitute for now. Keep a careful watch, ducks (depending on breed) grow faster than chicks. So keep an eye on how the ducky is interacting with the chicks as they all grow.

I know ducks grow crazy fast! This is just until baby duck is big enough to be moved outside for a slow introduction back with my other ducks.

 

[lilnuggets]

And the chicks with the duckling pecks can hurt. Sweet pics

I will keep a close eye for pecking. They did a little when I first introduced them all but I think that was just figuring out the pecking order. They seem to have settled in for now.

 

[WVduckchick]

Baby duck is happy to have some cuddle buddies for the night View attachment 1529132

Precious!!

 

[Kimmyh51]

There's no such thing as bedtime in the middle of a hatch

Amen to that at 2:32 am with a difficult hatch in the bator right now

 

[Kimmyh51]

So how would have assisting the hatch helped if the yolk sack was not fully absorbed?

Ive had some ducks who needed help, yet the yolk sac wasnt absorbed. Its (excuse my language) a shit of a problem and i do feel that sometimes some give up before they absorb the yok sac and can be assisted out of the egg. What i feel, and its just my experience/opinion has helped in a difficult or delayed hatch when my gut tells me the duckling is giving up, but my eyes or other signs tell me the yolk isnt absorbed, is sometimes to chip away till the beak is out, then give it water with a little sugar bu holding the egg so the beak points DOWNWARD and dribling the sugar water in a syringe down the right hand side of the beak. Often they respond by opening their beak and when they get a taste they perk up. I also often, though people will probably argue against this, give a little broad spectrum antibiotic i have handy, inthe water as soon as i see any unabsorbed egg yolk, to try and stop any bacteria that have or will get onto that yolk, getting a hold on the wee baby when it absorbs the yolk.
I also spay colloidal silver onto any exposed egg yolk, or membrane over it (breech hatch) and/or use iodine on any unabsorbed yolk. I do feel if there is unabsorbed yolk, that the benfits of prophalactic antibiotics, and weak topical antibacterial solutions such as iodine outweigh any risks.

Then i just keep giving it some sugar water every couple,of hrs or so till its ready to exit the rest of the egg (when yolk is absorbed, and the umbilical cord is thin and dried out, and there is no bleeding from membrane.

This can take a long time, and my gut feeling sometimes, is that the ducklings can start to give up with no progress and no feeling of a mother duck to support them. I cant help but wonder sometimes, because of how well some of mine have responded to my voice etc, whether some of the ducklings that die 'in lockdown' might have throught mummy duck had aleady abandoned the nest, (and therefore, them)

So, i kinda break all the lockdown rules, open up my incubator with gay abandon, every hr or two, give them a few drops of sugar water (and maybe antibiotic) and talk to them when they are chirping, let them know they arent alone, 'mummy' is still here on the nest looking out for them, and again, this is just my gut feeling/experience, but i do feel that many times a duckling which has been fading, will perk up after a few drops of sugar water, and/or me talking to it. There are plenty of stories of people resisting death beause of someone who was supporting them or for someone they loved...why not ducks?

Water based lubricant, or gynaecological gel are great to gently put around any exposed membrane to stop it dryingnout, works waaay better than a moist tissue etc (which i do use as well). Amd if worst comes to worst, a direct spray of water (I use colloidal silver) onto exposed membrane to moisten it down, and allow you to see better whats happening underneath.

Ive learnt some lessons the hard way with assisting, and assisting too soon (though on later reflection, with more experience, those I lost were possibly all, except one, lost causes anyway), but more often than not, a gut feeling has turned out to be a lifesaver for the hatchling ive followed it for.

While there are probably plenty of people who will disagree with me, I do feel that there are many situations where an assist is beneficial or life saving.

And while i also have a terrible history of completely ignoring the whole lock down thing, my theory being no mother duck I have met so far, locks down her belly 3 or so days out, I am confident that I have never lost a duckling due to opening the incubator during 'lock down'.


Btw i often when removing membrane which is dried out and ready to go, will find what can look like red veins, but they are just dried up.
They often but not always, are thick and round when still full of blood, you an almost see the liquid blood inside them, though its taken me practise to recogise the difference and i still get it wrong.

But sometimes you just have to go in and stat peeling back the shell, and the membrane... If you are removing membrane and u get ANY fresh bleeding, STOP immediately, use a tissue to soak up the blood and if it is more than a drop or two, conside cayenne pepper to stop the bleeding. Then put the duckling back in the inubator, for at least an hr or two, and cautiously try again.

If like me u havent found or exposed the beak, and your gut tells u it needs help, and the duckling is fading (often for me they will still be moving their beak and trying to chip, but no longer audibly peeping, and not moving the rest of their body that you can see much) then try and remove shell and membane to get to the beak, still stopping immediately if it bleeds, but putting back in incubator and hecking hrly, and progessing as muh as the membrane will let you hr by hr till u get to the beak. The get a syringe, and warm water plus a little sugar as above (make SURE its beak is aimed DOWN or you will choke it) And talk to the duckling if its peeping, or if it isnt. Try and get it to peep back to you.

 

[lomine]

I believe the duckling passed while @lilnuggets was outside caring for the adult ducks. I think it was said that it was alone for about 1/2 an hour and before that it was progressing on its own. Passing in such a short amount of time means there was something seriously wrong with it and there’s nothing OP could have done to save it.

On a personal note, and this might sound really cold hearted to some, I never go to extreme lengths to save a hatchling. I’ve helped remove a bit of shell and made little tape boots for curly toed quail (but all those were grown for meat). I’d never do more than that for a bird that can’t/won’t hatch on its own. My reason being is that my bird’s eggs are hatched and I believe it’s irresponsible to potentially introduce ‘bad’ genetics to the gene pool. I don’t want an incubator full of eggs that need help hatching or a flock of birds with compromised immune systems. But like I said, it’s all my personal beliefs.

 

[Kimmyh51]

I believe the duckling passed while @lilnuggets was outside caring for the adult ducks. I think it was said that it was alone for about 1/2 an hour and before that it was progressing on its own. Passing in such a short amount of time means there was something seriously wrong with it and there’s nothing OP could have done to save it.

On a personal note, and this might sound really cold hearted to some, I never go to extreme lengths to save a hatchling. I’ve helped remove a bit of shell and made little tape boots for curly toed quail (but all those were grown for meat). I’d never do more than that for a bird that can’t/won’t hatch on its own. My reason being is that my bird’s eggs are hatched and I believe it’s irresponsible to potentially introduce ‘bad’ genetics to the gene pool. I don’t want an incubator full of eggs that need help hatching or a flock of birds with compromised immune systems. But like I said, it’s all my personal beliefs.

I incerstsnd about introducing 'bad genetics' to the gene pool and I take care that ducks i have hatched which i believe may have had problems for genetic reasons are not bred from

But i do believe all animals have a right to life, just as we do, and if I think I can save a duck that would otherwise die I will always try to.
I have also saved ducks who I believe were victims of non genetic hatch problems and aside from one special needs duckling I have right now, every other assisted hatch has been a strong, energetic healthy, robust duck. For example i have loads of white ducks who hatched completely unassisted, who were fathered by a white pekin drake, whose egg was cracked who had to be assisted out.

That particular drake has been rather annoyingly robust, healthy, and virile, and as well as none of his offspring needing assistance to hatch, the females have all been great layers, which is important to me as i raise my ducks for eggs not meat.

I also have another beautiful strong healthy khaki campbell drake who needed assistance who is strong, healthy, has a million 'girlfriends' and a wonderful nature, and has been commented on beause he is such a handsome drake. All my fully grown female assisted hatches are healthy, good layers, and loud, confident girl ducks who love the sound of their own voices, are widely socially accepted and usually near the top of the pecking order such as it is in my ducks. Those who are old enough to be laying are good layers.

I think some of them may be stronger than my unassisted ducks.. They had to be to get here in the first place.

 

[Kimmyh51]

I incerstsnd about introducing 'bad genetics' to the gene pool and I take care that ducks i have hatched which i believe may have had problems for genetic reasons are not bred from

But i do believe all animals have a right to life, just as we do, and if I think I can save a duck that would otherwise die I will always try to.
I have also saved ducks who I believe were victims of non genetic hatch problems and aside from one special needs duckling I have right now, every other assisted hatch has been a strong, energetic healthy, robust duck. For example i have loads of white ducks who hatched completely unassisted, who were fathered by a white pekin drake, whose egg was cracked who had to be assisted out.

That particular drake has been rather annoyingly robust, healthy, and virile, and as well as none of his offspring needing assistance to hatch, the females have all been great layers, which is important to me as i raise my ducks for eggs not meat.

I also have another beautiful strong healthy khaki campbell drake who needed assistance who is strong, healthy, has a million 'girlfriends' and a wonderful nature, and has been commented on beause he is such a handsome drake. All my fully grown female assisted hatches are healthy, good layers, and loud, confident girl ducks who love the sound of their own voices, are widely socially accepted and usually near the top of the pecking order such as it is in my ducks. Those who are old enough to be laying are good layers.

I think some of them may be stronger than my unassisted ducks.. They had to be to get here in the first place.

Also, 'touch wood', but so far none of the offspring of my assisted hatches, have needed assistance to hatch.