Advice needed, please be honest!

[Ridgerunner]

t's hard when you are not looking at it. The blood is the thing. If it bleeds when you try to take the membrane off, it needs to wait. if it does not bleed, them go ahead.

In the meantime, try to keep the membrane moist without drowning the chick. The humidity in your incubator should be high enough to do that, but I use those straws with the accordian joints to be able to put water in my incubator without opening it. Cut a couple of then pretty short near the joint then put them together. Put them in through a vent hole and kind of bend them after the joint is inside. It's hard to explain but in you try, you can figure it out pretty quickly. I use a syringe to put water in the straw. You can maybe direct a little WARM, not hot, water directly on the chick.

 

[sunnyllama]

any suggestions? It is only the inner membrane, the outer is there at the bottom healthy and normal looking.

 

[nivtup]

Hard to tell from the photo.

There are large veins that provide a good blood supply, and when the blood flow ceases, they are still visible in the membrane.

It is always a best guess, and gut feeling.

That being said, it looks like most of the blood vessels have contracted in the photo.

You need to make the call, as I don't want to be the bad guy

If it were me, I would pull its head out of the egg, and place it back in the incubator.

The big risk at this point is that its navel will bleed if it comes out to early. I have actually taped them in the shell, with the head out in the past to keep them from coming out to early.

Time is actually on your side, as long as it can breathe and is not at risk of drowning, it can wait.

Patience.

 

[sunnyllama]

Okay, It can breath very well as the entire beak is free from the membrane. I am going to leave it alone. Thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

What was the result? Did the chick make it?

 

[sunnyllama]

Sorry to leave you hanging! Yes, the chick is alive and doing relatively well. The result, it appeared was "sticky chick" according to my research. Although, I am not sure why it happened since the humidity was consistent and many more chicks hatched very well during the time this little guy was pipped, so I really dont know the explanation?! Lets see, I got the chick out of the membrane and placed it back into the incubator to let him kick off his shell and dry out, which he did. He did not move at all, however, and was just laying there for several hours not even attempting to move

. He was laying on his side and as he dried, it became apparent that he was missing a wing. That is something totally new to me and at that point, I am wondering if he will ever be able to walk or what. After he dried, I took him out to inspect the damage only to figure out that he was not actually missing his wing, it was stuck to the side of his face!

So...he got another bath to un-glue his wing. Back into the incubator to dry again, he went. I left him overnight and took him out to find that his legs were splayed, Im sure as a result of him not moving at all for his first several hours. I looked up how to make a little prosthesis, though and have that on him now. His one leg is progressing nicely but he is being stubborn about using the other one and I notice his toes curling. Im sure I will need to make him a little boot...Ugh! What an ordeal!

I cant thank you all enough for your help!!