Advice on helping a chick!!

[gioben]

Hi! So I had a chick pip on the wrong side of the egg. He had broken the shell but the membrane was still intact. I decided to help a little and broke the membrane so that the chick could breath. It started to bleed a bit so I quickly put it back in the incubator. It's been twelve hours and from what I can see he is doing fine and moving his little beak, but he hasn't made any progress with zipping. What should I do now?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi! So I had a chick pip on the wrong side of the egg. He had broken the shell but the membrane was still intact. I decided to help a little and broke the membrane so that the chick could breath. It started to bleed a bit so I quickly put it back in the incubator. It's been twelve hours and from what I can see he is doing fine and moving his little beak, but he hasn't made any progress with zipping. What should I do now?

Give him more time and keep an eye on the membrane for drying out. A chick can take 24 hours after a normal pip, even longer with a malepositioned because they skipped a step. If after 24 hours he still hasn't progressed you can attempt to start an assist.

 

[gioben]

Give him more time and keep an eye on the membrane for drying out. A chick can take 24 hours after a normal pip, even longer with a malepositioned because they skipped a step. If after 24 hours he still hasn't progressed you can attempt to start an assist.

It's been 24 hours and nothing. I'm gonna have to help. Any advice on helping? I've read most of the assisted hatching threads but I'm still nervous that I might do something wrong.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

It's been 24 hours and nothing. I'm gonna have to help. Any advice on helping? I've read most of the assisted hatching threads but I'm still nervous that I might do something wrong.

If it's pipped at the bottom, there may not be a whole lot that you can do, because down there it may still have heavy veining, but what I would do is this:
Get some water, q-tips and flat nosed tweezers if you have them.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I moisten the exposed membranes with a wet q-tip and then sliding the tweezers between the shell and membrane if you can, (it's harder to do at the pointed end where it's more compressed together), and chip just the shell going up the egg. Moisten any membranes you expose. When you moisten the membrane this will also let you see how much veining is left. If there is a lot of veining, especially thick veins, you aren't going to be able to do much because it's not ready. If you hit a vein and cause bleeding, I hold a wet q-tip against it for a bit to staunch it and then replace it to the bator. If there's still heavy veining I wrap a damp paper towel around the back of the egg and put it back in the bator. If the veining looks about gone,(you can pull the membrane back) continue for 10 minutes or so and replace the baby to rest and warm back up and see if it makes progress on it's own. If it doesn't give it half an hour to an hour and so a little more work repeating this until it's out.

That's how I do it.

Some people use bacitracin/vaseline or non pain relief neosporin spread thinnly over exposed membranes to keep them from drying out as well.

 

[gioben]

I moisten the exposed membranes with a wet q-tip and then sliding the tweezers between the shell and membrane if you can, (it's harder to do at the pointed end where it's more compressed together), and chip just the shell going up the egg. Moisten any membranes you expose. When you moisten the membrane this will also let you see how much veining is left. If there is a lot of veining, especially thick veins, you aren't going to be able to do much because it's not ready. If you hit a vein and cause bleeding, I  hold a wet q-tip against it for a bit to staunch it and then replace it to the bator. If there's still heavy veining I wrap a damp paper towel around the back of the egg and put it back in the bator. If the veining looks about gone,(you can pull the membrane back) continue for 10 minutes or so and replace the baby to rest and warm back up and see if it makes progress on it's own. If it doesn't give it half an hour to an hour and so a little more work repeating this until it's out.

That's how I do it.

Some people use bacitracin/vaseline or non pain relief neosporin spread thinnly over exposed membranes to keep them from drying out as well.

Okay thank you!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Okay thank you!!

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[gioben]

Good luck and keep us posted.

I got home and was ready to help him but he has slowly started to zip! He's taking a while but I don't want to bother him until I know for sure that he can't do it on his own anymore.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I got home and was ready to help him but he has slowly started to zip! He's taking a while but I don't want to bother him until I know for sure that he can't do it on his own anymore.

That's great. Zipping shouldn't take that long. If he's not out w/in the hour (I wouldn't even give him that long,) I'd be assisting. I've seen to many people say their chick that started zipping and was taking forever later report it never made it out.

 

[gioben]

I

That's great. Zipping shouldn't take that long. If he's not out w/in the hour (I wouldn't even give him that long,) I'd be assisting. I've seen to many people say their chick that started zipping and was taking forever later report it never made it out.

It's been about 3 hours. He's going really slow. Should I just crack the shell along the zip line and let him push himself out?