Broken egg, live gosling, how to HELP?*UPDATE*It died =*(

[aka Rachel]

I hope he makes it!

 

[Lollipop]

Sunny, it sounds like you`re doing everything that can be done. I think your gosling has a good chance. I`m rooting for ya...........Pop

 

[Sunny Side Up]

It's been 12+ hours since the incident and the little gosling is still ALIVE! It is 10 feet away from me here at the computer & I can hear it peeping periodically. I had to pour a little water on the washcloth, don't like to disturb the baby by picking up the egg & its wrapping. The membrane is getting a little dry & tough in some places that I can see, but the beak is still uncovered.

Do you think it will try to wriggle out of what remains of its shell when it is time? It won't have to do any pipping or zipping, just uncurl & stretch. It has had periods of more vigorous activity where it seems to try & move as much as it can. Do you think those periods will become more frequent as its hatchday approaches? I don't want to intervene too soon, before the yolk is absorbed, but also don't want to wait too long & have it get stuck in the dry membranes.

Thank you all for your support & your prayers!

 

[Cattitude]

*sends good vibes your way* You're doing everything as right as you can; now it's up to the gosling and Mother Nature!

 

[perolane]

How is the little guy this morning?????

As to your question from last night...I would just continue with what you're doing for now. When it's time, if you see him struggling with the membrane, then I would intervene.

 

[perolane]

I really hope that "no news is good news" in this case.......

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The little gosling died some time this morning while we were out at church.

It was alive earlier this morning, peeping softly & flexing a bit. I lifted the whole washcloth-eggshell bundle out of the cooler to take a closer look. The yolk was all absorbed so I gently pried back the leathery membranes holding it in place. I left the shell & membranes that were connected to its umbilicus, just freed its head, wings & feet. I re-wrapped it in a dry washcloth and put it back in the cooler. I didn't think extra humidity would be needed so I removed the bowl of water. I didn't want to risk having the baby survive all this only to drown after taking its first wobbly steps. I left the gosling in the cooler, loosely wrapped in the washcloth, under the heat lamp. It was still breathing, peeping & flexing.

But it was already dead by the time I got home. We knew its survival was very uncertain, and it really is a miracle that it lived for as long as it did. I don't think I could have done much more for it, left on its own in the nest it would have already been eaten by a predator or fire ants.

These Things Happen, but it always stinks when it happens to a baby incubated for so long and just days away from hatching. It happened because I have my goose in less than ideal conditions for brooding. She insisted on staying on the nest she made for herself away from her pen up under the boys' bedroom window. She laid her eggs there all season, and refused my attempt to move her nest to her pen. In order to keep her safe from nighttime predators I have been setting a bottomless cage over her each night & taking it off first thing in the morning. Most mornings I find her setting quietly on her eggs, her head pillowed on her soft back. But some mornings she's standing up pecking at the top of the cage, impatient to get out. Yesterday she had been jumping up & down to add more momentum to her pecks, and in doing so stomped on that egg.

So her egglings were kept safe from opossums & raccoons only to have one crushed by their Mama.

Sometimes you're darned if you do, darned anyway if you do something else. You live & learn, & often learn the hard way. The only thing I could have done better, and will do for the remaining days of Gertie's set, is to set my alarm clock for just after daybreak to wake up & open her cage before she gets anxious to go out. I usually get up on my own around 7-7:30 (I have lots of roosters and my bedroom window faces east) but now I'll set the alarm to go off around 6:30.

Thank you all for your encouragement, support & prayers. Please keep them up for Gertrude's two remaining eggs. I checked them this morning when she got off the nest. One feels heavier than the other so I don't know if they're both developing. I held them to my ear & tapped them with a fingernail, but didn't hear any peeping inside. I would really like to see at least one of them hatch after all this effort & drama!

 

[aka Rachel]

You did what you could all along, and I think you did good

 

[perolane]

Oh...I'm so very sorry!!!!

I was pulling for the little fellow.....you did your very best & gave him the best chance!

 

[Denninmi]

I'm also very sorry that the poor gosling died. It is hard to place so many hopes on a little egg, only to have it not work out. I know personally I've had some not so good luck with hatching things, as well as some good luck, and I always feel so bad for the ones that don't make it.

Right now, I have a problem with one of my button quails that hatched thursday night, and I can't quite figure out what is wrong with it or what to do for it. It is very weak and I think possibly it is blind. I am trying nurse it along and feed it and it is very hard because it is so tiny.