Cracked egg still alive, hatched and doing great! UPDATE w/pics

[ChicknCharm]

There is an amazing instruction post on how to help out chicks that are stuck in the egg, when it is too long from pip to zip to hatch. I will try to find it and post it. But I followed that wisdom, which was to chip away the shell carefully, and then peel the outer membrane, leave the more clear, flimsy inner membrane in tact, then wrap the tiny thing in a damp paper towel and go back to the incubator for a squishy hatch. I did this and put the paper-towel-chick burrito in a small plastic bowl...back in the bator. That chick turned out great. I did not uncurl her or change her position inside that super clear squishy second membrane. She was all wrapped up in the paper towel blanket in the right shape, so if that yolk was not absorbed, she could still do it. It worked for me this time. It was scary. If you see bloody veins, go careful. In my experience the bloody veins were in the clear membrane. Also, I did it under a red heat lamp right in front of the bator. Had the tweezers, damp paper towel, everything right there. I held the egg in a clean cotton weave towel.

 

[ChicknCharm]

Hi Again:
Here is the link to that post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9316

I hope it helps, it helped me.

Good Luck!!!! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Gypsylion]

Thanks for the info and advice, Chickncharm. I'm going to go read that post right now and see what I can do...

BTW, I've been to Alpine, TX a few times.

After my undergrad at A&M, I did my first year of grad school at Angelo State U in San Angelo and went on a LOT of field bio research trips to the Big Bend area. One of our favorite routes was through Alpine and Balmorea. I had a few friends at Sul Ross as well...

Cheers!

 

[ChicknCharm]

Small world! Full of chicken lovers...that makes me smile.
I grew up here, left for my undergraduate and graduate work and then came back about 9 years ago when my first baby came along. It is very pretty here...and I am sure it is lovely in MA, too. You have water!!!! We go to San Angelo for shopping and to see some water.

Good luck! If she is well past 21-22 days, you may be able to get that shell off completely and just let her do a squishy hatch.

Send pics if it turns out.

 

[Gypsylion]

Well... got the shell off and half the outer membrane (about 2/3 of the way down the sides from the aircell end), and wrapped her in a wet paper towel to soak up some membrane for a bit. She seems healthy otherwise, and indeed, the whole outer membrane was dry and white inside the aircell...

She cheeped at me a few times.

In other news, I think I screwed up with my other rescued chick... I had put it in with all the others, though it still wasn't very strong and managed to get itself stuck under the food dish (i.e. NOT under the heat lamp) yesterday morning, so I put it back in the incubator with a food mash (starter and water) and a small water dish (the top of a spice bottle, so it's red like their chick waterer), and one of its smaller siblings for company (and because that one was still very small and a little weak). They were fine all day yesterday, all night last night, and ok when I took them out to try feeding the little one this morning. When I got home from work this afternoon, however, the littlest one was REALLY not doing well... almost motionless and taking gasping breaths. I think maybe it fell into the water dish? Or was the humidity too high for it (I only have one incubator, though the area it was in has about 70% humidity)? The few times I tried to feed it/give it water, it seemed to not know how swallowing food and water needed to be different from breathing. That is, it would often take a lot of gasping breaths after each sip of water...

Thoughts?

At this point I tried to give it a drop of PolyViSol liquid vitamins, since it felt REALLY lightweight, but it's not looking good...

 

[kidcallous]

I am tuning in to this one. I'd like to see how it turns out! ::FINGERS CROSSED::

 

[Gypsylion]

Thanks kidcallous. I didn't think to take pics of the de-shelling process, but I'll take a few from here on out...

 

[ChicknCharm]

How is your little hatchling doing? I hope s/he pulls through. Sometimes they are just too weak. We had a bunch hatch last weekend that we incubated for a friend and we think the eggs were a bit old. One hatched and did not absorb the yolk and then it bled. I took it out of the incubator to dry out that sack, and it did not make it. It is so sad. But take comfort that you tried and cared enough to try. The only other one to pip was the one we had to help out of the shell.

Also, I don't think you did anything wrong putting it back in the bator, with our sick one, I was upset that I took it out of the bator...but I had to clean up the blood and wanted to try to dry out the yolk sac thing.

Send word on the outcome. For both chicks.

 

[Gypsylion]

So far so good!

I just opened the inner membrane to give chickie a start on getting out, and he seems healthy and strong so far. (I resized these pics to 320x240, I'm thinking I'll do the 640x480 for next time...)

Before opening the membrane (the white spot is his egg tooth in the first membrane opening I made earlier):

After opening part of the membrane:

Back in the incubator with a wet paper towel after opening most of the membrane:

There was very little blood, and there isn't much yolk left, and he's peeping and moving around a bit, so I think he's definitely ready to go! I left some of it on so he has something to work towards to build up more strength... The other rescued chick died a few hours ago, and I want to be sure this one has as much chance as possible. I think the other one had some breathing/lung issues, maybe due to inhaling some egg fluid while stuck, and so far this new one seems to be breathing well.

Thanks for all the support... I'll keep posting updates!

 

[msheets]

I hope he makes it!