Day 22, No movement, Float test

[cpreggiannini]

So today is day 22 and I have had zero success with two groups of eggs due to human error I believe. Anyways, today I still haven't seen any sign of life in the eggs since I last candled them on day 18, so I decided to do a float test and all 4 of the eggs sank to the bottom. Rather than discarding them I candled them to trace the air sac, then I carefully removed the shell covering that portion of the egg, trying not to rupture the membrane. I rubbed aquaphor on the membrane to moisten and make transparent, and found two of them to be a dark brownish color and smelled horrible. They were clearly rotten! But the other two looked as if there was a little movement, so instead of placing it back into the styrofoam incubator, I placed it into the new incubator which is far better at holding consistent tempurature and humidity. So after about 2 or 3 minutes in the incubator, they both started to move like crazy within the membrane. The veins and still big and there seems to be fluid inside. Is there still hope for them? Images below

 

[Pyxis]

There may still be hope. They're close to hatching, so the key is going to be to keep the humidity up and keep their membranes moist. I'd cover the membranes with neosporin without pain relief. This will keep them moist and will have the added benefit of keeping bacteria out. You may have to reapply this every few hours until they are ready to hatch.

 

[cpreggiannini]

There may still be hope. They're close to hatching, so the key is going to be to keep the humidity up and keep their membranes moist. I'd cover the membranes with neosporin without pain relief. This will keep them moist and will have the added benefit of keeping bacteria out. You may have to reapply this every few hours until they are ready to hatch.

I put neosporin on this morning and they are still moving around inside. My question is, would it be any better if I made a small tear in the membrane to give it air?

 

[Pyxis]

Definitely do not tear the membrane. They don't need air yet, they are still breathing through their vein system. When they are ready they will pip it themselves. Doing it now would risk causing them to bleed out. Just keep putting on that neosporin.

 

[cpreggiannini]

One of them has passed, and one is still moving around. I'm putting the neosporin on as often as I can, but I'm not so sure it's going to make it.

 

[Pyxis]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for it

How's the temp and humidity in the incubator?

 

[cpreggiannini]

Temp 99.5-100. And humidity was 65%. The second chick ended up passing.

 

[Pyxis]

Well shoot. You did what you could, sorry you lost them