Dog opened up incubators

[Isaac 0]

Awesome, congrats!

 

[member 569347]

Hi All! This is Carolyn - Momma duck. Selene has been our Amazing surrogate since day #1 and brought the eggs in incubators to us and is staying through the hatching processes. Hope it's ok if I join the thread.

I'm reaching out for some advice. Lucky (who hatched butt first due to shell damage) is failing to thrive. He eats and drinks on his own when we present him to it, but he doesn't hold his head up on his own (still curls it under mostly, like in the shell) and doesn't have a lot of strength. His size and weight have been surpassed by the others who hatched after, including Duckie whose egg was also damaged.

We've been feeding him moistened Manna Pro Duck Starter Grower Crumble with Nutritional yeast. The others are pushing him away from them. It was recommended I have Durvet High Level Vitamin B Complex on hand, but don't know the dilution rate for administering since it doesn't reference fowl. Any suggestions how we can help this little guy?

 

[member 569347]

Odds of survival are fairly low for the ones that have been cracked badly. First off, spraying the eggs with water will actually pull moisture away from the shell, I would apply a moistener like coconut oil, Neosporin, or Food grade mineral oil to the exposed membrane. Keep the humidity up, and leave them be. Do NOT pull any more of the shell off or try to help the ducklings out, they need to be left alone.

Issac... Thank you SOOOO much for this advice! I feel blessed that 2 of 4 survived the ordeal so far thanks to you. Just praying that Lucky begins to thrive and pulls through.

 

[Isaac 0]

Hi All! This is Carolyn - Momma duck. Selene has been our Amazing surrogate since day #1 and brought the eggs in incubators to us and is staying through the hatching processes. Hope it's ok if I join the thread.

I'm reaching out for some advice. Lucky (who hatched butt first due to shell damage) is failing to thrive. He eats and drinks on his own when we present him to it, but he doesn't hold his head up on his own (still curls it under mostly, like in the shell) and doesn't have a lot of strength. His size and weight have been surpassed by the others who hatched after, including Duckie whose egg was also damaged.

We've been feeding him moistened Manna Pro Duck Starter Grower Crumble with Nutritional yeast. The others are pushing him away from them. It was recommended I have Durvet High Level Vitamin B Complex on hand, but don't know the dilution rate for administering since it doesn't reference fowl. Any suggestions how we can help this little guy?

Hi, I think weak ducklings would be expected after having them go through that. Do you have a poultry vitamin you could give them? Rooster Booster or Poultry Nutri-Dench are great, be very careful and put a few drops on the side of their bill, the sensation of liquid often makes them drink, I would offer some mashed scrambled eggs too.

 

[Isaac 0]

I think they need an all-around poultry vitamin, not just the B complex.

 

[member 569347]

BTW... 8 so far! (Only 7 appear to be pictured because 1 is under the others and 1 hatched after I took the pic)

 

[DuckyDonna]

Boy were you ever lucky! They are beautiful

 

[Miss Lydia]

Congrats they are precious

 

[member 569347]

UPDATE: We lost Lucky. He just wasn't thriving. We had another who exacerbated inside its shell only ever able to get it's beak free. Another also had just it's beak showing and I didn't expect to survive past its shell, but Selene persisted. When I suggested we help it by cracking a line in its shell on each side of it's beak, Selene did so with her finger nail. It eventually DID push out on its own and seems to be improving. So now we are up to 11.
(This post was meant to be posted yesterday, but just did it today)

 

[Selene uwu]

Update! Lucky didn't make it after a series of unfortunate heating issues. Out of the 4 that had visible damage 2 hatched and one survived. When more began hatching we saw that they had a lot of internal bleeding and out of those two who struggled for ~48 hours to hatch one was persistent and made it through- the first few hours it looked like it wasn't going to make it, but by this morning we can't even tell what any of them went through. By 8am this morning every egg had hatched. From the original 24 fertilized eggs (fun surprise) 17 have survived... Me dropping the incubator lid and crushing two, one coming in already with a crack, and A dog attack. Thanks for everyone suggestions and recommendations about the vitamins and electrolytes- every chick seems a lot more active and happy.
We are all having fun watching them play and are getting them comfortable around humans, hopefully more cute updates soon!