Foaming at the pip hole???

[PsycoPeep]

I just came home from work and peeked in the incubator. One of the eggs had a pip hole and it looked really wierd, so I grabbed it and closed it again right away and took a look at it. There were a bunch of foam bubbles coming out of it! I've heard people say that they've had babies drown before, (which I don't undertand that, but whatever), so I got real worried and grabbed a toothpick and flaked a little chip away and there ws more foam. It's tiny beak was right there at the hole, so I kinda nudged it a little w/the toothpick and it wouldn't chirp or move so I figured it was dead. I flaked off a few more little bits and still more foam. And I also saw that it's gizzard was very bloated & blown up like a balloon. What happened??? Did it drown then? What would be the cause of that? Too high of humidity? People always tell me to crank it up at the end and that too low is worse than too high, and I've also heard if you don't keep it high they can get shrink wrapped. (don't know what THAT means, either), so I've been keeping it about 70% for the last few days. Is that too high? I was told 50-60% in the begining and the last few days keep it at 70. But - then again - no matter who you talk to, you'll get a different answer. It just makes it complicated when a newbie is trying to learn b/c you don't know if you should do it his way or do it her way and then you do it one way and somethign bad goes wrong. sigh. Poor little guy...! Also, does that mean the rest of my eggs in there are now bad? Should I put a small hole in them so they can start to air out a bit? I had one hatch out this morning perfectly normal. It's running around the brooder w/my 1 week olds. What about my Button Quail eggs that are in there? Their not due until Sunday/Monday. Is it too high for them now and they'll be bad, too?

 

[NovaAman]

I have never seen that, but I am thinking it was more like something wrong with the chick and the egg. H your humidity at 70% is fine. Don't opennthe bator until the hatch is done now..

 

[birdymama]

Bacteria got into the egg somehow and the egg went off from the sounds of it. The chick would have died. The bubbling gas would have made the pip in my experience.

 

[cochins1088]

I've seen foaming at the mouth 3 times before. Twice with chicks and once with a gosling. In all 3 cases, it was because of ruptured yolk sacs. Thankfully I was able to save the gosling and one of the chicks, however, I did lose the other chick to bacterial infection.

When they rupture their yolk sacs, the liquid slowly leaks out and gets into their mouths. If they've already internally pipped, than they are breathing which causes transparent - yellow tinted foam.


For future reference, this is how I treat it.

If you come across a ruptured yolk sac, it's a very tricky situation. Should you intervene immediately? or wait? If you feel confident working on the egg without damaging active blood vessel, than you should intervene immediately. Carefully work your way down until you can get to the chick's navel. Once you find it, use a piece of thread that has been dipped in iodine to tie off the blood vessels and remainder of the yolk. Get as close to the chicks naval as possible. Once the thread is tight, use a pair of scissors to cut off the remainder of the yolk sac so that the chick is free from the membrane. Than add additional iodine directly to the chick's navel to prevent infection.

Once the chick is dry, offer it water with vitamins and electrolytes. You could even offer some scrambled eggs. This needs to be done as soon as possible because the chick was unable to absorb the necessary nutrients from it's yolk.

If you do not feel comfortable working around the active blood vessels, than wait. But understand that the longer you wait, the higher the possibility of bacterial infection.

Here's some pictures from when I saved my gosling. She's still around today.


Here's her inside the egg an hour before she ruptured her yolk sac. The top of the shell was removed because I was forced to create an artificial internal pip.



I don't have any pictures of the procedure, but here is what her navel looked like right after I cut her from the yolk sac and membrane.



Here she is resting.



and this is what she looked like by morning.

 

[cochins1088]

It seems that you're also questioning your humidity.

You will get different advice from different people because optimal humidity levels are different for nearly everyone. Have you ever tried weighing your eggs to keep track of weight loss? It's the most accurate way to judge whether or not your humidity levels are correct. Eggs need to lose 14% - 17% of their original weight by external pip in order to hatch properly.

Humidity during the hatch should be around 60% and you don't need to up the humidity until you see internal pips.

I've found that optimal humidity varies with the eggs and the seasons. For me, shipped eggs require slightly higher humidity as do eggs that hatch during the winter.