Gosling encephalocele*GRAPHIC CONTENT*

[kimmee12]

Something was odd about this egg.. when I candeled it, there were spaces that seemed empty.. I was sure this baby was malpositioned for the entire last week of incubation. Hatch day came and went and all her hatchmates had hatched out just fine, but this baby wasn't leaving her egg. When she became 4 days over due I float tested her. She was still alive.. I decided that she couldn't possibly live too much longer in that egg, she must be stuck. I'm not a huge fan of assisting hatches, and honestly lost several malpositioned goslings last month. I am on my last few eggs I was hoping to save this baby before it was too late. I carefully peeled the shell around the air sac, I left the inner membrane intact. It was not pipped nor did it have any veins running through it. With the lack of veins I confirmed my suspicion that this baby was done developing and needed to be freed. So I carefully pulled back the inner membrane and gently pulled the babies head free. Her big eyes looked right at me, and then she closed them. She began breathing as if it was no effort at all. Bless her heart, she is a beautiful thing, even if her brains are on the outside of her skull. I don't know how long she would have continued to wiggle around in that egg if I had not pulled her out. She lived for about 30 minutes.

 

[kimmee12]

 

[kimmee12]

 

[kimmee12]

Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?

 

[Ceinwyn]

Typically means high incubation temps during the first few days, and/or low oxygen levels.

 

[kimmee12]

Strange tho, because my vents were open and the others hatched fine. I've never had this happen before.

 

[Ceinwyn]

I had it happen a few years ago. My incubator had hot spots that I didn't know about. Link to everything that can go wrong during incubation and it's causes. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/IR00004437/00001

 

[kimmee12]

I had it happen a few years ago. My incubator had hot spots that I didn't know about. Link to everything that can go wrong during incubation and it's causes. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/IR00004437/00001

Oh I had not thought of that!! thank you! I will check that out!

 

[nhrocks]

I just had one like that! It was at day 34, and I stopped seeing movement but there was still a clear patch in the egg so I assumed it was dead. I opened it, and the membrane was bleeding red blood, so obviously was recently alive. The head and upper neck was bulging out brain/spinal cord. I thought that was too bad, and continued with opening my other dead eggs. Then my first egg started moving! I wasn't sure what was going on, so I opened it the rest of the was. She wiggled once or twice and then died. Had a huge unabsorbed yolk. Also, her upper bill stopped at the nostrils. Had a full lower bill though. That was the only obvious deformity besides the neural tube problem.

It was a bad hatch overall. No hatchlings from that batch, but 8 were alive at lockdown. None of the others I opened had obvious deformities, so I'm assuming bad genetics/bad luck for that little one. Next batch is going much better, 3 hatchlings, 4 pips, and three wiggly peeping eggs!

My breeders are Pilgrim yearlings, so I'm grateful for anything I get.

 

[Carrosaur]

Wow! That's crazy! Thanks for the pics, interesting stuff.