Hands on hatching and help

[Amanita]

Good question!
If they get stuck, they can come out with some damage--spradle leg is very common because they hurt their ligaments but is easily fixed. Curled toes is usually a sign of temperature issues. To the sides is thought to be incubation issues. Curled toward the foot is thought to be genetic.

They can go 2 to 3 days after they absorb the yolk and be fine. Yours was likely taking a bit longer to absorb the yolk.

Post a picture when the chick is out!

Thanks!

No pics of him yet because I've had my hands full with them (and I'm at work now, my husband is chick-sitting) but I think he may actually have spraddle leg. A couple of times I've found him pushed out from under the heat (we have a Brinsea Ecoglow) and he's gotten a little bit chilled. When I pick him up and warm him he mostly goes to sleep, but he does sometimes kick and cheep and has a certain amount of energy. When I put him down again he makes an effort to get under the heat, but he seems kind of flopped, with his legs to either side, and doesn't move very effectively. He's ended up getting pushed on his back a couple of times and can't get back up without help. I have vet tape and I'll be home in about an hour for lunch, so I'll try to make a splint then (assuming I'm correct about the legs?). I've also got http://francodex.com/basse-cour/bien-etre-des-volailles-et-palmipedes/vitaljeune/ in their water and I dipped his beak in it a bit, but I'm not sure if he really got any. He didn't seem terribly interested.

Again, any thoughts, suggestions or moral support greatly appreciated, I would never have made it this far without this thread!

 

[WVduckchick]

7 hours later and we're only here!
View attachment 1157617

I feel certain this little one made it out fine, but anxious for an update.

 

[WVduckchick]

Thanks!

No pics of him yet because I've had my hands full with them (and I'm at work now, my husband is chick-sitting) but I think he may actually have spraddle leg. A couple of times I've found him pushed out from under the heat (we have a Brinsea Ecoglow) and he's gotten a little bit chilled. When I pick him up and warm him he mostly goes to sleep, but he does sometimes kick and cheep and has a certain amount of energy. When I put him down again he makes an effort to get under the heat, but he seems kind of flopped, with his legs to either side, and doesn't move very effectively. He's ended up getting pushed on his back a couple of times and can't get back up without help. I have vet tape and I'll be home in about an hour for lunch, so I'll try to make a splint then (assuming I'm correct about the legs?). I've also got http://francodex.com/basse-cour/bien-etre-des-volailles-et-palmipedes/vitaljeune/ in their water and I dipped his beak in it a bit, but I'm not sure if he really got any. He didn't seem terribly interested.

Again, any thoughts, suggestions or moral support greatly appreciated, I would never have made it this far without this thread!

sorry if i missed, but what breed? I've found that some of the heavier breeds have occasionally taken longer to get their butts off the ground and get going, especially ones that hatch slowly. So I'm curious of yours. Hope it is doing well now.

 

[Amanita]

sorry if i missed, but what breed? I've found that some of the heavier breeds have occasionally taken longer to get their butts off the ground and get going, especially ones that hatch slowly. So I'm curious of yours. Hope it is doing well now.

They're all Marans, a few different varieties. I've just come back from lunch - that little guy was still not walking even though ones that hatched later are, so I put on the vet wrap hobble and I'll see how he does with that.
I continue to be so grateful for this thread, I had to do another assist at lunch and it was a bit scarier! Another one that had taken a long time zipping, except this time his fluff had all stuck to the inside of the shell and he couldn't move to finish. I managed to free him with a damp cotton bud and he's drying off now, still has a couple shreds of membrane stuck to him but I think he'll be ok.

 

[Bridebeliever]

I feel certain this little one made it out fine, but anxious for an update.

Sad news, he passed last night. Upon inspection he had something protruding from his abdomen. Looked like his insides on his outside. It wasn't unabsorbed yolk. I'm not helping the other two that aren't pipping. This is my fault. I had major temperature problems with my incubator and this is the result of incubating at too high a temp. It's amazing I had even one successful hatch but I did. One little light brahma. I was fortunate because one of my best mommas went broody on day 10 of incubation and I gave her 8 eggs. She currently has 4 hatched and two more on the way. She also accepted the incubator hatched one.

 

[Amanita]

I think I'm on assist number 4, out of 17 hatched. This morning was the worst yet, he had zipped almost all the way around during the night, but the shell and membrane were glued hard to him all the way along the zip line. I finished the zip for him and tried to unglue him with a bit of warm water, but he was still totally stuck so I had to do a new zip just below so that he could free himself from the bottom half. He pushed free as soon as he was able, but there was a ring of shell fragments stuck to him still. At this stage I was worried he was going to get cold so I put him back in the incubator to warm up again. I'm not sure if he'll make it - as far as I could tell he had absorbed all the yolk, but he looked a bit red and raw, and there were some stringy parts still attached. I put a soft face cloth in the incubator for him to lie on and he wasn't moving around very much. I'm hoping with a bit of rest and warmth he'll get some strength back...
In brighter news, another assist had been having a hard time walking and was getting pushed around so I put him back in the incubator overnight to rest up. This morning he was looking much brighter. When I put him down beside the ecoglow in the brooder he dived right back in with the rest
My best guess about all this trouble is the too high humidity at the beginning? The chicks seem big and wetter than I expected, which I understand can cause this kind of trouble?
There are also at least 2 eggs still hatching, one pipped overnight and it's the morning of day 23 today. I'm hearing scratching and tapping noises that don't seem to be coming from either of the pipped eggs, and one of the pips is at the wrong end. I'm not sure how much hope I should be holding out for the stragglers...

 

[WVduckchick]

I think I'm on assist number 4, out of 17 hatched. This morning was the worst yet, he had zipped almost all the way around during the night, but the shell and membrane were glued hard to him all the way along the zip line. I finished the zip for him and tried to unglue him with a bit of warm water, but he was still totally stuck so I had to do a new zip just below so that he could free himself from the bottom half. He pushed free as soon as he was able, but there was a ring of shell fragments stuck to him still. At this stage I was worried he was going to get cold so I put him back in the incubator to warm up again. I'm not sure if he'll make it - as far as I could tell he had absorbed all the yolk, but he looked a bit red and raw, and there were some stringy parts still attached. I put a soft face cloth in the incubator for him to lie on and he wasn't moving around very much. I'm hoping with a bit of rest and warmth he'll get some strength back...
In brighter news, another assist had been having a hard time walking and was getting pushed around so I put him back in the incubator overnight to rest up. This morning he was looking much brighter. When I put him down beside the ecoglow in the brooder he dived right back in with the rest
My best guess about all this trouble is the too high humidity at the beginning? The chicks seem big and wetter than I expected, which I understand can cause this kind of trouble?
There are also at least 2 eggs still hatching, one pipped overnight and it's the morning of day 23 today. I'm hearing scratching and tapping noises that don't seem to be coming from either of the pipped eggs, and one of the pips is at the wrong end. I'm not sure how much hope I should be holding out for the stragglers...

Well that's good news!! Congrats.

I had one set of lav orps where several zipped all the way around, all the shell was broken, but the membrane wasn't fully ripped, so they couldn't break out. I get the occasional one like that in other sets. The membranes seemed thicker. A couple had dried badly also. I prefer Vaseline to work that stuff loose. Now if one zips fully and doesn't push out pretty quick, I pull it and cut the membrane while it's still wet.

I can't really say what cause them to do that, since I've hatched tons of them, my process doesn't change much, except for the time of year. Possibly my storage of the eggs before those were set, or the girls were just messing with me. Lol

 

[Amanita]

That does make me feel a bit better, I've been agonising over these poor chicks. I really started to wonder this morning if I was doing the right thing by him, but my husband sent me an update to say the pieces of shell had come off and the chick is looking much stronger
Next time I will definitely set the eggs on a Friday night so I have a weekend hatch and don't have to leave them to go to work! I would have done that this time but they were already hitting the week old mark on Tuesday and I wanted to give them the best possible chance.
But it's good to know it's not (just) something I did wrong

 

[Amanita]

Ok, it's been a stressful evening! It's the end of day 23 now and they were set in the morning so I was thinking there wasn't much hope for the remaining eggs. I forged ahead a bit too fast and took the lid off one and found a live chick, and veins still in the membrane. He's fine, and I put plenty of coconut oil to keep it soft, but that was quite a sight! The egg is propped up in a carton in the incubator now.
I candled all of the rest and found 7 that were clearly bad and not developed and 5 where the air cell had drawn down but I couldn't tell if they were internally pipped. There was some tweeting but it was really hard to tell where it was coming from, could even have been the inside of my own head at this point!
I figured I should be more cautious with that 5 but I was worried about them so I made a tiny safety hole in each one and then put them back.
Hopefully I've not done too badly with them anyway.
I know I need to keep an eye on the one with the veins and keep him from drying out, but it's half past midnight already here. Any ideas roughly how long it's likely to be? More of a 'stay up for another hour' scenario, or 'set your alarm and get up a few times to check?'
Thanks for bearing with me, I guess it will be over soon one way or another!

Edit: it's a quarter past one now and I still need to be functional at work tomorrow so going to try to sleep for a couple of hours and check on him again.

 

[Amanita]

I checked on the open egg at 3 am and 5 am and it looked ok, so I left it alone. By 7am the veins had all receded and I was a bit more awake and I continued the assist. Although the membrane still looked 'wet' from the oil, it was much more dry and sticky than I was expecting, so I used a cotton bud and some warm water to soften it up and push it back enough to give him room to get out. His navel doesn't seem to be fully closed so I put him on the soft cloth in the incubator too.
One side of the incubator is now the dedicated NICU at least 3 chicks have now graduated from there to the main brooder, so it seems to be doing the trick. There's two in there now, the new one from this morning, and yesterday morning's, who I'm not sure about, as far as I can tell he's capable of walking and moving fine, but he's spending a lot of time lying on his back. I'll try to get some liquid into him at least, today, and see if that helps.
Any suggestions about the remaining 5 eggs? I'm thinking to chip away the shell over the air cell and see if there are any signs of life. We're on day 24 now so I presume if they were going to come out by themselves they would have done so by now.
I'm still very worried about doing harm to these chicks, but I'm encouraged by the ones I've helped so far. Other than the very newest, they're now running about with the others, eating and drinking, which they wouldn't have been doing without everything I learned here. It's funny how no matter how well you think you know something from reading about it, it's never the same in real life! But I wouldn't have even know where to start without this thread, so again, I'm incredibly grateful it exists