Help!! Baby with umbilical wrapped around unabsorbed yolk??

[Ayame95]

My little guy (or girl, hopefully girl) was attached to a ball of goop til it ripped off, all that's left is 3 inches of umbelical cord and the duckling is hopping around the incubator perfectly fine now. She was laying on her side for awhile after hatching but has since gotten up and become quite the cheerleader for the other ducklings.

Oh I am so happy to hear that!!! It is an amazing thing to be able to watch as they progress through the different stages and overcome difficult hurdles.

 

[Ayame95]

Here is an update. He has detached fully from the egg and poop sac but is still on his side and shaking. I hope this is a better picture of what it looks like.

 

[Demintion]

I have taken babies like this out, placed them in the bowl and immediately returned it back the incubator. And so far, I haven't lost any by only opening the incubator for a very short period of time. I mean at most 30 seconds, no longer. (Then again these were chicks, not ducklings.) Most of the time, I would take the egg and leave it outside of the bowl and let the umbilical break off when the chick did it itself.

The main thing to look for when their yolk sac is exposed is infection after it's fully absorbed. If you aren't comfortable opening the incubator, keep a close eye on it until you feel the very strong need to intervene.

 

[Demintion]

I'm not seeing a string wrapped around it. I only see the naval area shrinking, getting ready to close.

 

[Ayame95]

Here is a closeup screen shot of the first picture. Is that normal or does it look like some of the umbilical is still wrapped around it?

 

[Demintion]

Here is a closeup screen shot of the first picture. Is that normal or does it look like some of the umbilical is still wrapped around it?

No, it just looks like naval cavity closing, everything looks normal to me.

 

[Ayame95]

I'm not seeing a string wrapped around it. I only see the naval area shrinking, getting ready to close.

Ok. That is probably what I am seeing then. None of the ducklings last year had this problem so this is all new to me. Thank you so much!! I will also keep an eye on him for a bit and just let him be and if I think he needs to be put in a bowl I will.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

It sounds like you've already gotten some great advice. The only thing I would add is that from your comments it sound like they are hatching early. Both early hatching and hatching with hernias are signs of the temperature being too high throughout incubation. There isn't anything to change now but if you plan to hatch again, definitely get a secondary thermometer and calibrate it so you can check the thermometer on the Incubator.

 

[Ayame95]

We have one on the incubator and one in and they have been right about 99 degrees. Last year was the same temp and the same set up but they didn't hatch early. So I am not quite sure whats different this year besides the one that had the red halo.

 

[Ayame95]

So here is an update. Of the 8 remaining eggs only 4 hatched, 1 piped, 1 had started zipping after getting turned in the egg after piping (started hatching after he was off the rotator), 1 had zipped but got turned around as well and the last did not even pip. Upon candling the 4 left in the eggs after no movement from any of them at all since last night the one who didn't even pip hadn't even filled half of his egg and the other 3 were really tiny in their eggs as well. We believe that they all started hatching really early for some unknown reason and the 4 in the eggs did not survive.

Now for my question. the one who has the rest of the yolk to absorb seems to be tired, shaking and weaker than the others. I heard sugar water could help him get a boost but is there anything else we can give him that would help his chances of survival? He is the smallest of the 4 that survived.