Help!

[starriskyy]

Chick is hatching with absolutely no progress in 10 hours. A lot of blood. Chirping and moving and breathing fine though. Should I assist? Also did not zip all the way around the egg. Keeping it moist and warm.

 

[Pyxis]

If you're seeing blood you need to stop helping. Usually I give a chick 18 to 24 hours after it pips before I help because it can take them that long to get out. Yours is not ready to hatch and still has some absorbing to do. It looks like you caused some bleeding when taking the shell off so you need to get that stopped if possible, just some light pressure with a tissue will do it. Moisten the membrane with either neosporin without pain relief or vaseline to keep it wet because now that it is exposed it could dry out and cause shrink wrapping if not kept moist. Don't get any near the beak though as you don't want to accidentally smother the baby with it. Use a Q-tip to apply it.

 

[starriskyy]

it pipped Thursday evening. We are going on almost 30 hours....

Still leave it?

 

[Pyxis]

Oh whoops in your original post you had said 10 hours so I thought ten hours from pip, sorry! Yes, still leave it, with that much blood things are still not absorbed and taking it out of the shell will likely kill it. Did it start to zip and then stop, or was it just widening the pip? Usually they won't start to zip until they're ready to come out.

Since it's moving, breathing, and chirping, those are all good signs, and hopefully it just needs more time to get everything absorbed. As long as it can breathe it's in no immediate danger of dying if left in the shell.

 

[starriskyy]

I have been keeping it moist with warm washcloths. I think that bleeding has stopped. That pic was taken 9 hours ago.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Your chick is not ready to hatch yet. All the blood needs to be absorbed before it hatches.

From the initial external pip in the shell they can sit there like that for up to 24 hours before hatching.
The crack or hole they make in the shell is more than enough for them to be able to breathe.

I would get your humidity high (70%) in the incubator and put it back in there, could be up to another 14 hours before it's ready.

Good luck

 

[starriskyy]

It's okay! It's very active and staring at me with its little eye. Do I out the neosporin on the outer membrane? Inner membrane seems very wet still

 

[Pyxis]

It's okay! It's very active and staring at me with its little eye. Do I out the neosporin on the outer membrane? Inner membrane seems very wet still

Since that picture was nine hours ago, have the blood vessels receded any since then? The neosporin would be for the inner membrane but if everything looks nice and moist still that might not be necessary. It can help to moisten things though because you can get a better look at the state of the blood vessels.

 

[starriskyy]

Blood vessels do not look receded. I feel like it's making no progress, which is why I am worried.

 

[Pyxis]

Blood vessels do not look receded. I feel like it's making no progress, which is why I am worried.

Unfortunately at this point there's nothing to do but wait. Until the vessels are absorbed there's nothing more to be done. As long as it can breathe she shouldn't be in danger of dying. Hopefully it will make some progress over the next couple of hours. There's a ton they need to absorb so it can take awhile.

You may also want to read over this article if you haven't because it's very helpful in these situations: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching