I cracked what appeared to be a failed egg and the embryos was still alive

[FowlWitch]

When I candled the egg last night (day 15), all of the blood vessels in one side of the egg had collapsed. It looked like a blood ring, so I thought the egg had failed.

I left the egg out over the day while I was asleep, and when I woke up I cracked it open to do an eggtopsy. The little bird's heart was outside of her chest, as well as her intestines, and the heart was still beating she didn't move at all. I'm pretty upset. I talked to my mom about it and she said if the blood vessels really had started to collapse, the chick was probably going to die soon anyways. I just feel bad, though.

I buried her under my Manzanita bush (I normally do sky burials but I just felt so sorry for her). Did I do the right thing?

 

[TwoChicksChix]

Even if an egg looks like it has failed, I tend to leave them in the incubator anyway as it does no harm.

This is because I have made this mistake before too and I don’t want to be the cause for something like this.

But don’t beat yourself up over something like this as there wasn’t anything you could do at this point.

 

[Shezadandy]

I like to leave them until either 1. it's clear it's nothing but goop or 2. I can smell the egg. Accidents happen. All we can do is learn from them.

Here's my favorite "shell-less" egg video. (the chick lives) - he did a great job capturing each day of development. If you're not into the "how to set it up" and just want the time-lapse of development, skip forward to 4:43 -- it's beautiful to watch.

 

[FowlWitch]

I like to leave them until either 1. it's clear it's nothing but goop or 2. I can smell the egg. Accidents happen. All we can do is learn from them.

Here's my favorite "shell-less" egg video. (the chick lives) - he did a great job capturing each day of development. If you're not into the "how to set it up" and just want the time-lapse of development, skip forward to 4:43 -- it's beautiful to watch.

I've watched this video before, actually, and it's very interesting.

One thing I notice is the chick in the video didn't have external organs at day 14, but today the chick from my egg had organs outside of the body cavity. I'm thinking the chick was probably going to fail whether I had broken the egg or not. Thoughts?

 

[AmyJane725]

I've watched this video before, actually, and it's very interesting.

One thing I notice is the chick in the video didn't have external organs at day 14, but today the chick from my egg had organs outside of the body cavity. I'm thinking the chick was probably going to fail whether I had broken the egg or not. Thoughts?

It's sounding like it wasn't developing correctly. I'm as sure as I can be, without being God, that this chick would have died, regardless of you cracking the shell open. Don't beat yourself up.

Based solely on that video, it doesn't look like the chick ever had internal organs outside the body cavity (except maybe on like day 3 when all it was was a heart and blood vessels). I'm pretty sure your chick had some sort of developmental issue that would have killed it prior to hatching. Especially if half the blood vessels had collapsed. It was probably slowly dying already. You probably did it a mercy by ending it sooner, honestly.

Chin up. You'll soon have fuzzy little peepers running around

 

[FowlWitch]

It's sounding like it wasn't developing correctly. I'm as sure as I can be, without being God, that this chick would have died, regardless of you cracking the shell open. Don't beat yourself up.

Based solely on that video, it doesn't look like the chick ever had internal organs outside the body cavity (except maybe on like day 3 when all it was was a heart and blood vessels). I'm pretty sure your chick had some sort of developmental issue that would have killed it prior to hatching. Especially if half the blood vessels had collapsed. It was probably slowly dying already. You probably did it a mercy by ending it sooner, honestly.

Chin up. You'll soon have fuzzy little peepers running around

Thank you so much for the kind words

 

[FowlWitch]

If anybody is morbidly curious I shot a short video. I also had the age of the egg incorrect - it was day 16 when I cracked it (17 now that it's past midnight)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YbSu92VpbkzG1MXC7

The other eggs are going into lockdown tomorrow - I think I only have two left that I set on the 12th. I'm doing a staggered hatch, so I'll have more going to lockdown on 8/3/19, and a few more on 8/6/19. I'll make a new thread for those

 

[AmyJane725]

Thank you so much for the kind words

You're welcome. You've been there to support me on several threads, so I figured the least I could do was return the favor. Sometimes a person just needs to hear from outside sources that it's ok/not your fault.

 

[AmyJane725]

If anybody is morbidly curious I shot a short video. I also had the age of the egg incorrect - it was day 16 when I cracked it (17 now that it's past midnight)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YbSu92VpbkzG1MXC7

The other eggs are going into lockdown tomorrow - I think I only have two left that I set on the 12th. I'm doing a staggered hatch, so I'll have more going to lockdown on 8/3/19, and a few more on 8/6/19. I'll make a new thread for those

I am definitely the morbidly curious type...

*Watches video*

Yeah, that chick was definitely not growing right. It already had feathers and everything. There's no way those organs were magically gonna suck back up inside of its body. "Best" case scenario you'd have a chick born with a sack of organs hanging off of its chest that would have gotten pecked/injured in some other way/infected and it would have died from that.

 

[FowlWitch]

You're welcome. You've been there to support me on several threads, so I figured the least I could do was return the favor. Sometimes a person just needs to hear from outside sources that it's ok/not your fault.

Thank you, Amy <3