Over 24 hrs. should I help her?

[flowermama22]

One of my peeps is hatching. She started about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. She is working on it but there is just a little hole. Can I do anything to help her? I don't want to hurt her. What do you think?

 

[Sphinx]

I have to admit that I'd be starting to worry if it had been over 24 hours and no progress.

If it were me, I'd steam up the bathroom, wrap the egg in a damp paper towel and take the egg in there. Then, I'd chip away a bit of the egg, much like how they would zip, but I would leave the membrane intact. If you happen to hit a blood vessel, it'll start bleeding and it *could* kill the chick. It *WILL* scare the bejeezus out of you.


Has it made any progress since you posted?

 

[flowermama22]

Ok it has been over 48 hours now. She is almost there but I am really worried about her. I think she got a little dried out because of our fan. What do y'all think?

 

[nurse_turtle]

You're waaaay more patient that I am. After 48 hours and if the top is almost popped, I might help her a bit. She has to be exhausted. Bring her out and check the membrane that it hasn't glued itself to her. If she's made it this far, she's probably really strong.

 

[Sphinx]

Yeah, if it's been 48 hours and she's not hatched, I'd peel her out.

Take pictures!!!

 

[flowermama22]

I took her out and gently removed the stuck membrane. She slipped out of the shell as I was doing it. Now she is back in the incubator all curled up. I hope I did the right thing. I didn't want to do harm.

 

[nurse_turtle]

She's just plum exhausted. As long as all her yolk sac was absorbed, she'll be ok. She's probably gonna look a little homely for a while, but after all that struggling to hatch, she's gonna be a strong one. You did the right thing. If the membrane was stuck to her, she was too tired to get it off on her own. Now we wait for pics.

 

[Sphinx]

Is she still all curled up, or kind of flopped out?

I had to hatch a chick on Monday night for a similar circumstance to yours. She pretty quickly uncurled. It was suggested to me to keep her on her belly, and not allow her to lay on her side, as that would encourage leg problems. I don't know if it's true or not, but I kept rolling her to her belly. She didn't really attempt to stand for a good 12 hours, but she's running around and looking perfectly healthy now.

Here she is:

 

[flowermama22]

Thank y'all so much. This has really made me a nervous reck tonight. I feel so responsible for her. She is laying on her stomach, but she has had a hard time of it. She has a funny butt though. We aren't sure what to make of it. Minnie and I thank you again.

 

[Sphinx]

Their butts look a little weird at first- kind of swollen and just wrong. It's just the yolk still sucking in and absorbing.

I guarantee she'll look 1000x better in the morning.