Partially hatched egg

[harpera28]

Help!! This is my first time incubating. Ive got a chicken now that was having a difficult time hatching by itself so I helped it along. The air sack was on the side of this egg so it popped in the wrong place. I watched it for a while to see if it could make its way out but it seemed to be struggling so I made its peephole bigger and peeled some shell off & watched it for a few hours. It hadn't made any progress so I got a warm, wet QTip and wet the membrane that seemed to be stuck to him. Then watched a few more hours. Still no progress so I thought maybe he was still stuck on the inside where I couldn't see so I peeled a little more shell off and wet the membranes again. Done this little dance for close to 16 hours now and still no more progress. I'm giving him little drops of water when I wet the membrane and he seems to enjoy the water. He's moving around okay and chirping when he gets messed with so he appears healthy but I'm afraid of hurting him if I pull anymore shell off or try to hatch him all the way. Will he die if I leave him like this much longer or is he okay to stay in his shell a while? I don't know what to do for him

 

[sumi]

Welcome to BYC

At this stage I would leave the little one to complete the hatch by itself, when it feels ready to. It looks like it's ready to hatch and should be able to wiggle out of the shell without further assistance.

 

[megmost25]

Did the little one make it out ok?

 

[harpera28]

I left him alone last night, thinking I'd wake up this morning and he'd be hatched but he hasn't changed at all!! Still curled up in that same position. Still breathing and moving his legs once in a while but I see no attempts to try to break out of that shell! It's driving me nuts! This is day 22

 

[rhondademulder]

please let us know as any updates ....we are "pulling " for the little one !!!

 

[harpera28]

Not good

I went ahead and took him out of the incubator to see if maybe he was stuck. I moistened him up a bit and his head popped out and I was able to see what appeared to be the entire yolk sac still in the egg. It was swollen and smelled terrible. This is disgusting... it looked like his intestines had spilled out into the yolk sac. He was so bony and puny, probably from not having any of the nutrition from the yolk sac. Anyway, it was hard to do but I had to cull him. He wasn't gonna make it. There was just no way to fix it. I feel so bad about it. Little guy was really hanging in there but I couldn't let him suffer like that anymore. Thank y'all for your replies.

 

[rhondademulder]

awww...so sorry to hear ! I know it is a sad day when we nurture these littles and they suffer along. It was wise and brave of you - hang in there !! <3 You did the best you could - be confident of that!

 

[sumi]

You did your best and you did the right thing.