Sorry to hear your feeling so bad skink. Sending healing thoughts and prayers your way. Pippi is doing great. Just loves to be held, I ended up having to put regular size newborn chicks in with her. She's so bossy with them. I'm dealing with a dilemma with one of my newest babies. This particular baby was born without eyes. She seems to be a fighter though. So I'm not ready to give up on her yet.
I'm ok! Went through a thorough MRI and it is just a badly pinched nerve, should be repairable without surgery by steroids to reduce muscle swelling and let it come free on its own. If that doesn't fix it up, physical therapy should. Much better than a stroke or a brain/spine tumor which was the original fear.
A no eyes baby?? I have heard of blind and eyeless chickens doing well provided they were absent of other problems like cross beak or sunken skull. Giving them less space to get lost in, with food and water in the same place each time, can really help! Some don't do so great, but others learn the set up they are in and how to maneuver around a coop and run, so if she is a caged Serama in the end that might be best for her. I hope she pulls through and figures out how to thrive in time!
Also, welcome RockyRose! I know that humidity is a big talking point for hatching Serama, but try not to worry too much. A lot of people (including myself) over do it their first time because of all the humidity scare talk and drown some of their eggs! What humidity will work best is highly dependent on your area and the time of year. It is winter, so usually the air is dryer. I wouldn't do dry hatch in winter, but I also live in Texas... it is very dry most of the time as is! The best way to make sure you have the correct humidity for your eggs is to weigh them at each candling. Look up hatching 101 by sally sunshine I think it is? as it has a thorough section on egg weighing. Keeping good records on what your humidity is at over many hatches will eventually give you a custom ideal average for humidity suited to your eggs.
Try not to feel too bad if you only hatch a few! Shipping is really rough on these tiny eggs, and it is an extreme weather conditions time of year. My first batch of 18 eggs, I only hatched 1! It was heartbreaking. I had several start to develop, then die. But after I calmed down on my fussing over the perfect conditions, I've only lost 2 eggs out of 9 that actually developed at all. It'll be ok, just resist the urge to over-tinker
I have to break down the incubator and give it a good scrubbing... I'm getting a dozen eggs from Jerry Schexnayder! Last batch of eggs I'll be hatching 'til Summer, most likely, since I'll have to raise the ones I have now and am going to be working on my outdoor laying flock in the spring.
