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- #11
Just a quick update on the last hatcher: as I mentioned, this was an unusual situation. He had internally pipped, but had a lot of yolk left to absorb (from what I could see trying to peek into the bottom of the egg). I knew not to rush him, and left him in his egg. Veins had already dried up, which made the picture a bit puzzling.
He was very weak and looked several days behind - it's hard to describe because I don't see goslings this underdeveloped (all eggs were set at the same time and positions rotated daily in the incubator), but I have hatched enough birds to know when the outlook is poor. He was definitely looking poorly, but he deserved a chance, so I put him, in his eggshell, in a cup to continue absorbing his yolk. I had to move him into another incubator because the hatcher was starting to smell like a funky soup.
The last thing he needed was a bacterial infection or for his yolk sac to get stuck in the dry eggshell, so I liberally applied coconut oil to his abdominal area (what I could reach, anyway) using a cotton swab.
Fast forward a few days: I worked up the nerve to see what was at the bottom of the shell, gently tipping him out into my hand. He had absorbed nearly all of his yolk. There was still a navel protrusion, unhealed, so I slathered on Neosporin. Hatching gunk was stuck to it, so I carefully removed it, taking extreme care not to pull on the protrusion. He wakes up and talks, softly, to me - not like the other hatchlings who are already running around and nibbling grass - but in a drowsy way.
Will he make it? I don't know. Will he be normal? I don't know the answer to that at this point, either. What I do know is that he'll get special care and liquid supplement by dropper until he leaves the GICU (gosling ICU) or he shuffles off this mortal coil. I'm hoping for the former - I think he's a fighter.
He was very weak and looked several days behind - it's hard to describe because I don't see goslings this underdeveloped (all eggs were set at the same time and positions rotated daily in the incubator), but I have hatched enough birds to know when the outlook is poor. He was definitely looking poorly, but he deserved a chance, so I put him, in his eggshell, in a cup to continue absorbing his yolk. I had to move him into another incubator because the hatcher was starting to smell like a funky soup.
The last thing he needed was a bacterial infection or for his yolk sac to get stuck in the dry eggshell, so I liberally applied coconut oil to his abdominal area (what I could reach, anyway) using a cotton swab.Fast forward a few days: I worked up the nerve to see what was at the bottom of the shell, gently tipping him out into my hand. He had absorbed nearly all of his yolk. There was still a navel protrusion, unhealed, so I slathered on Neosporin. Hatching gunk was stuck to it, so I carefully removed it, taking extreme care not to pull on the protrusion. He wakes up and talks, softly, to me - not like the other hatchlings who are already running around and nibbling grass - but in a drowsy way.
Will he make it? I don't know. Will he be normal? I don't know the answer to that at this point, either. What I do know is that he'll get special care and liquid supplement by dropper until he leaves the GICU (gosling ICU) or he shuffles off this mortal coil. I'm hoping for the former - I think he's a fighter.
). The hatchlings moved into their brooder and are now running around and bouncing off each other like soft, squishy bumper cars.
I just hope it benefits this baby.
