Would you assist at this point?

[HeidiGetsChicks]

This egg has a saddled (but not detached) egg cell. Day 21 is just coming to a close and it has been externally pipped in the right place for 23 hours now.

It's not making any attempts to zip, but cheeps and moves its beak around a fair bit.
It's been cheeping and moving a bit less in the past hour or so.

Is it time to jump in?

 

[HeidiGetsChicks]

okay well I guess I'll just take an uneducated guess and move forward....anyone please chime in if you have input, thanks

 

[mcdze]

i would chip shell away slowly, just on that end, and shine a flashlight at the membrane to check theres no blood vessels ..keep checking as you slowly open the membrane .. any blood at all stop ..if not, try to ooen it up enough for him to get out ... i wouldnt go the other way, just the top .. if hes ready and its open he'll push out, may take him a few ..

 

[HeidiGetsChicks]

i would chip shell away slowly, just on that end, and shine a flashlight at the membrane to check theres no blood vessels ..keep checking as you slowly open the membrane .. any blood at all stop ..if not, try to ooen it up enough for him to get out ... i wouldnt go the other way, just the top .. if hes ready and its open he'll push out, may take him a few ..

Thanks for the reply.

I slowly chipped away from the "top" (which is the side, in this case, since it's a saddled air cell). I saw blood and stopped, but the chick pushed out on its own anyway.

It was immediately bleeding everywhere from its naval. I applied firm pressure with the fresh paper towel it was on, and had my husband fetch a sterile nonstick pad and put ointment on it. I switched to that and continued to apply pressure (there was still blood) and once the bleeding stopped we used cornstarch.

The chick is now drying off in a fresh clean backup incubator so that her naval wound stays as clean as possible.

I feel sick to my stomach but she is alive and moving around well, and the bleeding has stopped. I made sure everything including my hands was clean so hopefully there's a good chance of preventing infection.