I basically just did egg surgery updated: x2

I said id save it for tomorrow but I can’t believe I just did this. I just posted earlier being excited about my second baby chick hatching.

But then a little while later I had a weird feeling so I candled the egg again. This is an example of egg candling

I need to explain the anatomy of the egg again lmfao.

So, there’s the air cell. The air cell is that big light space. They peck into that and breathe (internal pipping) and then they break the shell (external pipping) when they run out of air, and hatch.

Another part: there is an internal membrane full of blood vessels surrounding the chick. These blood vessels line the inside of the egg and get oxygen through the eggs pores to the embryo, so they are the chicks oxygen source. During hatching, yolk and all blood are absorbed. Once their lungs start working the blood vessels don’t help with oxygen anymore because their bodies are absorbing the blood. They need all of that blood. A little bit of blood loss is a big deal for a hatching chick. They can literally kill themselves by hatching and nicking a blood vessel and bleed too much.

ANYWAYS, after candling again I noticed that egg #2 wasn’t breathing. But, I did see the tiniest bit of movement, this happens to so many people who incubate and hatch chicks.

The chick gets all the way to breaking the air cell and dies. Fuck that dude, Gary needs a friend (see previous post)

So what I did is I broke the top of the shell, where the air cell is, So that I would not rupture the membrane full of blood vessels surrounding the chick. What I saw is that it had internally pipped into a blood vessel significantly weakening itself even though it’s correctly positioned in the egg. Of course it couldn’t bring itself to break the shell, it’s weak from blood loss. On top of that, it looked shrink wrapped. I don’t know how Gary wasn’t shrink wrapped and this one is, but I guess that can happen. Shrink wrapping is what happens when humidity is too low, and the membrane surrounding the chick hardens and wraps it so tight that it can’t move or breathe.

So I grab a q-tip and wipe bloody membrane off the chicks mouth and nose. I then soak the membrane in coconut oil softening it up. This chick that is near death took a HUGE breath to my surprise. I then sat it back in the incubator, and I watched its breathing improve to the point that it is CHIRPING. Not a lot, and not very loud, but that’s a huge deal.

I can also see that heart beat has improved via what’s left of the blood vessels. Now that it can breathe, it’s absorbing the rest of its blood. It’s wiggling, it’s responding to sound. And it’s breathing perfectly. The normal hatching process it was already going through has started up again and it’s gaining strength.

I have assisted a lot of hatches, especially before I had a better incubator. This is actually the very first assisted hatch I’ve had with this incubator and I’ve had it for years. I have been doing this since I was 9. (Hatching chicks) But I’ve never saved a dying unhatched chick by breaking its shell open and covering it in coconut oil.

I don’t consider it saved yet. At this point, it’s up to the chick if it wants to keep going. There is nothing else I can do. I will keep an eye on it and probably won’t sleep.

Yes, coconut oil is perfectly safe to use in assisted hatching. I’ve used it for years it’s my go to to help prevent shrink wrapping.

I am hoping that this little chick makes it. It would have been dead by now, like it probably had just a few minutes before I started breaking the shell and doing all of that. I caught it JUST in time. It is bewildering to me that I thought it was too far gone and now it’s chirping and breathing and wiggling

I literally can’t believe i did that 🥴 holy crap

I have videos of it right after I did it, every video I took shows how it’s breathing improved and how it’s absorbing it’s blood. If you want to see it, i would probably have to post them on YouTube because it’s multiple videos

Here’s a pic. You can’t see it’s face or beak because I didn’t want to break all of the shell off, it doesn’t look like there’s space in there to shove a q-tip in there but there is

It looks brutal, but it does not hurt the chick, this is what helped it. I’m hoping it pays off.

Hours later he is still doing good

Hopefully I wake up to him out of the egg and happy

Update: baby is still alive today, and STRONGER ❤️❤️ I’m going to give it the day to hatch on its own. It still has blood in the blood vessels and until that’s gone I am not going to touch anything else. There should be no reason he can’t come out when HE is ready.

Updated: yes he’s alive still, he made it out. He’s just tiny and feeble. But he’s eating on his own and has a strong will

Another thing I’ve noticed is that Gary (newest babies older sibling that’s 3 days old) almost MOTHERS him.

He is tiny, and cuddles up to Gary like Gary is a mother hen. And Gary just sits on him like “this is my BLOOD. I PROTECC”

This is why Gary is still in the incubator. I found a way to feed him in there too lol