Hello all,
I'm a kindergarten teacher. I just hatched some goslings in my classroom. Of the 9 eggs I hatched, 8 hatched beautifully but the last was shrink wrapped. It made a large pip outside the air cell (right end, wrong side of the egg) and then did nothing after that. As the others advanced and it did nothing, I thought it might have died. I couldn't see the bill by the pip, just feathers. Eventually the hatched goslings rolled the egg and I couldn't see it anymore.
Later, when I removed the dry goslings, I checked the egg. It was still alive. The pip was slightly larger and the bill was visible but I could see the membrane was completely dry. I did an assisted hatch. I'm not new to hatching. This is my 14th year, but first time with geese. I've had a couple shrink wrapped babies over the years, but nothing this bad. The membrane was completely glued to the gosling. It took me ages to free it from the egg. I freed it from the shell and removed as much of the membrane as I could but I had to put it back in the incubator when it was starting to get too cold.
I honestly didn't expect it to survive the night, it was so weak. But this morning, I came in to a standing and alert, if a little weak, gosling staring up at me through the top of the incubator. When I went to give it some Polyvisol at recess, I saw that it had a very large clump of poop dried over its vent. I bathed it in a warm bowl of water until I was able to break the clump up and put it back in the incubator with some food and water. That helped its body fluff up a little bit but the neck and head are a complete mess. There's a large piece of membrane plastered to the neck, smaller pieces on the back, and the feathers on the head are flattened. I gave it another warm bath after school and managed to get a little membrane off its back but I didn't want to stress it out too much so I stopped there. It's now in a brooder with my call ducklings (they hatched at the same time in a different incubator). I don't want to put it with the other goslings because I don't think it would fare well in the other brooder.
Has anyone had experience removing such extreme shrink wrapping from a baby before? I'm not sure how I'm going to get the membrane off the neck. It is so badly glued on there. Other than soaking it for a long time (which I don't think the baby will like, since I'll have to submerge it right up to its head), I don't see any other way to get it off.
Sorry the post is so long. I just wanted to give a clear picture of what I'm dealing with.
Thanks for any help you can provide. My class has named this gosling Lucky.
I'm a kindergarten teacher. I just hatched some goslings in my classroom. Of the 9 eggs I hatched, 8 hatched beautifully but the last was shrink wrapped. It made a large pip outside the air cell (right end, wrong side of the egg) and then did nothing after that. As the others advanced and it did nothing, I thought it might have died. I couldn't see the bill by the pip, just feathers. Eventually the hatched goslings rolled the egg and I couldn't see it anymore.
Later, when I removed the dry goslings, I checked the egg. It was still alive. The pip was slightly larger and the bill was visible but I could see the membrane was completely dry. I did an assisted hatch. I'm not new to hatching. This is my 14th year, but first time with geese. I've had a couple shrink wrapped babies over the years, but nothing this bad. The membrane was completely glued to the gosling. It took me ages to free it from the egg. I freed it from the shell and removed as much of the membrane as I could but I had to put it back in the incubator when it was starting to get too cold.
I honestly didn't expect it to survive the night, it was so weak. But this morning, I came in to a standing and alert, if a little weak, gosling staring up at me through the top of the incubator. When I went to give it some Polyvisol at recess, I saw that it had a very large clump of poop dried over its vent. I bathed it in a warm bowl of water until I was able to break the clump up and put it back in the incubator with some food and water. That helped its body fluff up a little bit but the neck and head are a complete mess. There's a large piece of membrane plastered to the neck, smaller pieces on the back, and the feathers on the head are flattened. I gave it another warm bath after school and managed to get a little membrane off its back but I didn't want to stress it out too much so I stopped there. It's now in a brooder with my call ducklings (they hatched at the same time in a different incubator). I don't want to put it with the other goslings because I don't think it would fare well in the other brooder.
Has anyone had experience removing such extreme shrink wrapping from a baby before? I'm not sure how I'm going to get the membrane off the neck. It is so badly glued on there. Other than soaking it for a long time (which I don't think the baby will like, since I'll have to submerge it right up to its head), I don't see any other way to get it off.
Sorry the post is so long. I just wanted to give a clear picture of what I'm dealing with.
Thanks for any help you can provide. My class has named this gosling Lucky.
