HELP!! incubator broke on day 25 (lockdown) ducks haven’t internally pipped!!

[aybukeb03]

Hiya!!
This is my first time incubating duck eggs.
Yesterday I put my two eggs into lockdown on day 25 and both were showing great signs of development - they were at 37C at 75-80% humidity. Unfortunately last night my incubator broke and blew a fuse - there was a bright white light and I tried to put my eggs in front of a fan but the temperature was fluctuating a lot so I moved them into my oven. My oven reaches temps as low as 35C and is currently on 37C but is fluctuating between 36-37C. It is a high quality oven and I have placed a mercury thermometer inside. The humidity is 70-75%. However they were fluctuating for a while before I moved them into the oven. It is now day 26 and the eggs have been there overnight and not yet internally pipped and i’m getting very worried. Last night after the incubator blew i candled one of the ducks as gently as possible but on the underside alongside the red veins there were also some dark black thick veins - does this mean anything? Should I be worried? Do you think they will survive?
Any help at all would be amazing!! I’m so scared and just need some reassurance or assistance.
Many thanks!

 

[NatJ]

I just noticed this thread--I know it's too late for any advice to help now, but did your ducklings hatch?

Ingenious thought to use the oven that way!

 

[aybukeb03]

I just noticed this thread--I know it's too late for any advice to help now, but did your ducklings hatch?

Ingenious thought to use the oven that way!

hiya!

where shall i even begin?!
it was actually a rollercoaster journey for us! i never thought my first hatch would be this much of a whirlwind.

so let’s start where i left off: I put both of the eggs in the oven at 37 degrees the temperature did fluctuate a lot so i also added a second thermometer in so i could keep an eye on the oven and kept the humidity high. It was day 29 and we had lost all hope - no sign of life! No internal popping or chirps to be heard but we decided to give it one last shot. Upon checking whether they were still alive my mother accidentally broke part of the outer shell where we noticed a brownish stain (which i had read mean that’s where the mouth was located) and the membrane moving up and down. It made sense that’s why we hadn’t noticed any internal pipping the egg was in breech.

We immediately put both of the eggs back but i made sure to make a safety hole in the membrane of the egg we had broken so that the baby could breathe trying my best not to hit any blood vessels (she did bleed a drop or so). for the other egg i just made a safety hole in the air sac and peeled a bit of the shell back to check if she was alive but but what i hadn’t realised was that she was also breech. Sadly although she was alive at that time a few hours later i noticed she was no longer moving and we had lost her. thankfully i had assisted earlier with the other egg and followed my gut.

Around 45 hours later she still hadn’t made any progress and was still popping away in the same spot but she seemed very tired. so i decided it was time to assist again and i peeled back a lot of her egg shell. she did eventually pop out but i noticed her eyes weren’t open and she couldn’t lift her neck up let alone stand up. she had absorbed around 90% of her yolk so i left her alone to do her thing for 12 hours expecting her to be running around in the oven in the morning - BOY WAS I WRONG

i came back in the morning and she just looked even worse - still laying in the exact same spot with her yolk still intact to the membrane. i don’t know if this was to do with the temperature fluctuations or the electrocution or if i had assisted too early but she just seemed so poorly we were all absolutely certain we were going to lose her too. i had watched a video by An Chick Called Albert’ on youtube. she was still very young so i had to move fast. i grabbed some of the smallest socks i could find upstairs. I detached the shell from the membrane applied some cornstarch on her stomach and i put the duckling in the sock with her membrane making sure she couldn’t get out. i don’t think that was even a possibility though with the way things were looking. she just seemed so limp in that sock not even able to open her eyes which was so worrying because all ducklings are supposed to be born with their eyes open. maybe there was something wrong with where. maybe i should just end her suffering.

but i continued. i stuffed her in a sock and then in a small container where she could not move for a whole day. after around 12 hours she was starting to lift her head up every once in a while. after 24 hours i awoke to find that she had pushed out of the sock and was laying in the container. i think this sock was meant to replicate the egg and u could tell her legs were strengthening but i still kept stuffing her in. she would push out every 30 minutes or so and if stuff her back in and on it went like that for around another 8 hours until i could no longer stuff her back in as she would immediately climb right back out. her eyes were open and she was starting to put weight on her legs. that’s when i saw how badly she wanted to live, to survive and i was going to do my best to help her!

by this point it was the 3nd day after she had hatched and she was now able to stand up but her legs would just slide open and there she’s be doing the splits. she’s take a few steps then fall right back down. so i went to the store to pick up some niacin and i made her a splint from some cardboard and hair bands. SHE HATED IT. but it was worth it. the niacin immediately took action, she started eating food and drinking water and by that night she was starting to walk - albeit extremely wobbly but it was working. by day 5 she was running and day 6 off came the splints.

she survived, she’s a fighter for sure! we named her lucky

and that’s her below days 2,3,3 and today day 19!!

 

[Melodychick]

Wow what an amazing story! I’m glad Lucky is doing so well, thanks to you!

 

[NatJ]

where shall i even begin?!
it was actually a rollercoaster journey for us! i never thought my first hatch would be this much of a whirlwind.

Yikes! I'm glad the one is doing well now. That's quite a lot of hands-on care and improvising things that you had to do there!