[Cgradel]

Good day. This is our first time hatching anything and we choose ducks. We got 3 healthy ducks that hatched a few days ago. A duck was struggling in an egg (of what we thought he did) for over 48h. We decided to assist (we learnt out lesson now). Our duck is out of the egg, York and very  still attached. He kicks and moves his head, but we haven't seen him open his eyes yet. This is 24h. His yolk sack is getting smaller. We gave him a bit of sugar water about 2h ago. We are trying all that we can leaving him in the incubator.  Has anyone had a duck surviving after being a premie looking like this. Any hope for him? It breaks our hearts. Incubator was homemade so temp and humidity has been a bit of challenge.

[Richmond]

Tbh I doubt it will survive but it won't hurt to leave it in the incubator. There is nothing else you can do. If you hadn't helped it hatch it would have died in the egg. If it is still absorbing the yolk sac it might have a chance, it shouldn't need any additional nutrition. If it does survive do not put it with the other ducklings until the navel is fully healed to avoid infection.

Meant to add, I hope you are feeding the ducklings a dedicated waterfowl crumb and not chick crumb. Chick crumb is too high in protein and can cause a deformity known as angel wing. Also some chick crumb brands contain a coccidiostat which can cause ducklings to become ill.

[Womble]

Agree it's unlikely to survive, but you're doing all that you can.

TBH the "intervene or don't" decision is always a difficult one, and I've got it wrong both ways in the past. Don't beat yourself up about it.

[doganjo]

Agree it's unlikely to survive, but you're doing all that you can.

TBH the "intervene or don't" decision is always a difficult one, and I've got it wrong both ways in the past. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Agree with David, I've done it both ways with both results.  You're not playing God, you're doing what you can as a smallholder to preserve life.

[jespirals]

We got one through exactly this on Saturday. Had to help it out of the shell as it's head was stuck down.
Very floppy and messy.
First held in warm wet cloth to check him over and make sure the stuck egg membrane wasn't restricting movement.
Then held in a heated dry cloth and fed sugar water. Happy sign was when put back in the incubator it pooed.
Hurrah for functioning digestive tract!
It was moving much more after the sugar water and the improvement continued over the day.
We brought it out for several more rounds of hot towel & sugar water.  (by now the yolk sack was completely empty and dropped off.
By the end of the day it was doing floppy laps around the incubator.
By the next morning it refused sugar water and practically leaped out of my hands into the brooder with the others.
It remained developmentally about a day behind the other 7 for the next day or so, but now you have to work to figure out which one it is.
Give it a try! You have nothing to lose and a sweet baby duck to gain.