Umbilical Cord Problem?

I believe I may have a problem brewing with one of my eggs. I cut this egg after worrying about its size and a few water stains beginning to show up on the shell. This little one has been in its egg for a little over a day now and while adding some water to its egg I noticed that the cord seems to be wrapped either around itself or its yolk sac. Or maybe I'm just seeing where it's attached to the baby. I'm really not sure.

Can I get some experienced feedback? I don't cut eggs normally and I don't know what's normal and what isn't when it comes to the yolk sac inside the egg. Should I be seeing the cord here?

I saw the cord like that in some of my eggs and all babies came out fine - BUT - if it is indeed wrapped around the baby or itself it could pose a problem. I've heard of some breeders taking the baby out of the egg to unwrap the cord, or if it is too hard to unwrap they will tie it off and separate the baby from the sack. Afterwards they will take the yolk out of the sack and tube feed it to the baby so it still gets the nutrients. Some will put the baby back in the egg while others will just put them back in the incubator on some moist paper towels. I've never had to do any of this but desperate times call for desperate measures... Good luck with this little one, hopefully it isn't actually wrapped up.

Checked on him/her this morning and the yolk sac seems a little smaller and paler. The baby's belly is definitely filling out as well. Yesterday it looked quite thin and wrinkly in places. I guess because this egg was deflated so much, it caused some repositioning in the egg and the yolk was plainly visible where in a normal egg the yolk would be on the bottom and covered by the baby's body. Still, the cord does appear to be wrapped around the yolk so I did remove the baby and put it inside a deli cup that I had warming in the enclosure next to mom.

I will give the baby a little more time in the deli cup before I try to tie it off and cut it from the sac. I think it is still absorbing its yolk but it's just doing it very slowly because of the way the cord has wrapped itself. I'm also hesitant to try to untangle it because of its location. I'm afraid if I tried to loosen the cord at all, I would risk rupturing it.

I think what you did is good - saw someone do a similar thing and the baby absorbed all the yolk up. Even if that baby loses the remaining yolk though it should be fine. Some babies have lost much more than that and thrived

Thanks for the reassurances.

He/she looks great, nice and fat!

I think the baby will be just fine and you are doing the right thing. Its been a few hrs, hows she/he doing? I remember last year I had a baby that hadnt quite absorbed all his yolk and came outta the egg. Freaked me out! But he did after and few days and then the cord came off. Keep us updated!

It looks like you did the right thing to me, better safe than sorry right
Those little guys are alot tougher than people think

I do think the baby is absorbing yolk from the sac. It seems to be growing fatter and it's pretty active for a newborn. I've posted more pics in my original maternal incubation thread.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...=238966&page=6

Okay, the baby's yolk hadn't really changed at all so I cut it away. I used dental floss to tie off the cord near baby's belly and severed the connection with the sac. I actually had two tie off the cord twice because the little wiggle worm's first knotted piece of floss came off while I was pulling it tight. I also put him/her on the scale before moving to its own hatchling tub to see what it weighs.