Egg bound 1 week ago, no eggs since

[NewChickmom2016]

Hi,
Buffy, our Buff Orpington (just turned 2 years), was egg bound last Saturday. I gave her electrolytes, soaked her in warm water; then while drying her in a towel on my lap heard something that sounded like she pooped. Nope- laid the egg in my lap! The egg was surrounded by egg yolk. The egg was intact and was normal size for her - 61 grams. She seemed to feel better pretty quickly. It is now 8 days later, and she has not laid another egg. We have been watching pretty closely because she tends to hide eggs from time to time. She squats when I reach down to pet her. She is eating, hanging with our other 2 hens - basically acting normally.
I have been searching everywhere to find out if it is common for hens to stop laying for a bit after being egg bound - no luck in my search.
What has your experience been with egg bound hens?
thanks for any info!
-Jerie

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have no experience with an egg bound hen. I do know that any stressful situation can cause a halt in laying. Generally it can take 1-4 weeks for birds to resume.

 

[BY Bob]

Our girl Trisha (white leghorn) was egg bound. We actually took her to an avian vet. She cleaned her up hydrated her and induced her to stop trying to lay on purpose by increasing the amount of darkness she was in for 2 weeks. This was to give her reproductive system a chance to recover. After that we were to let her go. She perked back up and went back to being an apparently healthy hen with the same attitude and energy level as before the incident.

The bad news, she never laid another egg. We did not care, she was our pet.

The worse news, several months later we found her dead in the run. I have no idea if it was connected to the egg bound incident or not. We did not have a necropsy done.

Hopefully someone with better success can provide a better prognosis. My experience would say not to expect another egg soon.

 

[NewChickmom2016]

Thank you both. If Buffy never lays again, that is fine with us, our hens are also our pets. She is definitely acting normally right now.
Anyone else with egg bound experience?

 

[NewChickmom2016]

This morning I found a lash egg - pretty sure it is from Buffy- the one who was egg bound 2 weeks ago. Guessing this gal will not lay again....

 

[NewChickmom2016]

Update on my egg bound hen. She was egg bound 6/30, laid a lash egg 7/14, laid 2 extremely soft shelled eggs within a 12 hour period on 8/8 and laid a regular, full sized egg, on 8/14! Now to see if she will continue to lay! After the lash egg (did not contain any pus, when cut open a bit of liquid came out, and the inside looked like cooked chicken), I thought for sure she would go downhill and we would lose her. I changed nothing about her diet other than adding dried oregano to their scratch & peck layer feed. I did not give her antibiotics.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Good to hear she's hanging in there and feeling a bit better.