Egg bound chicken, PLEASE HELP!!

brooklynbirds18 · Sep 4, 2014

This is Brighton and she is an Ameraucana. For the last two days, my bird has been in her nesting box twice for 3-5 hours at a time and hasn't laid anything. This evening, I came outside to see her and feed her dinner and I noticed she was in a very awkward squatting position like she need to poop or lay an egg. Shes acting strange, standing still with her eyes closed for the most part, not running too much and not sitting flat at all. She is almost two years old and has been a house chicken for the past year or so and is our only bird right now, though she is very happy as she never got along with the other hens when they were here.

Anyways I gave her some food with the kickin chicken in it, and some water with electrolytes. I just gave her a warm bath for 20 or 25 minutes and rubbed her vent gently to hopefully loosen it up, and I just applied some Vaseline to it. The picture below is her last poop she made before she got in the tub and I've never seen it so white before. That was about 40 minutes ago and before that it was a while before she pooped, at least an hour. I just took her put of the bath and I've been gently drying her off and massaging her. She looks very calm as it is way passed her bed time, but is this stance a symptom? I felt around her belly on the sides and below her vent and it did not feel hard anywhere unless I didn't push deep enough. I also felt inside the vent and I didn't feel an egg though again, I may not have went deep enough. I know if she is egg bound she's supposed to be hard there but she has all the other symptoms from what I've read (Nesting with no egg, weepy eyes, acting differently, egg whites in poo). She's also more calm than usual and is letting me petting her and she doesn't even move. Usually she only lets you pet her when she comes to lay with you.

She's an incredible little girl and I want to make sure she's ok and will pull through. Any tips or advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you

Goneloopychooks · Sep 7, 2014

Hi
Treatments for egg bound chickens:

Apply some lubricant
"collapse the egg by pricking it with a large syringe (big enough to pull in the liquid of the egg).should eventually pass the remaining egg - it can take anywhere from an hour to a day."

WARNING RISK INCLUDED

"with this method is that it is possible that a sharp edge of shell may cut the uterus. Usually the shell would collapse inwards so it shouldn't cut anything but it is a possibility."

imformation sourced from this link
http://www.keepingchickensnewsletter.com/site/egg-bound-chicken-symptoms-and-treatment

hope this helps
Brittany

brooklynbirds18 · Apr 8, 2015

Sooo this same bird is egg bound again (at least that what I think it is) as of Monday afternoonish. She's been walking aimlessly in the yard sitting or just standing anywhere she likes with her eyes closed. Yesterday and Today I was able to get her to eat some tums, and then some calcium pills I mixed in with some grapes (and some with a syringe) as she won't eat anything else. I gave her the veggie oil and petroleum jelly on her vent, massaged her tummy, did the Epsom salt bath and left her in a dark warm place to hopefully lay the egg and nothing has worked so far. Ironically when we come outside to sit shell fly on us to sleep. Yesterday she felt better late in the evening (showing less symptoms) and when she woke up she returned to her old ways. I let her back in the yard the last hour or so and she's really blown up like a ball and now I'm really nervous. She's having mostly diarrhea with yellow and white, and not pooping a whole lot either. What can I do???