Emergency!! Help! Quickly, please!!!!!!!!

[Tanith BHH]

PLEASE PLEASE HELP!
Oh dear, I think my hen is egg bound. Please, what should I do? I have placed her over a bowl of steaming water it's been nearly fifteen minutes now and still no sign of the egg. she feels very hard where the egg should be so I presume this is the egg? She has her tail and vent very low down, but her breast is very upright.. Is this what it is? Or is there something else going on? I'm so worried!
Will she die?
Thanks in advance!

 

[A Chicken Owner]

If the egg doesn't pop out, try applying petroleum jelly like Vaseline on her backside but if you don't have any Vaseline try vegetable or olive oil. Good Luck!!!

 

[Tanith BHH]

O.K thank you I'll try that now.

 

[Tanith BHH]

Right, I used olive oil, is there any possibility that she's not egg bound?
I better explain something which I didn't think was important so I didn't write about before.

Yesterday I felt her crop and it was quite hard, so this morning I checked it again when I let them out, thinking if it wasn't empty she had crop impaction. It was still full so I did all the massaging and olive oil stuff, after quite a while it felt really loose and good again, so I turned her upside down and tried massaging it out. So all this stuff came out but it's not like the usual crop impaction stuff (I've had this problem before with a different hen:/). It was a dark browny-red colour, otherwise it looked ok. I've just tried again and another lot came out. She has just had a poo too. Maybe this means she's not egg bound? I really have no idea! The important thing about the poo though is there was a very small piece of rounded glass in it!! Has she cut herself inside!?! Is that why she is looking ucomfotable, with her tail down and not moving much/ Should I just leave her, and if there is a cut inside will it heal on it's own? Or am I completely wrong? I am just thinking but I have no other evidence that this is what it is, I just thought she was egg bound because she is keeping her tail low down and looking rather uncomfortable, occasionally pushing as if to get the egg out.

 

[chooks4life]

This may not be relevant at all, if so then apologies in advance, but I once saw a chook that had received a broken wishbone or something who had permanently adopted the stance you speak of, basically vertical. She waddled, couldn't walk properly. Still laid but died after about 6 months.

As for your hen specifically it does sound as though she may have found herself something to block her up and she's a bit stuck inside. Did you give her olive oil as a laxative or did you massage it all out of the crop? If she's swallowed glass and it's gotten 'stuck' somehow in her that would be very bad. Hope it's not that.

It would help to know what the poop was like... If the glass came out in a healthy or otherwise blood free poop I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Tanith BHH]

There was no blood in the poop, but it was a little sloppy..
I feel really bad.

 

[Tanith BHH]

I've just found three eggs in the nestbox, and looking at them closely I noticed one was Birdie's (that's the hen who is ill). However, it was from this morning because the other two were warm (laid just now). I only have three hens that lay brown eggs. I saw Bonnie and Teazel (my other brown-egg laying hens) in the nestbox just before and I can tell Birdie's eggs from the others because they have little grey spots on them. So she isn't eggbound!!! This just makes me very confused. I don't think there is anything I can do. She is in the same spot that I left her in. I have no idea how old she is, but I would have thought there would be a gradual decrease in condition than to suddenly go down if she was old. I'm keeping an eye on her, does anyone know how to tell if her wishbone is broken? Or how can I tell if she is in pain?

 

[Tanith BHH]

I think I may have found the problem but I'm really not sure.. Here are some photos.






The first two photos show a swelling on her crop under the feathers. It's more pink than the rest. the last photo shows her stance. Definetly better than earlier on, but why is her neck curved like that? is is just that it is more prominent because her crop is empty?
When I had finished taking photos she hopped of my lap onto the bench, and then from there to the floor, where she slowly walked round the coop to where the drinker is. She then drank, looking perfectly fine. After this she moved back into the coop where I left her hours ago, and went back into this position. whilst walking and drinking her position was perfectly normal, though she did walk slower.

Does anyone know what's wrong? I've never seen this before.. I just think it must be related to that swelling on her crop, but I'm really not sure!
Thank you,
Tanith

 

[Tanith BHH]

Sorry the photos aren't very clear, the swelling is just under my fingers.

 

[farmboy22]

Sometimes chickens eat debris and they can't digest+ it clogs the way into the gizzard. Coconut oil is good if its not too late

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