Suprelorin implant with an already formed egg

[C_621]

Hello, not sure if this fits better here or in chicken behaviour and egg laying, sorry if it's wrong.

I have a nearly two years old hen who got the Suprelorin implant late last year after a few soft-shelled eggs that led to a prolapse. The effects recently faded and her comb turned redder, so I took her to the vet for a new chip. Unfortunately the vet stated she most likely already had an egg formed (something egg-shaped could be felt), and that she would risk not being able to lay it if we implanted her again, leading to egg binding. The vet suggested either implanting her now and dealing with the potential egg binding in a few days, or waiting for her to lay the egg, then coming back for the implant. In the end the vet suggested implanting her now since she should be strong enough to lay the egg, so that's what we did.

48 hours have passed since the vet visit and she still hasn't laid her egg. It can still be felt fairly close to the cloaca, but she's not exhibiting any signs of being egg bound. I'm going to try giving her calcium and a dark nest after work, but she's not acting like she wants to lay that much either. Aren't they supposed to lay the egg about 26 hours after it being formed? Won't it cause problems if she keeps not laying it?

What the vet said seemed strange to me too, I can't find anything related to Suprelorin and laying problems with already formed eggs. If that was the case, wouldn't you only be able to implant them if they've already stopped laying and you're sure there's no new egg on the way? It's possible it was a miscommunication, especially give how untested Suprelorin is for chickens, but the vet sounded pretty certain there would be problems with the already formed egg.

Any advice or experience would be appreciated, she's a precious bird and the previous implant worked wonders for her.

 

[NatJ]

Hello, not sure if this fits better here or in chicken behaviour and egg laying, sorry if it's wrong.

I have a nearly two years old hen who got the Suprelorin implant late last year after a few soft-shelled eggs that led to a prolapse. The effects recently faded and her comb turned redder, so I took her to the vet for a new chip. Unfortunately the vet stated she most likely already had an egg formed (something egg-shaped could be felt), and that she would risk not being able to lay it if we implanted her again, leading to egg binding. The vet suggested either implanting her now and dealing with the potential egg binding in a few days, or waiting for her to lay the egg, then coming back for the implant. In the end the vet suggested implanting her now since she should be strong enough to lay the egg, so that's what we did.

48 hours have passed since the vet visit and she still hasn't laid her egg. It can still be felt fairly close to the cloaca, but she's not exhibiting any signs of being egg bound. I'm going to try giving her calcium and a dark nest after work, but she's not acting like she wants to lay that much either. Aren't they supposed to lay the egg about 26 hours after it being formed? Won't it cause problems if she keeps not laying it?

What the vet said seemed strange to me too, I can't find anything related to Suprelorin and laying problems with already formed eggs. If that was the case, wouldn't you only be able to implant them if they've already stopped laying and you're sure there's no new egg on the way? It's possible it was a miscommunication, especially give how untested Suprelorin is for chickens, but the vet sounded pretty certain there would be problems with the already formed egg.

Any advice or experience would be appreciated, she's a precious bird and the previous implant worked wonders for her.

Hopefully someone else will have more specific information.

But if they don't, here is a somewhat klutzy set of workarounds to try to figure out what is going on:

Do you have any other chickens? If so, try feeling them, to see if you can feel the same kind of egg-shaped thing in their bodies. I know the gizzard can feel egg-shaped when I feel a chicken. I don't know how many other things, normal or not, can feel egg-shaped inside a chicken.

If you don't have other chickens, or you are really concerned, you could try having the vet do an x-ray. The gizzard should have grit inside (little rocks), which would be one way to distinguish it from an egg on an x-ray. (I am assuming she has access to grit, either provided by you or on the ground outdoors. If she only lives indoors, and eats crumble or pellet feed, she can be healthy without any grit-- but then there would not be any grit in her gizzard, so you couldn't use that to recognize the gizzard on an x-ray.)

 

[Chold05]

One of my hens had the implant as well. She was having some health issues and we were hoping the implant would stop laying.... The vet never mentioned this... we just implanted it.

 

[C_621]

Do you have any other chickens? If so, try feeling them, to see if you can feel the same kind of egg-shaped thing in their bodies. I know the gizzard can feel egg-shaped when I feel a chicken. I don't know how many other things, normal or not, can feel egg-shaped inside a chicken.

That's a great call, I compared her with some other hens of the same breed and some felt similar, some different. They have a bit of grit but mostly oyster shells over the winter that they all eat, it's been a while since they could go outside and peck around . The "egg" felt a bit different in shape and hardness so hopefully it's just grit and shells moving around. The hens I know for sure are about to lay eggs had an even more distinct egg-shaped hard gizzard, the ones that just laid feel more "squishy". The ones that no longer lay felt similar to her, their lumps have a different shape and feels "further in".

She's still not acting egg bound, the implant effects should kick in soon so unless things change I'm going to assume it's just her gizzard feeling suspiciously like an egg (vet did say it was possible it was just grit or constipation). Else it's back to vet for an x-ray if it gets worse. Thanks for the suggestion!

One of my hens had the implant as well. She was having some health issues and we were hoping the implant would stop laying.... The vet never mentioned this... we just implanted it.

I can't find anything on the rest of the internet about this so I'm willing to believe it was a miscommunication of some sort, language barrier or the vet just trying to be safe about the potential risks, since the last egg she laid caused a prolapse. If another one was forming it could probably cause issues, but you'd think if any eggs were forming the hen would lay them even when the implant kicks in.
This hen is the only one I've implanted and aside from the usual side effects the implant has been wonderful for her. I'm not going to celebrate yet in case things get worse, but if I had another bird with egg laying issues I'd implant her in a heartbeat (expensive as it is), it's been worth it