My girl, Penny, isn't feeling well. She's a 3 year, 9 month old RIR. She has a history of soft shelled eggs, but has been in a molt for a little while and hasn't been laying. She's normally a very solid bird, full of energy, curious, and sweet. Two days before Christmas, I noticed that she stayed on the bottom rung of the roost rather than joining her two coop mates on the top roost. When I felt her, I noticed she was quite thin and her crop was still full in the morning. Her backside was a tad messy.
We brought her in the house on Christmas day and I gave her some bread crumbs mixed with olive oil, then massaged her crop. The crop went down just fine and she began to eat a little bit, but not with her usual gusto. She won't eat her pellets, but will eat a little bit of her food if it's mashed up and mixed with yogurt. She's also eaten some blueberries, scrambled egg, a few crickets, and a bit of a pancake. Other than the crickets, it has to be soft or she won't touch it. She will drink water. I've been giving her avian vitamins that a Vet prescribed to her when she had a mild case of bumblefoot a year and a half ago.
When she eats, there's a bit of grumbly noises, almost as if her tummy is growling.
Since she isn't eating much, she's not passing much in the way of stools. Other than that they don't smell as bad as normal chicken poop, they look fairly normal, albeit small.
It appears to me that her abdomen is a bit swollen and I *think* I might feel a bit of a mass toward her back left side. I put her in a warm bath this morning, in case it was a case of egg binding. She can move the mass around, but it didn't appear that she was trying to lay it and none of my girls have disturbed the nest box since I completely cleaned the coop out a few weeks back. Her comb and wattles are smaller than when she's laying and not nearly as red. However, she's not completely pale, either.
She doesn't move around much and is content to sit in her box and look out the window. Every once in a while, she'll venture out and walk to the back door to go out and eat some grass with the other girls. When it's time to come back in, she's happy to sit in her box and look outside again. Since she's been in the house, it appears that she's put on a little bit of weight, though she's still quite thin.
Any thoughts on what's going on? With her history of soft eggs, I realize that internal laying could be a possibility. How can I differentiate between internal laying and egg binding?
We brought her in the house on Christmas day and I gave her some bread crumbs mixed with olive oil, then massaged her crop. The crop went down just fine and she began to eat a little bit, but not with her usual gusto. She won't eat her pellets, but will eat a little bit of her food if it's mashed up and mixed with yogurt. She's also eaten some blueberries, scrambled egg, a few crickets, and a bit of a pancake. Other than the crickets, it has to be soft or she won't touch it. She will drink water. I've been giving her avian vitamins that a Vet prescribed to her when she had a mild case of bumblefoot a year and a half ago.
When she eats, there's a bit of grumbly noises, almost as if her tummy is growling.
Since she isn't eating much, she's not passing much in the way of stools. Other than that they don't smell as bad as normal chicken poop, they look fairly normal, albeit small.
It appears to me that her abdomen is a bit swollen and I *think* I might feel a bit of a mass toward her back left side. I put her in a warm bath this morning, in case it was a case of egg binding. She can move the mass around, but it didn't appear that she was trying to lay it and none of my girls have disturbed the nest box since I completely cleaned the coop out a few weeks back. Her comb and wattles are smaller than when she's laying and not nearly as red. However, she's not completely pale, either.
She doesn't move around much and is content to sit in her box and look out the window. Every once in a while, she'll venture out and walk to the back door to go out and eat some grass with the other girls. When it's time to come back in, she's happy to sit in her box and look outside again. Since she's been in the house, it appears that she's put on a little bit of weight, though she's still quite thin.
Any thoughts on what's going on? With her history of soft eggs, I realize that internal laying could be a possibility. How can I differentiate between internal laying and egg binding?
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