Egg-Bound!!????!!!

I have a hen that has been in a nesting box for a few hours now. She has been half standing up, which is her almost-ready-to-lay-an-egg stance. She usually doesn't do this, and she has what feels like a semi-hard mass inside her, not near the vent. I closed them up for the night, hoping that she would relax and lay her egg. I'm not sure if this is bad or not, but if she is egg-bound I want to act on it now. Thanks!

there is two possibilities here
one is egg bound
and the other is she has a cancerous hard growth that comes in the vent areq and it will cause her problems

you should take the hen and hold her in the warm water for a couple of hrs putting warm water in at times to reheat the water
add 1/2 cup of epsom salts to the warm water
it will cause her to relax

then dry her off and insert a eye dropper of olive oil in each side of the vent
like three times
as this will help the hen drop the egg

then push on the back of the body above the vent to bring down the egg

when you see the egg then take a large darning needle and poke several holes in the shell
then take a needle on a syringe and draw out the egg yolk and white
and then with a large tweezers pull ALL OF THE SHELL OUT

then put more olive oil in the vent

you need to give her some wet mash probiotic with Vit's



I would start with the Vit E and Vit B complex with wet mash

A)
chickens do get some upset in the gut with E.coli and then it goes toa nervous disorder
natural probiotic wet mash with Vit E and Vit B complex added immediately
basically the chicken has some nerve damage from the E.coli do this immediately
need neurolodigal vit E and Vit B complex for E.coli and the nervous disorder Also the apple cider vineager in water

(1) 2 tbsp per gallon of water till chickens are well and then 2 times a week for life
for one chicken use 1 tbsp of ACV
1 pint of water

(2 immediately give the chicken 1000 mg capsule of liquid Vit E by cutting the end of the capsule and taking the vit E liquid and mix in wet mash probiotic

(2-B) total amt of capsules equals the total amt of chickens fed vit's multiply amt of recipe times amt of chickens fed it and the amt of vit's times amt of chickens given them

(3 also need to crush a vit B complex pill in tabsp and add tsp of water to it
put it in the chicken wet mash after it is disolved

(3-C) then give this to the chicken twice a week for two weeks should see much improvement

(4 Do both Vit's twice today then for 7 days till you see some improvement in the chicken

(5 today I would see if the chicken will eat a wet mash with the Vitamins E and B complex
JUST MAKE 1/2 OF THE WET MASH GIVEN HERE FIRST TIME WITH THE VIT'S

(-B) THIS IS FOR ONE CHICKEN
natural probiotic wet mash
2 tbp of dry crumbles
3 tbp of milk sweet, sour or buttermilk
1 tbsp of non flavored yogurt
2 tbsp of apple sauce
put it on top so the chicken can smell and see it
mix good and put the
vit E liquid as directed in the wet mash
and crumble the Vit B complex tablet in a tabsp and add to the wet mash
**BESURE AND MIX VIT'S VERY GOOD IN WET MASH***

(6 Do this twice a day for 7 days to see if the chicken is better
then do this once a day for another week then once a week for a while
this should give the nervous system some stability and cure the bad E.coli in the gut

(6-A) she should clean it up in 20-30 minutes

(7 you can email by PM for more information and include this info so I remember what
also if you go to the top of your PC you will see the first line and that is the URL for your post
just copy it and email it back to me so I can read it for a update

It has been two more hours now and she is still standing with the mass in the same spot. I'll try the warm water and epsom salt. The mass is right in her middle, but I think it is an egg.

We put her in some warm water, but she seemed to want to get out. When we let her, she walked around the barn a little bit, then passed what looked like egg white. She was very curious and even tried to jump up about four feet to perch. We put her back with the others. Thanks for replying! I'll update on what happens tomorrow.

Keep a watchful eye on her. If it was "egg white", then where is the shell......so it might still be in there. Can you feel anything? She could get a secondary infection from the shell being left in there.
Good Luck.

IF there's a shell, and it's likely there is as you didn't see yolk, you will want it out of there.

You can use a method that is used to remove eggs in chickens. It's a little gross, but this is a life-saver method.

Put on gloves. Oil your pointing finger with olive oil or mineral oil, etc. Gently insert it into the top of the vent of the bird to feel for the shell. (If it were an egg, you'd go above the egg with your finger and use your hand on the abdomen below to gently locate the egg and draw it back to the vent).

If you find egg shell (or even if you do not) you will want to flush out her vent. Some say olive oil, and that treatment seems to work well and is safe. This is quite similar to Glenda's method which is based on textbooks on poultry keeping as well as years and years of experience.

For the broken shell method of removing eggs (mostly recommended for oversized eggs), my text suggests that after the egg is broken, flushing the interior out with cool (not cold) antiseptic treated water to flush out the egg shell bits and the yolk/white, and cool the area from inflammation, and treat in case the shell cut any of the interior.

When this is done, we need to address the "why's" of the egg.

If you're not doing it already, I would suggest that you immediately feed as follows:

Laying mash as 95% of the diet - free choice.
Oyster shell - free choice, separate from the feed but next to it.
Granite grit - free choice - mixed with the oyster shell.
Yogurt (plain unflavored) daily for the next 5 days (1 tablespoon)
Possibly: crush 1/2 tums tablet and mix that in a quickly eaten damp mash for her, or scrambled eggs. Do this once only. Do the other things daily.

Then I'd be on the lookout for infection. Penicillin is an appropriate antibiotic for an issue like this. (Terramycin not so much.) The best bet, of course, would be to notify a vet that she broke an egg in and could you pick up a good antibiotic like Baytril. If your vet won't dispense, then watch her. At any sign of lethargy let the board know.

Well, I looked in on her this morning. She was perky and was perching on their four-foot perch. There was something that looked like egg white and yolk in the nesting box that she had been in last night. I'm not so sure that she's egg-bound. I forgot to say last night that the mass was very much lessened after she passed the egg white. Without being able to see inside her, I think it may even have been gone. She also had some egg yolk on her beak, maybe from cleaning herself. I couldn't feel anything unusual in her this morning.
She is eating alright, and she pooped this morning. It looked pretty normal, considering. For lack of a better description, it looked like melted chocolate, but at least she is getting it through. I'm not sure if we should isolate her or not, since she is acting normally; I don't want to stress her by taking her away from the flock (this would be her first time).
There was no blood that would suggest a cut from an egg shell, but I'll try to flush it out anyway. She is walking (and running) normally; she doesn't seem to be in any discomfort at all. When last I looked at her, I do not believe that she had passed any more egg white or yolk recently. Do you think that she should be separated?

ACtually melted chocolate is an awesome description (I might steal it). I usually say "bad chocolate pudding". That was likely a cecal poop. Most chickens empty theirs shortly after waking, and then throughout the day.

Because there was another shell-less egg, I would definitely adjust her diet. Please do so. You don't want the bits of egg up in there as they cause peritonitis which is sure death. She should be fine with the others if she's moving, eating, walking, normal.

Again recap on the calcium adjustment:

Laying pellets 95% of the diet. If you're feeding more grain, reduce it to 5%
Oyster shell free choice
Yogurt this week to boost her calcium and the necessary D3 for calcium absorbtion.
Possible 1/2 a tums crushed into a soft treat.

I hope you heed my warning that you are lucky in that you got to see the warning signs of egg-holding and can fix them if you start now.

I have the oyster shell, but can I give her flavored yogurt instead? We don't have any plain yogurt, and I can't get it any time soon.
I'm not sure how to reduce the layer pellets to 95%; that's all they get now, nothing else besides what they find in their run and oyster shell, when they need it. Should I give her some other sort of grain/pellets? We have chick feed that our chicks are growing out of now, if that would help.
Thanks so much for helping, it really is good to know that I can go to people that know how to handle this sort of thing; especially since the vets around here are scarce that will treat chickens.

No you can give more than 95% just not less than, and yes the flavored yogurt is fine. If she has grit - if there are bits in it.