Hen in trouble, possibly egg bound, what are the signs?

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I'm so sorry your hen is sick.
Do you have an avian vet you could bring her to pronto? He/she could check all "departments" and hopefully get to the root of the problem - crop, eggbound, .... Not sure if she's not pooping because she's not eating or she's not pooping because she can't pass anything. There are recs on BYC somewhere for how to deal with impacted (stool stuck) situations but I don't know that this is at all what's happening here. If she's eggbound time is of the essence.
This girl sounds like she's in a world of hurt and needs a diagnosis soon given that she's had obvious odd behavior for the past week......
Quiet, comfy temp and in dark room till vet time...
Hoping this will turn out okay
fl.gif

JJ
 
Hardly an 'expert', but here goes.....
Some of symptoms of an egg bound hen are reduced appetite, enlarged/ hardening of body, and a rather peculiar sitting stance.
We warm her body with heated moist towels( or even a rather warm bath- an old cooler works great-) Pour about a Tbls. or so of warmed olive oil into the vent. -That can be a little tricky. I normally have to wrap a towel around the bird so it won't flap it's wings in my face while I try to lay her on her back.
If the hen was bound, and eggs are removed, give her a couple of days off (ease up on high protien feed/ no extra light if you use them) to give her system a chance to 'reset'
 
She hadn't pooped through the day. I took her out of the cage, I would assume she would be more comfortable on the perch. I was trying to feel her abdomen when she vomitted. Her crop feels squishy. i did get a wiff of something foul. I just got back from picking my dog up from the vet (surgery, 2nd time in two months). He actually treats everything. I told him the story and he gave me antibiotics and a syringe full of mineral oil for the vent. I already give a pill and injected the oil. He said to bring her next week if conditions don't improve. He didn't seem too alarmed. I'll give it a day or 2, then maybe i'll take her in.
 
If she hasn't pooped, she may just be constipated...a teaspoon of molasses in her water may get things moving again.

Good luck with the doggy AND the new baby...you've got your hands full.

As for vomiting, chickens really can't but if you squish their crop, you can get a floor full of whatever was in there.
 
Yup, mineral oil will lube it up inside there. i wouldent reccomend any hight protien foods right now since protien can clog humans up if taken at too large of amounts. the apple cider vinigar is more for babies. i would reccomend that AFTER you clear up the block. it basically washes out/resets their digestive system
 
Update- while attempting to give hen her antibiotic pill, the other girls were relentlessly attacking her vent which was extremely red at this point. I seperated her again and will leave her there until she is better. i did witness her expell a pure white liquid from her vent. Poop I guess. Looked like milk, does this mean anything. There was also evidence of yolk and egg white with the rest of the eggs. Perhaps she was unbound and it broke or another just happened to break and they all feasted on it. there is also one hen that seems to "diet" on everybody else's feathers. How do you stop this behavior. I sprayed the girls with that blue spray on thier bald spots. She eats them from wherever.
 
I agree with SpottedCrow.

Just keep her seperated and moniter. The feather eating.... mabe seperate the suspect and feed it food 24/7 for about 4 days. see what happens when you let it back in with the others. It sounds stupid but chickens are actually really dumb. sorry to say but they are, and they will actually "autoswitch" to an alternative Temporary food.

--Hope this helps
 

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