. I was really surprised how little information there is about this. It is often misdiagnosed as Egg Bound and sounds like many don't make it. The easiest way to tell the difference is to gently feel the (out) sides of the vent, if she is egg-bound you will be able to feel the hard eggs within. Our story: We recently found one of our girls collapsed and weak in the coop. Her abdomen and vent were swollen. First thought it's an e-coli infection, and contacted our local grange to get antibiotics. Her sister had just started laying, and she was likely due to start too. We figured it was probably related to this, and suspected her to be egg-bound. Tried a warm bath and gentle massage but did feel any eggs, instead the swelling felt spongy. After 5 days giving her SULMET (sulfadimethoxine) and praying, the swelling in her abdomen and vent were still increasing. We were desperate, searching the internet, calling the avian vet, etc and the most helpful thing I came across was this video on youtube, showing a chicken that had all the same symptoms , but had also recovered! Pretty much everything else I had read said the prognosis was poor and to puther in the pot. During the video the speaker holds up a bag of the antibiotic he used to treat his chicken: DURAMYCIN-10 I went back to the grange to get some. Very glad I did, because after only 24 hours she is nearly back to her old self; the swelling is down, she is active and standing more often, even making coos which she had not made for nearly a week! She is still quite lethargic and weak, but I think she is going to make it I will update this post. The video:
