- May 16, 2010
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Hello all! I hardly ever post here, but I could maybe use some advice. I have ten usually very healthy hens..two production reds, two silver wyandottes, two Auracanas, Two Dominics,and two Australorps. About three weeks ago I noticed one of my reds, Wild Penny...having difficulty getting up to the roost at night... She was also having trouble getting down the ramp to the playyard from the coop. She seemed to want to sit on the floor and was although eating and drinking was getting worse by the day. She had a pasty butt constantly which I kept cleaning off and she was most of the time sitting and pumping her butt up and down like she was eggbound. I used KY and carefully inspected her vent which revealed absolutely nothing, but her little belly was quite swollen. I tried hot water soaks, gentle massage, every imaginable thing. No change.. She continued to decline to the point that I thought surely she would die. Her comb started getting smaller and her color didnt look good to me--I had made her a special box nest with straw on the ground since she couldnt seem to get up on the roost at all. She would waddle around the yard and I kept feeling that she was certainly egg bound and could not seem to get any results. I tried a little olive oil still no luck. After awhile I had decided she was surely going to die and it would seem she would have done so after about two weeks of this. Last week she became so debiliated and it so hot in Texas that I noticed she really couldnt walk at all and seemed to be in terrible pain. Her toes were turned under on both feet and all she could seem to do was sit with eyes closed. So....I made her a cage in the house, nested it with straw, and plopped her in it. Since then we have done daily warm soaks in the sink and more massage. I started treating her with dissolved tums in water three times a day, and also made a gallon of tetracycline treated water which I forced down her with a syringe several times a day. Finally got her eating her layer pellets and oyster shell again - her comb and waddles have turned red once again and she is certainly happy in her cage in the house. Today she is much stronger than she has been and is getting continually brighter. Still no egg to feel in the vent. But her entire breast is just nonexistant--so thin and tummy still swollen, but not nearly as firm as it was previously. Diarrhea and pasty stuff has stopped- she now has normal poop, but she still cant stand toes turned under. She is very very bright now though and accepting mealworms and yogurt and layer crumbles. Do you think since she is starting to improve rather dramatically that she has a chance of getting strong enough to stand and survive at some point? i know eggbinding can be really a death sentence, but she seems to be responding to this treatment.. She does not appear to be in pain anymore like before, no wincing and more awake. But I don't want to prolong it if she will likely be like this and never get back to at least being able to live out with the others. Any advice would be welcome for my little gal.
hope she recovers!
