Can't tell if egg bound?

[creepygothnursi]

I have a 20 week old EE hen. Within the past week or so she has started walking with her tail down- not doing the classical penguin walk, just walking with her tail down. She seems to be moving a little slower than she used to but she is eating, runs around with the other hens, that sort of thing. Really the only symptom she has is the tail being down, where it was not before. Two of my six are laying so far and I can't tell if she is one of the two that is laying or not. Any ideas as to whether it might be egg binding, or something else? Also, I checked her over tonight when I put them in the coop and didn't see anything obvious-didn't appear to be any swelling or inflammation around the vent or anything like that.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Check for mites/lice and worms too.

 

[creepygothnursi]

No mites or lice upon inspection this morning. She did, however, leave me a rather large buff-colored egg, so I'm thinking she may have decided to make my life easier.

I haven't seen any worms in the stool but I may go ahead and worm them just in case. She seems to be walking normally this morning and her tail is back to its normal spot, so hoping she's just passed the egg.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

No mites or lice upon inspection this morning. She did, however, leave me a rather large buff-colored egg, so I'm thinking she may have decided to make my life easier.

I haven't seen any worms in the stool but I may go ahead and worm them just in case. She seems to be walking normally this morning and her tail is back to its normal spot, so hoping she's just passed the egg.

Oh good...maybe just a tough egg to pass then.

 

[creepygothnursi]

Yeah, she doesn't look like that picture at all, fortunately. Hoping it was a one-off case of an egg being tough to pass, but I'll continue to keep an eye on her.