Chicken ill, not pooping — broken egg or something else?

[Mayalys]

I have a two year old free-range Isa Brown who suddenly started laying soft shelled eggs a week and a half ago. It was time to deworm, so I used Safeguard for 5 days (I have had gapeworm in the flock 6 months ago). Last day was yesterday afternoon, and things seemed to be going well. Henry (the hen in question) had actually laid a full shelled egg earlier that day, and all of them seemed to have perked up. When I went to close the chickens in, Henry was asleep in the nesting box. When I put her on the roost, I noticed there was liquid egg under her, but no sign of shell of membrane. This morning she was very fluffed up and went back to the nesting box, but it is unclear if she wanted to pass something. I gave her an Epsom salt soak and put some Vaseline around the vent, but felt no egg. She’s now in a box in our bathroom, isn’t pooping or eating or drinking, and looks groggy. What can this be and what else can I do? She her her 3 flock mates are my first hens (my first pets ever), so this has been very stressful.

 

[azygous]

Your hen is in a crisis. It's very likely she has broken egg remains inside and it's slowly growing bacteria. So she requires two things to get through this.

First and immediate is calcium. Not oyster shell, too slowly acting. Get some of this.

Give her one whole tablet directly into her beak immediately to help her contractions to push out the remaining broken egg. No, she will not choke. She will swallow it easily.

Next, she needs an oral antibiotic to battle the bacterial infection that's begun in her oviduct. Try to find amoxicillin by calling feed stores and pet stores. It will most likely be called fish mox or aqua-mox since it's marketed for tropical fish, but works just as well on chickens. She needs 250mg per day fr the next ten days.

Keep her well hydrated since blockages in the reproductive tract can cause severe dehydration. Once the blockage is expelled, your hen will feel and act much better.

 

[Mayalys]

Thank you for your reply! I was unable to get much calcium in her. She barely pecked at wet mash and drank even less water. Refused egg and yogurt after two bites. She did eventually pass a shell-less egg (in a membrane), but did not perk up much. I ordered antibiotics to have on hand and will try to find a vet tomorrow if she makes it. Finding a vet that takes chicken shouldn’t be such a challenge, but it is. I think she does have an infection and I’m not sure it’s recoverable. I don’t think animals are for me, I get far too attached.