Chicken Was Egg-Bound, Now With Worse Problem

[chardob]

Hello all, and thank you in advance for reading and responding.

I am new to chickens. I live in Connecticut, and my chickens are free-range except at night, and the flock is healthy. I bought 10 x day-old chicks in the beginning of March, and they are now just starting to lay eggs. One of my chickens - a 4 month-old Barred Plymouth Rock, became egg-bound with her first attempt. We gave her several warm-water baths and got the egg to move to within half an inch of the opening to her cloaca, then it stuck again.

She was in deep distress, so I stuck my finger in and felt the egg, but it seemed as though it were still covered in tissue. I could get my finger around it, but could not get it to come out. We left her a while, hoping she would pass it, but nothing she did eased her distress. Finally, my husband reached in and pulled the egg out.

It was surrounded with what looked like it could be her ovoid tube. There was at least 10 more inches of tube to go through before she could lay this egg, and she could never have done it.

My question - what the heck happened? Could she have had an anatomically incorrect reproductive system? Or did we really mess up this chicken?

She is now seperated from the flock in her own cage. I have her in a dark room with ample food and water at her disposal. After the egg came out, so did a lot of feces and a small amount of blood and a large blood-clot. She is no longer bleeding and has drunk a bit of the water but she is so still and lethargic I am afraid for her.

What do you all say? I am grateful for any and all advice.

 

[seminolewind]

I'm sorry but it does not look good to me. I would not even know what to do.

 

[chardob]

This morning she is awake and alert and her poo from the night is normal with no blood or other yuckies.

What antibiotic can I give her to prevent peritonitis?

 

[terryg]

If her poo is normal and she is alert and eating, then she is probably just fine. Sometimes that first egg is hard to get out and everything settles down. If her vent shows no sign of injury, I'd put her right back out with the flock. I don't know what you're feeding your pullets, but new backyard keepers often overfeed, and their hens have laying issue because of fat surrounding the repro tract. You might want to read this FAQ: http://hencam.com/faq/what-to-feed-your-chickens/

BTW, I do chicken keeping workshops, and have one coming up on August 4. I don't know where you are in CT, but I've had people come from there (I'm in MA.) LIstings for events are on my web site.

 

[chardob]

I'm in North Stonington - right on the Rhode Island border. I'd love to attend a workshop so close to me. Thank you.

 

[chardob]

Sadly, she just died in my arms. I went to check on her and found her lying flat, bleeding from her cloaca. I held her and crooned to her while I was going to get the broom, but she died before I could euthanize her. Bitter lesson learned.

 

[WRVgirl]

I'm sorry :/ How sad.

 

[terryg]

I'm sorry to hear that. She might have had internal damage. She might have had a prolapse. It's a sad fact of hen keeping that they have short lives, some shorter than others. I'm sure that there was nothing you could have done to save her.

 

[seminolewind]

I'm very sorry. Eggbound , well, aside from trying to get it to pass, it was really out of your hands. There wasn't anything you could do or foresee.
I was kind of shocked by my first one. I could just about get my finger around the egg, so I olive oiled what I could reach, and kept working at it, finally it passed. I think your hen's egg didn't sound like it was going to be possible.