Constipated? Chicken with possible impaction in gizzard

[ChickenMamaLissa]

@azygous @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @Aunt Angus
I have a 2 year old amber link who has been bullied for the last year. Yesterday, I went out to see the girls (6 total) and she was walking around like a penguin. I felt pretty certain she was egg bound so I immediately brought her inside, put her into a warm soaking tub, and fed her some calcium. After drying her off and tucking her into a nice warm, dark cage, I let her rest for a while and then decided to do a vent check. I felt no egg. When my finger came out (it was well lubed with water soluble stuff) it was covered in very dry feces and smelled quite strong. The area above her vent is soft but underneath her belly and her bum feel hard, especially on her left side. The right is firm but gives slightly under pressure.
I gave her some warm molasses water last night and today. Her crop is empty, but she’s continuing to stand upright. She’s had very minimal poops and when she does, it’s largely liquid. She’s been producing lots of urate. I gave her some feed that I soaked in some water just now and she ate enough to fill her crop. I’ve been hearing her stomach/gizzard gurgling and I think I heard some small squeaks of gas passing but I have a busy house so it could have been anyone or anything. I gave her another epsom salt soak this afternoon after work but there’s been very little change. Attached are photos of her posture and her vent. Again, she’s been bullied and is regrowing feathers and is still missing quite a few. I suspect that the others may be keeping her from the water.
The last picture is her poop as it looks right now.

 

[azygous]

Does the watery discharge from her vent smell extremely unpleasant? Have you seen any cecal poops? Can you estimate how long since you saw any from her?

What form of calcium have you given her? This is what I recommend as it is absorbed quickest of all forms.

Give one tablet each day directly into her beak.

She's probably had enough warm soaks. Further soaks can increase stress and can be counter productive. Do give her fluids, and adding electrolytes for a couple of days won't hurt.

Have you checked her crop in the morning before she eats to determine if a crop issue might be playing a role in all this? It's good to rule it out.

 

[ChickenMamaLissa]

Does the watery discharge from her vent smell extremely unpleasant? Have you seen any cecal poops? Can you estimate how long since you saw any from her?

What form of calcium have you given her? This is what I recommend as it is absorbed quickest of all forms. View attachment 3342733Give one tablet each day directly into her beak.

She's probably had enough warm soaks. Further soaks can increase stress and can be counter productive. Do give her fluids, and adding electrolytes for a couple of days won't hurt.

Have you checked her crop in the morning before she eats to determine if a crop issue might be playing a role in all this? It's good to rule it out.

Thanks for responding! I haven’t seen any cecal for a while, but if I don’t catch them in the act, it’s hard to know who is pooping what. I just noticed the runny poop late last week (Thursday or Friday) when I noticed she was breathing heavily and I picked her up to listen if she was gurgling or wheezing.
I haven’t checked her crop in the morning, I’ll be sure to do that first thing. I should mention that in this upright penguin position, I have trouble finding it. That being said, it did feel empty before I fed her. I haven’t been leaving much food out for her. I’m concerned about making the problem worse. Is there anything special I should feed her? Should I allow her to eat whenever she wants? Or continue to restrict until she passes more poop? Should I continue to soften her food? Or just let her eat it dry? She’s currently on layer feed because she’s one of those breeds that continues laying through the winter and when we tried to switch to non layer food last winter, she ended up laying soft eggs.

 

[aart]

but if I don’t catch them in the act, it’s hard to know who is pooping what.

Might be worth putting her in a hospital crate so you can more closely monitor the input and output.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/foldable-wire-dog-crates-a-good-tool-for-every-chickeneer.72619/

 

[ChickenMamaLissa]

Done and done! I separated her and brought her indoors yesterday. Oh and I forgot to answer the question about the discharge smelling. I don’t notice any odor out of the ordinary.

 

[azygous]

What is your location? This is pertinent info we who advise need to know.

Glad to know about the history of soft eggs. They can also show up at the beginning of molt. Have you checked to see if she's molting? They usually begin on the back of the neck, and you will see uniform pin feathers emerging. It usually settles the question.

Keep monitoring the smell. I've noticed that as egg binding gets more serious, it begins to have an acrid odor and it has a lot of slimy white urates.

What kind of calcium has she been getting? What is the strength? How much and how often? This is very important as a calcium supplement is the most important component of treating egg binding.

Do you have access to a vet? Even just a regular cats, dogs, and horses vet. I've very recently learned that a quick shot of oxytocin can help boost the calcium and in turn, enhance the odds of favorably resolving the egg binding crisis. If you have a vet that treats other pets, it would be helpful to contact them and tell them what's happening, you're getting advice on treating your hen, and egg binding is suspected. Would they be willing to give her an injection or to prescribe oxytocin so you can inject her should the hen's situation worsen, is the question to ask. This is what they would need to prescribe and where to FAX it if they would rather not inject her. https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30E072F6-7B6A-11D5-A192-00B0D0204AE5

Offer her regular feed and more important, plenty of fresh water. Egg binding is very dehydrating. When you speak to the vet, ask if they have a small animal tube feeding syringe and catheter they could sell you. Your hen may need tubing, and it's a good idea to be prepared to do it should it come down to that.

 

[ChickenMamaLissa]

What is your location? This is pertinent info we who advise need to know.

Glad to know about the history of soft eggs. They can also show up at the beginning of molt. Have you checked to see if she's molting? They usually begin on the back of the neck, and you will see uniform pin feathers emerging. It usually settles the question.

Keep monitoring the smell. I've noticed that as egg binding gets more serious, it begins to have an acrid odor and it has a lot of slimy white urates.

What kind of calcium has she been getting? What is the strength? How much and how often? This is very important as a calcium supplement is the most important component of treating egg binding.

Do you have access to a vet? Even just a regular cats, dogs, and horses vet. I've very recently learned that a quick shot of oxytocin can help boost the calcium and in turn, enhance the odds of favorably resolving the egg binding crisis. If you have a vet that treats other pets, it would be helpful to contact them and tell them what's happening, you're getting advice on treating your hen, and egg binding is suspected. Would they be willing to give her an injection or to prescribe oxytocin so you can inject her should the hen's situation worsen, is the question to ask. This is what they would need to prescribe and where to FAX it if they would rather not inject her. https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30E072F6-7B6A-11D5-A192-00B0D0204AE5

Offer her regular feed and more important, plenty of fresh water. Egg binding is very dehydrating. When you speak to the vet, ask if they have a small animal tube feeding syringe and catheter they could sell you. Your hen may need tubing, and it's a good idea to be prepared to do it should it come down to that.

I’m not convinced it’s egg binding. I did a vent check and felt nothing, but her underside is hard; like in the area of what you might call a belly. I was originally treating her for egg bind but the vent check and a feel above her vent doesn’t reveal anything. I was sprinkling 2 crushed 600mg calcium pills on her food yesterday, (first dose when I found her, second about 2 hours later) but switched to the molasses and water after the vent check.

I’m located in the foothills of Colorado. Altitude, but not extreme, cold but not mountains cold. Dry. Very very dry.

Regarding molting: when I say she was bullied, I mean she was really bullied. This is a picture of her last winter/early spring:

We separated her, put pinless peepers on the rest of the flock, but when we adopted two new birds, we put her back with the flock and kept the new birds in quarantine. Despite the pinless peepers, and more separation following integration of the two new birds, the other flock members switched from picking her neck and chest to picking around her vent and tail and stripping her flight feathers. One morning a few weeks ago, we let the girls out and her head was covered in blood because they’d gone after her comb. This is my roundabout way of saying, she may have molted this year but with all the broken and missing feathers, who knows. She is growing regular pin feathers on the top of her head so maybe she did. Regardless, the lack of feathers and the anxiety of being picked on so badly means she hasn’t laid often in the last year and last week we had a soft egg broken in the nesting box that was probably hers. We have roll away boxes because the soft eggs meant her flock mates were eating them. If she survives this constipation or egg binding or whatever this is, I might need to look into re-homing her. I’ve never had such a relentless flock before.
I’ll check with the local vets tomorrow but in the past I’ve had to beg them just to make an exception to euthanize a bird with Merick’s.

 

[azygous]

I'm in Colorado, too, down on the southern border.

So, she's probably molting. This can produce health issues on its own - weakness, weight loss, lethargy, irritability, and egg issues as laying ebbs approaching molt.

Her history of shell quality issues, in turn, increase the odds of egg binding as the softer eggs are more difficult to pass. In my years of experience with egg binding, I've never once been able to feel the egg. I've concluded that people suggest feeling for the egg because everyone else has suggested it, whether or not anyone has felt a stuck egg. Of course, you can feel and see an egg that has reached terminal crisis hung up against the vent trapped by a fold of tissue. All other egg binding with the egg still in the shell gland or farther up the oviduct is impossible to detect. At least , I've never been able to.

There are other unmistakable signs a hen has a stuck egg. Lethargic behavior, hunched posture, tail down, pulsating vent, and if you push gently against it, the hen will squat and try to push, watery, acrid smelling discharge with slimy white urates, lack of cecal poop, thirst.

The calcium must be given in whole doses, not crushed or watered down. This being the most important component in egg binding treatment, it has to have a "punch", so give one whole tablet immediately, and another tomorrow if the situation hasn't resolved tonight. This encourages strong contractions necessary to push the egg out. The hen will not choke on a whole pill.

If the situation remains the same for more than 36 hours, and if the hen is getting weaker, a shot of oxytocin increases the contractions and might save the hen's life.

Did you see the photo showing how to syringe fluids into a chicken's crop? That technique prevent aspiration of liquids. Keep a close eye on the hen. If she shows signs of being too weak to drink, you will need to syringe it. A much more efficient method is tubing the fluids and you can also tube liquid food if the hen is getting too weak to eat. I recommend highly preparing yourself to do this.

I need to warn you that once a hen has experienced egg binding, it can become a chronic problem. Euthanasia might be a better option than rehoming, making it someone else's problem to deal with.

If this hen is not showing all the signs of egg binding, and if she isn't lethargic or acting sick, the swelling of the abdomen you describe might be ascites from a failing liver. That swelling pushes the legs apart and gives the hen a wide stance, and it causes her to waddle like a penguin. This swelling is in front of the legs and between them, not higher up toward the vent, which would be fat or swelling from a chronic reproductive infection.

It does no harm to keep treating for egg binding, though, if you have any suspicions it could be her problem.

 

[ChickenMamaLissa]

I'm in Colorado, too, down on the southern border.

So, she's probably molting. This can produce health issues on its own - weakness, weight loss, lethargy, irritability, and egg issues as laying ebbs approaching molt.

Her history of shell quality issues, in turn, increase the odds of egg binding as the softer eggs are more difficult to pass. In my years of experience with egg binding, I've never once been able to feel the egg. I've concluded that people suggest feeling for the egg because everyone else has suggested it, whether or not anyone has felt a stuck egg. Of course, you can feel and see an egg that has reached terminal crisis hung up against the vent trapped by a fold of tissue. All other egg binding with the egg still in the shell gland or farther up the oviduct is impossible to detect. At least , I've never been able to.

There are other unmistakable signs a hen has a stuck egg. Lethargic behavior, hunched posture, tail down, pulsating vent, and if you push gently against it, the hen will squat and try to push, watery, acrid smelling discharge with slimy white urates, lack of cecal poop, thirst.

The calcium must be given in whole doses, not crushed or watered down. This being the most important component in egg binding treatment, it has to have a "punch", so give one whole tablet immediately, and another tomorrow if the situation hasn't resolved tonight. This encourages strong contractions necessary to push the egg out. The hen will not choke on a whole pill.

If the situation remains the same for more than 36 hours, and if the hen is getting weaker, a shot of oxytocin increases the contractions and might save the hen's life.

Did you see the photo showing how to syringe fluids into a chicken's crop? That technique prevent aspiration of liquids. Keep a close eye on the hen. If she shows signs of being too weak to drink, you will need to syringe it. A much more efficient method is tubing the fluids and you can also tube liquid food if the hen is getting too weak to eat. I recommend highly preparing yourself to do this.

I need to warn you that once a hen has experienced egg binding, it can become a chronic problem. Euthanasia might be a better option than rehoming, making it someone else's problem to deal with.

If this hen is not showing all the signs of egg binding, and if she isn't lethargic or acting sick, the swelling of the abdomen you describe might be ascites from a failing liver. That swelling pushes the legs apart and gives the hen a wide stance, and it causes her to waddle like a penguin. This swelling is in front of the legs and between them, not higher up toward the vent, which would be fat or swelling from a chronic reproductive infection.

It does no harm to keep treating for egg binding, though, if you have any suspicions it could be her problem.

Wow! Thank you! I could have spared the poor girl the trauma of having my finger shoved in her. I just gave her a calcium, and I’ll make sure she gets another in the morning. So far she’s still eating and drinking okay, but she is very lethargic, sleeping most of the day. Fingers crossed something happens in the night and she starts to improve if not I’ll try to contact my vet and see if she can help me get an injection or something.

Thanks so much for the advice It’s always nice to chat with another Coloradan.

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

Have you considered salpingitis? It has similar symptoms to egg binding and the infection can be caused by other chickens pecking at her vent. If she was egg bound I think you would have felt the egg in the vent... Other causes of a hard abdomen include tumors, ovarian cysts or possibly egg peritonitis. Unfortunately, treatment options for most of these things are limited.