Constipated? Egg bound? Something else?

cvgrace

Chirping
6 Years
Apr 3, 2017
12
6
77
Hello, All!
OK. Background first: I have a flock of 9 15 month hold hens. 2 Buff Orpingtons; 2 RIR's; 2 Barnvelders, 1 Lavender Orpington; 1 Production Blue; 1 Americauna. I got them all at the same local feed store on Valentine's Day, 2020. I feed them Farmer's Best layer's pellets, freely offer oyster shells, and give a shake or two of black fly grubs (to get them into the henhouse at night, maybe 2-3 TBS/day for the whole flock), plus chicken-friendly weeds when we're working in the garden. The girls spend the night in an elevated coop that's attached to henhouse. I lock the girls in the henhouse a little before sunset -- or a bit earlier if I'm going to be gone when it gets dark -- and then they climb the ramp to the coop sometime after that. In the morning, I open up the henhouse door that leads to a 500 square foot run between 6:30-7 AM when I leave for work. They have access to 4 nesting boxes attached to the coop, plus another one (a converted covered litter box); even so, there's clearly a "preferred" nesting box and the girls will often wait in line to use it.

Now for the issue: One of my hens, a Buff Orpington named Willow, has been "hiding" in her/the preferred nesting box for the last 5 days or so. Today is Saturday. On Monday, she was in the nesting box in the coop when I let the rest of the flock out of the henhouse before I left for work. I didn't think too much about it -- I figured she was working on laying an egg. When I got home around 4, however, she was still in the nesting box. I did a quick examination and couldn't see anything amiss -- eyes, ears, vent, and feathers all looked good. Her crop and abdomen felt normal, and when I inserted a gloved, lubed finger into her vent, I didn't encounter anything but soft flesh. She ate and drank a good bit with no problems after I took her out of the box. While I was observing her, she passed a normal looking, if small, stool. At this point, I thought she might be getting broody, since we'd just had our first hot spell of the year and I'd had a Buff Orpington in my previous flock who would get broody when the weather got suddenly warm.

When she's out of the nesting box, she's plenty active though she tended to fluff/ruffle her feathers. Like I said before, her stools seem normal, though they're a bit on the hard/small side. She has always looked like she's straining to poop (since she was a chick, she's kind of backed up and wiggled when she poops, though her idiosyncratic pooping has been a bit more pronounced in the last day or two.) It's hard for me to parse whether she's a bit constipated because she's not eating and drinking as much as she normally does or whether the constipation is the source of her distress.

The other girls don't seem to mind her, though she takes a very submissive posture any time another chicken approaches, like she's expecting to get harassed. (Though nobody bothered her that I could observe.). Her condition has remained the same since Monday: she'll eat/drink/poop/socialize when I take her out and then -- after 20 minutes to an hour -- she'll hole back up in the nesting box. I *think* she's laid an egg at least once this week. There are 3 chickens with similar colored eggs, so it it's hard to know for sure, but my egg count has been within the normal range this week. (I've got other things going on at home and work that have made it difficult to really drill down on this detail this week.)

I was finally able to look through the forums last night and decided that I'd try to completely rule out egg binding today. I gave her a warm epsom salt bath and a calcium tablet and have her in a crate in the garage. She had several nice, large normal looking/smelling stools after her bath -- all done with no straining.

She does NOT like the crate! She's eaten all of the scrambled egg I've given her and a bit of the "normal" food I put in as well (she clearly prefers the scrambled egg -- no surprises there). We're now a couple of hours since her last epsom salt bath, and she's back to straining when she poops. She's shown no sign of wanting to lay, but I don't know how much of that is whatever the underlying issue is and how much is a response to the stress of moving from the chicken run to the bathroom (where I gave her the bath) to the crate in the garage. She seems more active than I've seen her in days -- she really wants out of the crate!

What are some good next steps?
Thanks in advance!
 
I don't know much on constipation on chickens, but I'll try to help.
First off, have you completely ruled out broodyness? Have in recent time, has she eaten anything bad? Hay, tomato stems, rat poison, plastics or other trash, etc. Is she drinking lots of water? Is she eating enough food? Maybe play around with different types of grain. Does she have any crop issues? Is there a chance that she has worms? Maybe she has an enteral difformatiy that's catching up to her? As far as not liking the crate, put a blanket on top so she can't see out.
 
I don't know much on constipation on chickens, but I'll try to help.
First off, have you completely ruled out broodyness? Have in recent time, has she eaten anything bad? Hay, tomato stems, rat poison, plastics or other trash, etc. Is she drinking lots of water? Is she eating enough food? Maybe play around with different types of grain. Does she have any crop issues? Is there a chance that she has worms? Maybe she has an enteral difformatiy that's catching up to her? As far as not liking the crate, put a blanket on top so she can't see out.
Thanks for the tip about the blanket on the crate. I will do that now.

I haven't ruled out broodiness. Since constipation or being egg bound would be more concerning, I thought I'd rule *those* out and if I can do that, chalk it up to broodiness.

I can't completely rule out that she's eaten something "bad," it seems unlikely. Of the things you mentioned, the only one that she'd have had access to would be hay from the nesting boxes.

As I mentioned in my OP, she eats and drinks normally when she's not in the nesting box but has been spending LOTS of time there so I'd presume that she's eating and drinking less then normal. She's been eating while in the crate today, but I haven't seen her drink. Instead, she keeps spilling or otherwise fouling the water.

I'm reassured that she seems more active -- even if she's grumpy.
Thanks!
 
2x the broodiness ... I love my Orps but not their broodiness
Broody Jail ... Wire cage with the tray removed, place welded wire (1x2) at the bottom. Feed & water only in the cage with her, suspended so there is air circulation under, over and around her. Keep her in for a few days, cage in the coop so she remains part of the flock.
 
As far as hay, we had to stop hay from our farm for a couple of reasons. One, we was told that hay gives the birds mites, and my birds had those as an issue. The top reason: I had a Buff Orpington hen named Little Peep who couldn't digest hay properly. Her insides actually came out because she was trying to poop the hay out. We did an Epsom Salt bath with her and with rubber gloves was able to pull the hay and whatever else was attached to that, out. She sucked her insides back in, and was fine after that. We always tried to keep all the chickens far from the hay after that.
Have you tried giving your hen Apple Cider Vinegar yet? Maybe some molasses mixed with water might be helpful in some way? If there's a laxative for chickens, maybe try that? Keep her weight in check to see if she's loosing any weight. If you have a high scale food scale, you can keep better track. I'm thinking that your hen might be broody, but, I don't mean or want to get you worried, I have seen birds start dealing in the nesting box when they're dying. I'd say broodyness, but I'd keep an eye out just in case it's not.
 
Thanks, everyone! We've got her set up in the crate in the coop. She's not thrilled with the crate, but seems otherwise fine. I appreciate the help!
 

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