Egg bound, crop impacted or just over-bred?

[AbbieChicks]

Hi all,

Apologies for the noob questions, very new to backyard chickening and having our first sick chicken experience.

Milly is an ISA Brown roughly 25-28 weeks old and, as far as I know, has not layed yet (although it is winter here). Went out into the run this morning and she was off in a corner with her tail down not moving much. After doing some quick research I suspected it was either a crop impaction or maybe she was egg bound.

I've tried feeling where I think the crop would be and there is a hard bone like portuberance there, but it also seems to be present in my other non depressed or sick looking hens so I'm not sure that there's anything wrong with the crop. I can't tell if she's got an egg stuck but we did try giving her a bath in warm water and she's on some towels in a box inside now having a rest with access to water.

I'm wondering if maybe this is because the rooster we have (a lovely guy) seems to only want to mate with her. To the point that I don't think he's servicing the two other hens at all.

Any advice on what to look for would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[AbbieChicks]

We gave Milly a warm bath and set her up with some water on a warm towel and then later a towel over a warm hot water bottle. She was in the box inside for roughly six hours and then.... behold an EGG! And a much happier chicken. We've let her out to free range on her own for a while, give her a break from the randy rooster and hopefully she'll come good now!

Can't thank all the people who post on the forum enough, there are some fantastic home remedy ideas there.

 

[TeamChaos]

Hey! Good news- congratulations to you and Milly. Nice work!