Sparrow-Song
Chirping
- Aug 6, 2022
- 29
- 37
- 72
I feel like I only get on this site with emergencies these days, but unfortunately it seems when it comes to chickens it doesn’t rain but pour!
My hen (Olive-egger, 3 years old and as of a week ago the last survivor of her batch, background mycoplasma and survived my first-timer bumblefoot surgery (twice)) is egg bound; my mother noticed her sleeping on the ground two nights ago, and the next morning I picked her up, thinking the others were picking on her, and found her comb pale, vent covered in droppings and her abdomen very swollen and hard as a rock.
I cleaned her up and have been giving her Epsom salt baths and following up with KY jelly in her vent (keeping chickens is such an experience oof), and she is quarantined in a bathroom under a heat lamp with food for chicks (which she seems more willing to eat) and water with NutriDench. Her comb has regained some color and she is still pooping (fairly liquid with large undigested chunks, I imagine her poor digestive system is struggling, but seems okay in color? Yellowish with lots of white), but her abdomen is no less swollen and she’s been trying to stand and penguin pose. I just realized she might have trouble on the slick floor and put in some old egg matting for her to cling to, so hopefully she’ll be able to stand, but she doesn’t seem willing right now to attempt it.
I have tried to massage her abdomen a little but she is so pliant and unresponsive that I’m afraid it could be too much for her. She seems to be mostly sleeping her days away beneath the towel right now. I haven’t tried giving her calcium yet, should that be my next step? Or is that in the Nutri-Dench sufficient?
Is it vet time for sure? ? There is a vet in town but we have been spending a lot on chicken vet appointments lately and I don’t even know when I could get in.
My hen (Olive-egger, 3 years old and as of a week ago the last survivor of her batch, background mycoplasma and survived my first-timer bumblefoot surgery (twice)) is egg bound; my mother noticed her sleeping on the ground two nights ago, and the next morning I picked her up, thinking the others were picking on her, and found her comb pale, vent covered in droppings and her abdomen very swollen and hard as a rock.
I cleaned her up and have been giving her Epsom salt baths and following up with KY jelly in her vent (keeping chickens is such an experience oof), and she is quarantined in a bathroom under a heat lamp with food for chicks (which she seems more willing to eat) and water with NutriDench. Her comb has regained some color and she is still pooping (fairly liquid with large undigested chunks, I imagine her poor digestive system is struggling, but seems okay in color? Yellowish with lots of white), but her abdomen is no less swollen and she’s been trying to stand and penguin pose. I just realized she might have trouble on the slick floor and put in some old egg matting for her to cling to, so hopefully she’ll be able to stand, but she doesn’t seem willing right now to attempt it.
I have tried to massage her abdomen a little but she is so pliant and unresponsive that I’m afraid it could be too much for her. She seems to be mostly sleeping her days away beneath the towel right now. I haven’t tried giving her calcium yet, should that be my next step? Or is that in the Nutri-Dench sufficient?
Is it vet time for sure? ? There is a vet in town but we have been spending a lot on chicken vet appointments lately and I don’t even know when I could get in.
