Egg bound hen??

[MBH]

Hello hoping to get some help with my young Cream Legbar hen who just started laying. Unlike the other hens we have she didn’t start laying small eggs and work up to medium and large she immediately started laying large eggs. We noticed her having trouble and have been watching her. She often misses the egg box and sometimes lays in the grass while roaming. Yesterday she laid an egg without a shell. Then we noticed there was liquid poop on her bum feathers. We thought she might be egg bound so we did the warm water bath and discovered the shell of the egg slightly hard but like a deflated balloon hanging out. I cleaners that up and her vent was very red and she looked like she was trying to poop or lay. I checked her carefully with gloves and petroleum jelly to be sure there were no egg shard or an egg stuck- there was nothing. As we were drying her off we noticed a small blood filled lump on her vent like a hemorrhoid. But she otherwise seems ok. Should we be worried any advice? Is it the beginning of a prolapsed vent??

I attached pictures of her vent and how big her eggs are. She has only been laying for 2 weeks.

 

[azygous]

This is a crisis. The collapsed shell-less egg may have been expelled, but not all of the egg material. Her vent condition appears to be indicating that she's trying to expel the remains. If that included yolk, she's at high risk for infection due to the bacteria supporting nature of egg yolk.

Do you have any oral antibiotics on hand? If so, what and what strength? If you have no antibiotic, you can order this. https://www.revivalanimal.com/product/fish-mox?sku=22150-174 I suggest you do so immediately.

Forget any more water soaks. It only raises the stress level and that can be counterproductive. She does need moist heat, though, and a calcium supplement right now to get her contractions going strong. A whole tablet of whatever calcium you may have on hand or buy some calcium citrate.

I hope you have a pet crate that's tall enough for her to stand up in. If not, find a cardboard box. Place a heating pad in the crate or box and cover it with a moist warm bath towel rung out in the washer spin cycle. Put the pad on low or medium heat depending on how thick it is. Then install the hen on this moist towel in a quiet place with plenty of water to drink and let her rest. You may need to lightly cover the box to keep her confined to the moist towel.

Warning, her vent could prolapse as she strains to expel this material. If that happens, take a clean cloth wet with Witch Hazel and push it back inside. Smooth some hydrocortisone cream on her vent. Do this each time the prolapse comes out. It could take a few hours or a few days for this to resolve. Give a calcium tab whole into her beak once each day until after this is all over.

 

[MBH]

Oh wow thank you! She seemed ok today she was pooping normally and walking around. The last egg she laid two days ago was an egg without a shell just the membrane intact, then when we looked today it’s like she laid the shell separately after she laid the membrane egg. We will watch her carefully and she is safe and warm tonight (fortunately we don’t have winter here).

 

[azygous]

You are looking at two eggs, not an egg that somehow slickly shipped out of its shell. I've dealt with a hen that had a glitch in her egg cycle and was laying two eggs in the single 25 hour cycle. This is how some eggs get stuck. There isn't usually enough calcium in the egg gland for two eggs close together, so one is soft and it can get hung up since shell-less eggs are much harder to pass. The other egg is often thin-shelled and it also can collapse inside.

This is likely what happened with your hen. The antibiotic is necessary so she doesn't get an infection from this. Without treatment, she could become sterile, and her infection would become chronic, shortening her life considerably. The amoxicillin 250mg is given one capsule daily for ten days.

Get some calcium citrate with D3. I get mine at Walmart in the vitamin aisle. Give her one tablet whole directly into her beak each day until she's laying one normal egg per 25 hour cycle. It took my hen a month on calcium to begin laying normally again. That was last season at this time. This year, she's had no egg issues. She's entirely back to normal. Your girl will get through this, too, and will soon be laying normally again. The calcium therapy is what she needs to get back there.

 

[MBH]

Update- hen is back to normal she laid that day and has been laying just fine since. I haven’t wanted to catch her again as she is very skittish but all seems well.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Update- hen is back to normal she laid that day and has been laying just fine since. I haven’t wanted to catch her again as she is very skittish but all seems well.

Did you use any of the mentioned therapies? Or did she heal on her own?