Egg bound, or crop issues? Please help!

[amity3520]

Hi! I have a two year old RIR/NHR cross hen who, we discovered this morning, wasn't eating. When I went out there she wasn't eager about food, though she had moved since my dad had seen her. She was just standing outside in the run with her tail down real low, not moving. I took her and cleaned off her butt a bit since her feathers seemed pretty caked with poop, but it did not appear to be blocking the vent. After I cleaned her she held her tail a bit higher, especially when she walked, and she started moving around much better. She's walking around now and is much more inquisitive, and I have seen her drink water. I also gave her some yogurt mixed in with pellets, which she ate a little bit of. Her crop feels normal, and I saw that when she did poop it was just a whitish runny splat, but that was immediately after she ate the yogurt, so I'm thinking she hadn't eaten anything by that point.
She's now isolated so I can monitor her poop better.

Another note about this chicken, She does not lay. We haven't gotten any egg from her in over a year, if she laid at all it was only at the very beginning. She was in a smaller coop with another hen who had a limping problem a while back and so we've been able to completely monitor egg production.

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
NHR/RIR Mix, 2 years old, not sure of weight, but she's a very healthy size, similar to all our other hens

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Not excessively interested in food, tail down, caked poop by vent

3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No sign of any of this

4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
not known

5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Before this we provide pellets and a little scratch for them, fresh water, and they are allowed access into a run

6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
A whitish liquid

7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Described above

8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I'd like to treat completely myself, though we do have a vet we can talk to on monday who has a bit of chicken experience

9) Describe the housing/bedding in use:
They're all on a shavings/saw dust mixture, with fresh hay in for the nest boxes.


Any help on what to feed her would be appreciated! Should I put some ACV in her water? Any type of specific foods? I'm giving the yogurt mixture to up her nutrition a bit, and also if there's any type of blockage to help her digest easier.

Thank you so much!

 

[LynneP]

She sounds egg bound to me

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=325797

and will benefit from a shallow belly bath in warm water. This takes a while and you may get some discharge in the water, which is a good thing. You may have to separate her so you can repeat this many times, dilating her egg chute so she can void the material. Get her dry and comfortable, fast after. You can also use a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel or a heating pad but this requires time and focus to solve...

Things she may like include yogurt moistening her layer feed...and fresh goodies

 

[amity3520]

I gave her the warm bath just now, and surprisingly she didn't fight me. Contentedly picked at her food and just laid there while I watched for a half hour, and I did massage her abdomen a few times but I didn't want to overwhelm her. I can't FEEL anything in there, really, but I'm not really sure what I should be feeling? She drinks quite well too, which I'm all taking as good signs. I haven't seen any poop but that could easily be me overlooking the shavings area, they're pretty fluffy. I at least got her feathers cleaned out real well and her vent looks very normal, nice and pink, not prolapsed that I can tell (hopefully!), but her vent area is moving, like she's trying to get something out.

After the bath she stood with her tail nice and high and started preening, so hopefully I'll see something! Is there a point where I should give her another bath if this doesn't work? I'm going to be at work all night so I'm hoping this helps, poor chickie. She's so pretty too!

Thanks for your help, any more advice would be awesome!

 

[amity3520]

She's in the same condition today, though still walking, and still eating when coaxed. I gave her another bath which she seemed much less pleased about than with yesterday, and I did notice her poop. One was just a liquid, kind of bubbly but I wouldn't say foamy, and the next had a bit of blackish/brownish stuff in it with maybe a bit of yellow, and it was a little runny. That was before I gave the bath. I'm not sure what else I can do... her crop feels a little swollen, but I can definitely feel some food in there so I know it's not sour crop. I hope it's not impacted, though if that were the case wouldn't it feel hard? It kind of feels a little squishy, like oatmeal almost. Hers is definitely bigger than the other chicken's though.

Her comb is still a deep red color, and she's still talking and clucking along, just definitely a bit off, and I'm worried it's going to get the best of her soon. I really don't feel anything resembling an egg in her abdomen, though I'm not 100% sure what to be feeling for. Her vent still looks okay, but again, I'm not positive. I might try lubing a glove tonight if she's not shown any signs of improvement, just to see if I can feel anything at all.

I'm worried about this girl! Anyone with egg bound experience have this much trouble before? Or could it be something else entirely?