Egg bound or slow down?

[boykin2010]

my chicken recently died from being egg-bound so please help them and make sure that is every thing is going well. if i knew what was happening i could have helped her!

 

[Yay Chicks!]

boykin, I am sorry that your chicken died. In hindsight, did you notice any change in behavior or appearance at all prior to her death?

 

[TeriNick50]

My hens (4) started to slow down with egg production a couple weeks ago.
No one seems bound up.
I suspect it's the change of season and light.
I did some reading on this website and tried a suggestion of making a warm mash using their crumble feed and adding cayenne pepper.
Ratio: 1 cup feed with 1 tablespoon pepper
I've been giving it to them at dusk.
The following day - always 4 eggs.
On the days I didn't give it to them - 1 to 2 eggs.
Of course there's nothing scientific about this ... and I can't explain it but it seems to be working for me.

 

[Sanebychicks]

I am experiencing a similar problem, but with a hopefully helpful background. I too have 4 pullets all hatched this last spring. My normally best layer, a production red has not produced an egg for about 4 or 5 days now which is highly unusual. Here's the thing, about a month and half ago I noticed her behaving very differently. She was lethargic, yet didnt' want to lay down. She would just stand with her feathers, particularly in the back fluffed up. She was clearly - different than normal. I also noticed her looking like she was flexing to try and produce an egg. From all this behaviour I determined she was egg bound since it was late in the day and she hadn't laid. I did the warm bath and sure enough she produced not only one, but another smaller attached soft shelled eggs.

Now her not laying is very different. She seems very normal and it has been like I said, several days. I am not sure that even though they don't go through a full molt (she hasn't been losing feathers, but her feathers are less shiny and her comb is not as red) I think the time of year is still bringing on her hopefully temporary stopping of eggs. She eats, she drinks, she pecks, she runs, she acts completely normal - just no eggs. So I guess my lengthy answer is, I think you would notice a change in her if she is egg bound, given you are one to really pay attention to your chicken's behaviours, so I wouldn't necessarly force the bath situation. And other than that, if she is acting and looking healthy, wait it out and let nature kick back in when its ready.

Good luck and hopefully we'll both have an egg from the one who's not laying soon.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Thanks for your perspective, Sanebychicks. And I'm glad your bird came out of that all right. My Buffy really does act very normal. Hasn't even visited the nest box or acted remotely like she was thinking about laying an egg. I would normally probably just keep watching her closely but I think I'm overly concerned because I'm heading out of town Friday and I know the house/pet sitter is not going to bath her if there is a problem. It sure wouldn't be the first time since getting them as chicks that I worried unnecessarily!

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Okay. I waited until 1:00 pm today. Since no one laid yesterday, three of them were in a big hurry to lay this morning. The BR laid and I compared it to the last couple of brown eggs and they sure seem to all be hers. Buffy was still acting normally, but I could definitely feel an egg. Like I said before, if we weren't going out of town I would have just kept observing. So, I brought her in and kept her in a warm bath for about 30 minutes while gently massaging what I believe to be a large egg downward toward her vent. Maybe I was too gentle. I don't know. She didn't fight it, but she wasn't exactly relaxed either. Then I wrapped her up in warm towels and but her on my lap on a heating pad. There we sat for about another 30 minutes. That relaxed her. She started to dose off. No egg tho' or any attempts to lay an egg. Now she is in a box in the guest bedroom. I gave her a little yogurt and some water and put a golf ball in the pine shavings. It's cozy warm. The heat is on. I'm not sure how long to give her in there before I blow dry her and sent her back outside egg or no egg. I'm not sure what to do if she doesn't lay since I'll be leaving in the morning. She is in NO distress now, but I'm so concerned that it will get to that point while I'm gone. Am I just over worrying? I'm sure it's been about 5 days now since she's laid and she is a regular layer.
Okay, I'm behind now with everything I have to do before leaving and coming down with a bug as well. Arrgghh.

 

[LesGan]

Same situation here with my faithful BO layer of 2-1/2 years. Seems perfectly fine and acts totally normal but no egg in 7 days. I gave her the bath and abdominal massage which she totally enjoyed, but I felt no egg and it produced no egg either. I chuckled and decided that she will probably never lay again in hopes of a repeat of the warm bath and massage. It did take me over an hour to dry her with a hair dryer because of an incredible amount of fine downy underfeathers. I wonder if all of her egg laying energy had gone into feather production after a sudden cool spell. Also I had started giving the chickens scratch again with the cool weather and wondered if she had filled up on that and not eaten enough laying mash. The weather turned warm again and this hen dropped alot of her underfeathers with the heat. Now cold again and she will have to replace them. Poor babies.....so confused. Also some of the local Bradford Pears are blooming and I have NEVER seen that in November, and my Amaryllis are pushing up new green growth right now. Things confused in central Alabama. No wonder the hens are not laying. I am waiting to see if the pullets born in July will give me eggs later this year. Good luck with your eggs.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Thanks. No one is having a full molt and the other three are laying. The temperatures have been moderate. Not a lot of treats, plenty of layer feed and oyster shell. sigh...

 

[Yay Chicks!]

No egg. I dried her with the hair dryer. She seemed to like it, laying on her back with her head on my arm. In the meantime I talked to the head poultry guy at the OSU Extension service. Nice guy, of course chickens as pets not really his thing, but he didn't talk down to me or anything. Of course he gave all the possibilities, which I knew of, but basically said, if the bird isn't in distress than don't worry, problems sometimes resolve themselves. Hope so.

 

[buckabucka]

Just wondering what happened with Buffy, yay chicks. I started reading this thread when my leghorn that lays everyday took two days off in a row. I think she's fine, really, but she's never done this before and I'm new to chickens. I'm hoping for an egg tomorrow. Is Buffy taking an extended break, or is she laying again? I hope things are fine.