Egg bound, or...?

[Jonessa]

Hi all,
I have a sick hen, not sure what to do and hoping for some help.
This 4 year old GLW decided to go into molt at the beginning of the month, after laying fine for a few weeks. The day before yesterday she was up and about, and I happened to notice that her bum looked messy, some runny yellowish stuff in her bum feathers, along with poop. I also saw a white bit sticking out of her vent. My first thought was that she'd had an egg that didn't form properly, and that it was a bit of egg membrane. I restrained her and started to gently pull it out, when suddenly another chicken uncharacteristically attacked her. I managed to scoop her up, but then didn't know what had happened to the bit of membrane in the kerfuffle. She seemed fine, so set her back down and didn't give it any more thought.
Yesterday she didn't leave the roost and seemed a little lethargic. I offered her some water, which she drank, but she refused food, even meal worms and BOSS. I gave her a once over, and was surprised to feel what sure feels like an egg in her low abdomen. She's not doing what I've read are classic egg bound signs, like tail flapping and squatting, but she doesn't want to walk.
I brought her in and gave her a 15 minute soak in the kitchen sink, gave her some calcium orally, and spent a few minutes gently massaging her abdomen. Then she went into a crate for a couple of hours. When I went to check on her, she'd pooped, thankfully, but the white part was runny and maybe more yellowish in colour, and the dark part was more dark green and a little mucousy looking. She was thirsty, but still refused food. I brought her out, lubed up my finger with some olive oil, and gently probed her vent to see if I could feel the egg - but I couldn't get it to it. I did find the piece of egg membrane, though, or perhaps a different one? So I soaked her again, which she enjoyed, dried her off, lubed her vent with some more oil, and put her to bed for the night.
This morning is much the same - still no egg, she's pooped a few times and they look the same, drinking but not eating, not really wanting to move.
Is there something else going on here? Anything else I can do for her?
Thank you for the help!!

 

[azygous]

She does have the signs of egg binding. Give her more calcium. What type calcium is it? Carbonate, citrate, or gluconate? What is the strength? It needs to be around 600mg to be effective. It must be given directly into the beak and not diluted.

Egg binding causes changes which affects fluids in the body, causing dehydration. So make available plenty of water. She needs to be in a quiet place where she can relax with no stress. Hold off on any further soaks for now. Just allow her to rest quietly.

 

[utefan47]

She does have the signs of egg binding. Give her more calcium. What type calcium is it? Carbonate, citrate, or gluconate? What is the strength? It needs to be around 600mg to be effective. It must be given directly into the beak and not diluted.

Egg binding causes changes which affects fluids in the body, causing dehydration. So make available plenty of water. She needs to be in a quiet place where she can relax with no stress. Hold off on any further soaks for now. Just allow her to rest quietly.

Where do you get this calcium you speak of. I need to get calcium into my hens which are starting to lay....

 

[azygous]

Walmart

 

[Jonessa]

She does have the signs of egg binding. Give her more calcium. What type calcium is it? Carbonate, citrate, or gluconate? What is the strength? It needs to be around 600mg to be effective. It must be given directly into the beak and not diluted.

Egg binding causes changes which affects fluids in the body, causing dehydration. So make available plenty of water. She needs to be in a quiet place where she can relax with no stress. Hold off on any further soaks for now. Just allow her to rest quietly.

Okay. It's calcium carbonate, just a tub of loose powder that I got from a compounding pharmacy, so I'm not sure about dosage. Maybe I can find something online about that. How often should I be giving that amount of calcium?

 

[Jonessa]

So it looks like 1/2 tsp is 600mg. I gave her some last night, mixed with water and into her open beak with a dropper, but probably lass than half that amount. I'll give another dose now, the full 600mg.

 

[utefan47]

She does have the signs of egg binding. Give her more calcium. What type calcium is it? Carbonate, citrate, or gluconate? What is the strength? It needs to be around 600mg to be effective. It must be given directly into the beak and not diluted.

Egg binding causes changes which affects fluids in the body, causing dehydration. So make available plenty of water. She needs to be in a quiet place where she can relax with no stress. Hold off on any further soaks for now. Just allow her to rest quietly.

Where are you getting 600mg? That seem like a lot even for a human. It can constipate a human if taken in large doses.

 

[azygous]

Where are you getting 600mg? That seem like a lot even for a human. It can constipate a human if taken in large doses.

No. You have the incorrect information. Look at the bottle in the photo above. The strength of the tablet is 630mg. This is the daily dose for women to prevent osteoporosis. This is also the dose we give a hen struggling to get an egg out.

While it's a fact that too much calcium over too long a period can be hard on the kidneys, causing kidney stones, it does not constipate.

 

[utefan47]

No. You have the incorrect information. Look at the bottle in the photo above. The strength of the tablet is 630mg. This is the daily dose for women to prevent osteoporosis. This is also the dose we give a hen struggling to get an egg out.

While it's a fact that too much calcium over too long a period can be hard on the kidneys, causing kidney stones, it does not constipate.

Well I appreciate that and I think if you are looking for the immediate effects of getting an egg out, it might be that calcium relaxes the muscles in the immediate to help with that...otherwise to me logically, calcium would take a little longer to absorb to effect stronger skeletal bones and shells. Another site recommended 2000 mg a day for laying hens; Yikes. Not sure what I want to do. I do however, appreciate your response.

 

[azygous]

To be perfectly honest, I don't know exactly how calcium works to increase contractions, therefore enabling a hen who is struggling with a stubborn egg to get it out, but over all these years, many of us here have found it to work in a very high number of cases of egg binding. In fact, I had to use it on a hen of mine just last night at dark. She had been in the nest for several hours trying to lay an egg. It's happened to her before, and the calcium tablet always gives her the edge she needed to get the egg out.