Egg Bound? Searched can't find solution....

[COChickens1]

Hello! I've had my flock for about 3 seasons and this is a first. This hen is about 5 months old. She is a Svart Hona so not known to be a prolific layer.

This is a picture from last night and she is looking the same tonight. She was egg bound about a month ago. I did the epsom salt, calcium and lube on her rear and she passed a soft egg. I took her to the vet, they x-rayed her, gave me some anti inflamitory and antibiotics and everything had been good. She last layed an egg about 7 days ago, it was a hard shell and did have some extra calcium on it I assume do to me supplementing her with calcium.

About 3 days ago I noticed she was hopping in and out of the nesting box and coop. Yesterday her tail was down so I quarentined her in the house/dog kennel. Did the whole epsom salt bath, calcium and lube. Put her in the kennel and heard her struggline. I checker her rear and saw the attached photo. I drew another bath, threw her in and this went back inside her.

Can anyone tell me what's going on with her? Is this her insides surrounding an egg? If I feel her abdomine it does not feel hard. And when I inspect this tissue I do not see an actual shell poking out anywhere.

This morning this was back inside her and she appeared to be fine. Her vent was not prolapsed and went back to looking "normal". I did give her another bath in the morning and I gave her calcium again. I can take her back to the vet in the morning but if there is a home solution I would prefer that route. She is eating, drinking, and pooping like normal.

Sorry for the length, just trying to provide as much info as possible! Thanks for any thoughts on the situation.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

Can you feel of the prolapse and tell if there's an egg in it?

I'd continue with treating her like you have, perhaps see if you can push the tissue back in and see if she's able to retain it or expel an egg.

Giving the calcium is a good idea along with keep the exposed tissue coated with ointment or oil so it doesn't dry out.

It can be hard to know why this is reoccurring. Sometimes it can be lack of calcium and/or nutrition, I do think genetics may play a role at times as well.

 

[COChickens1]

Thanks for the response. I cannot tell. I had her soaking tonight and she was laughing really hard to expel but didn’t have any luck.

I laid her on her side and poured lube over it and it didn’t come out. It looks like it’s connected to her. It does look egg shaped. It’s


I’m taking her to the vet in the morning. If anyone else has thoughts or suggestions I’d appreciate it.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I hope the vet is able to help resolve this, let us know how it goes.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

 

[COChickens1]

Thank you all for the replys and concerns. We ended up putting her down. I brought her in for a necropsy, below are the remarks.

REMARKS: Pink had yolk material and soft shelled eggs in her body cavity outside of her reproductive tract. This suggests that her reproductive tract had ruptured and released the contents (yolk material, eggs) into her body cavity. When yolk material is free in the body cavity, it is very irritating to the other tissues. In addition, because yolk is so nutrient-rich, it can set up an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. Unfortunately, severe inflammation (peritonitis) with or without bacterial infection can cause a chicken to die. Yolk peritonitis is not contagious but it is a serious condition that can be fatal. In addition to the peritonitis, the mass that Pink was trying to expel from her body was a soft shelled egg that was outside of the reproductive tract but closely adhered to the outside of her colon, just before the cloaca. Because this egg was not inside the reproductive tract, she was not able to expel it. As Pink was straining to expel this egg, it prolapsed the swollen tissue through her vent. One end of the egg may also have partially passed through her vent, but was not able to be expelled because it was not inside of the cloaca.

Inside the coelom (body cavity) is yellow to orange, thick, viscous fluid with chunky material (yolk material). There is a soft shelled egg in the proximal oviduct which measures 2 x 2.5 x 5.0 cm. Outside of the oviduct in the coelom are two soft shelled eggs measuring 0.5 x 2.0 x 2.5 cm and 3.5 x 4.0 x 5.5 cm. These eggs are covered by a thin pink tissue and located near the cloaca. The vent and the cloacal tissue are markedly thickened by edema and congestion.