Egg bound SENIOR CITIZEN - ? **Bizarre egg photo**

catandmilkart

Chirping
5 Years
May 4, 2015
33
17
99
Hi!
Our favorite bird, an old English bantam of 3+ years, has miraculously started laying eggs after 1.5 years of not doing so. I have no idea why or how. She used to lay normal bantam-sized eggs, but the ones she is laying now are tiny-- the size of quarter.

Last week, I noticed her displaying all symptoms of egg binding, and after helping her out she laid this freaky, tiny egg with a jagged shell:


Yesterday she started acting egg-bound again.... I have soaked her in warm soapy water, kept her vent lubed, and fed her water with crushed TUMS (she didn't drink much). She has had a couple of poops today, but she is still having trouble walking and definitely very uncomfortable! I inspected her nest, and found that she had laid another deflated tiny egg at some point.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING to poor Mingo? I can't keep spending 5 hours per day "helping" this bird. Her vent is looking worse, perhaps becoming infected. I'm going to give her another soapy bath if she is still feeling poorly this evening in hopes that it will help stave off infection. I'm about to make her some watery scrambled eggs with a little more TUMS.

If anyone has been through this with a bird, I would love some advice. She is an Exceptionally Small bantam, only about 6" tall. I could really use a happy anecdote...

Thank you so much,
Caroline
 
Thank you, @Eggcessive ! This was helpful, and lead me to further reading on Ascites from other members. She definitely has a load of fluid in her abdomen, and I do fear that she has something too chronic for us to deal with. Pretty devastating prognosis...

Could anyone tell me why this issue has arisen after such a long period of not laying eggs? We thought she was post-menopausal. Besides adding some chick-grit to the regular layer-feed she gets, we haven't changed anything about her routine or environment.
 
Ascites can occur with heart failure, cancer, egg yolk peritonitis, and liver failure. Many people here have posted pictures and instructions on draining some of the fluid periodically with an 18 gauge needle inserted under the skin in the lower belly. There are a couple of good threads if you do a search at the top of this page, and look at the third and eigth threads especially.
 

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