Egg bound - would light and heating pad help?

[azygous]

My EE Rachel Correy appears to be egg bound. She never laid pullet eggs, but went right to laying full-size eggs. They have gotten larger in her two years, and have reached gigantic dimensions. They won't fit in a normal egg carton.

Yesterday, she spent two hours on the nest and got off without laying an egg. There was no egg today, either. This evening I noticed she was very subdued, and she held her tail down. When I tried to cuddle her in my lap, and felt her rear parts, she squawked and hopped off my lap. She's one of my most persistent cuddlers so this alarmed me.

I brought her inside and gave her a fifteen minute soak in warm water, and she relaxed considerably. I toweled her but didn't blow dry her for fear of disturbing her relaxed state. I placed her in a pet crate with the same wood shavings she has in the nest box she's accustomed to.

I left a 100 watt light on near her. Is that a good idea to leave a light on all night, or not? Also, would slipping a heating pad under the shavings help?

Any other advice?

 

[welasharon]

Make sure she can move away from the heat if need be. I am freaky about lights on animals as we lost our house and everything we owned when I was a child when something happened to the light that my mom had on some baby birds. I would think the heating pad would be safer as long as she could get off of it if she needed to. You can also give her some cottage cheese or some crushed up tums in water to help with the passing along of the egg. Mine usually pass the egg during the night after a good warm soak. I have found that if I feed mine crushed egg shells they haven't had the problem any more.
sharon

 

[azygous]

The light is up high and meant to stimulate egg-laying, not as a heat source.

She would adore the cottage cheese. I'll give her some.

If I put the heating pad on the lowest setting, is that something that could actually assist her in passing this egg?

 

[welasharon]

Supposedly the heat will help. I always have just done the warm soak, blew them dry and put them back on the roost but I live in FL so it wasn't cold here. It's possible the light may also help to start forming another egg....so I am not sure if that would be good.

 

[azygous]

Wow! I guess the warm soak did the trick! She just laid the egg!

I dried her the rest of the way, and took her back out to the coop.

I'm glad I asked about the light. It would make sense not to stimulate any further egg production. Thanks for the good advice!

 

[welasharon]

Yay for you! That is very stressful isn't it. You may want to up her calcium intake a bit for a few days just for good measure. Mine love cheese!

 

[azygous]

You betcha! Rachel will be getting some cheese treats tomorrow!

 

[azygous]

Rachel is back on the nest box this morning. It will be egg #3 in just 12 hours. It was dark last night when I went out to check on her in the pet crate. I saw she'd laid an egg so I took her back to the coop. This morning I saw she had laid a shell-less second egg along with the regular one! This girl has some issues! I hope I don't lose her.