Egg bound!

[head chicken in charge]

Someone please clarify. Pretty sure My hen is egg bound. I've read the page about giving her calcium citrate +D3 and Epsom salt baths. I'm not sure if I can get the kind from Walmart for people, or if the CC+D3 has to be a chicken type. Google Is no help, please Someone point me in the right direction. Mind you Walmart is the only thing open now. Her last lay was this morning. She's pretty regular. Sometimes she'll lay twice, once in the a.m and again at night before bed. Not always, but it's happened a few times and she's always been fine. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'll be watching for replys. Thank u

 

[nuthatched]

Calcium citrate from Walmart is fine, I'm not sure they even sell cc fir chickens. Is she acting egg bound? It's very unusual for a hen to lay twice a day.

 

[head chicken in charge]

Okay great! I'm not exactly sure if they do or not. I read the posts on here from others experiences and seen the remedies. I googled it and all it shows me is the places that I can buy it online or in store. The pages that offer information bring me right back here. Yes she's acting bound. She's in her nesting box, and she's a little broody. She's puffing her feathers out, and making this noise, kinda like, well for lack of a better word sounding like a veloca raptor! I guess it's more she will lay 2 eggs then lay twice. I think so anyway. We only have 2 hens, and they have distinctive eggs when they lay. So I can usually tell who's who's. But anyway I'm going to run to Walmart now, and grab the CC+D3 and Epson salt. I'm going to start with the salt and see if that does the trick. Then I'll move on to trying KY jelly and trying to help lube her up. Thank you for your help. I may have more questions yet if that's ok

 

[Eggcessive]

Get the calcium first and give it. Calcium citrate is fine, and quickly absorbed, but calcium tablets with d 3 are good too. You can place her in a warm humid room on a warm towel instead of soaking her in warm Epsom salts water. Any hen who is extremely weak or sick should not be bathed or soaked.

 

[nuthatched]

She might just be broody but it won't hurt to be prepared. :]

 

[head chicken in charge]

Get the calcium first and give it. Calcium citrate is fine, and quickly absorbed, but calcium tablets with d 3 are good too. You can place her in a warm humid room on a warm towel instead of soaking her in warm Epsom salts water. Any hen who is extremely weak or sick should not be bathed or soaked.

That was my general thinking as well. She's still in her nesting box. I gave her a small bowl of fresh water so she doesn't have to strain to get a drink. And I'm not going to put extra stress on her just to move her out. I'll keep watch and when she's moving around that's when I would try to scoop her up for a bath. But I'm definitely going to try the warm humid room before the bath. I know it's probably very early but she's only been like this for maybe 4-6 hrs now. Apologies, these are my first 2 chickens. Which makes me very familiar with their routine. I noticed this is out of the ordinary and started panicking lol. But I'm much calmer thank to you good people on here with your advice.

 

[head chicken in charge]

She might just be broody but it won't hurt to be prepared. :]

How would you know the difference? By feeling her vent for a bound egg? Or is that the only way? This is literally my first experience with this and I just don't wanna see her uncomfortable or in pain.

 

[head chicken in charge]

Get the calcium first and give it. Calcium citrate is fine, and quickly absorbed, but calcium tablets with d 3 are good too. You can place her in a warm humid room on a warm towel instead of soaking her in warm Epsom salts water. Any hen who is extremely weak or sick should not be bathed or soaked.

So wait, which is better? The calcium citrate or with D3??

 

[nuthatched]

How would you know the difference? By feeling her vent for a bound egg? Or is that the only way? This is literally my first experience with this and I just don't wanna see her uncomfortable or in pain.

What symptoms is she displaying?
Egg binding is when a hen is sitting hunchbacked like a penguin, neck drawn in, eyes closed and a general look of misery. Sometimes straining.

 

[nuthatched]

So wait, which is better? The calcium citrate or with D3??

Both are acceptable, citrate works a bit faster.