Egg bound???

[La Casa de Pollo]

I just put my chicken in a warm bath and the more I feel around the more it seems that it's just a lump at the base of her tail feathers. Is that normal. Also when my son put her in the tub she pooped a huge amount. Does this sound like she isn't egg bound?

She has been sitting  in the nesting box for about 2 weeks where she doesn't want to come out. When we try and pick her up she will sit back down unless we put her outside the coop. Any thoughts? 

Thank you. 

Your girl is broody it sounds like! They quit laying, sit in the nest (wanting to hatch eggs). Esp if she puffs up when you approach her. She will snap out of it after a while, it takes 3 weeks to hatch eggs so broodiness often lasts 2-4 weeks. You can try dunking her in cold water to break her of it, but that does not always work. if you have access to fertile eggs you can put them under her and she will hatch them for you.....make sure she has water and food nearby they often lose some weight due to their unwillingness to leave the nest. If it is hot in the coop make sure she stays cool, you can put an ice pack in the nest that will sometimes break her of it, and if not it will help keep her cool.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

KHoward, and urbanmom---Marek's disease could be happening here, you want to get those girls away from the others quickly, that gets in your flock and you could lose others. One main sympton in marek's is what appears to be paralysis on one side. One foot forward, one behind, or legs giving in underneath them. This disease is shed from birds that are carriers, and it can stay in the soil up to 7 years. It is tough to get rid of. Not trying to scare you, but you will want to isolate her and wash and sanitize before touching your other birds to be safe....it is VERY common and birds that have been vaccinated can still get it and birds can carry it and infect others with no symptoms. You can search the disease on here and find tons of information about it.

 

[mschreiner1]

How did your chicken make out? Did you ever figure out what the problem was? My australorp is going through the same problem. I've bathed her and even put warm olive oil around the opening. She is constantly going into her nesting box. If I don't kick her out I swear she would never leave. It's been 5 days that she hasn't laid an egg. Poor bird. Any tips would be appreciated

 

[KHoward]

Hi,

Sadly, she didn't make it. In the past three years I have had three hens go this way, (one each year). Very odd. Maybe it is Marek's as someone suggested, and it's in the soil. In the spring, I will move the coop and see if that helps.

You can never tell with chickens. One minute my Ancona was running around like normal and then I found her dead in the run one morning. No symptoms.

~Kristen

 

[Kelliarm]

I just wanted to post my experiences as we just lost a chicken to being egg bound and we have the results from the vet who did a mini autopsy.

So about a week ago we noticed our Rhode Island Red named Lucy had poop stuck on her rear feathers. I didn't think too much of it,although I did look closer to make sure she didn't have any sores or wounds. Three days ago we noticed she wasn't in the coop at night when we closed it. We found her off on her own just standing. We picked her up and put her in her nesting box but she just stood. The next day we checked her and she was still standing and didn't eat anything even though we put food/water right in front of her. I noticed even more compacted droppings on her. So we took her inside (its become pretty cold here) and I cut off the bad feathers and we gave her a good warm bath. It seemed to help. But at that point I didn't see anything that looked like lice, mites, worms, sore, or really anything other than dirty rear end feathers. I read Backyard Chicken and started to think it had something to do with an egg not coming out. I felt her abdomen and it did feel hard. I put some vaseline on her vent but really didn't know what else to do as we had already done the warm water bath. She did eat some yesterday and her poop was running and all white.
This morning she was very lethargic and didn't want to eat anything. I could tell it was the end as her breathing was getting heavy, so we called the vet and made an appointment. She died just before the appointment but we took her in and they did a animal autopsy kind of inspection (a necro-something). When I spoke ot the vet she said she could see an ovaduct (sp?) rupture and there were literally yolks in her abdomen surrounding her organs. She also did have one large egg that hadn't come out. Her organs were enlarged mainly due to inflammation caused by the yolks/liquids in her belly.
Lucy was apparently older than were were told she was. She hadn't been laying for most of the year but only recently started again. Te vet had seen it before where the reproductive system was dormant for a while, then goes haywire and things similar to this happen (ruptures). The vet seemed to say that its awfully hard to know when a chicken is sick until its too late and there's often very little that can be done.
I just wanted to tell our story because this site has been SO helpful to me. Reading other peoples experiences have really helped me. My family raised chickens when I was a kid but they weren't pets... now my chickens are pets and dealing with them dying is so much harder. Having this site has been a Godsend!

 

[The Hen]

I just wanted to post my experiences as we just lost a chicken to being egg bound and we have the results from the vet who did a mini autopsy.

So about a week ago we noticed our Rhode Island Red named Lucy had poop stuck on her rear feathers. I didn't think too much of it,although I did look closer to make sure she didn't have any sores or wounds. Three days ago we noticed she wasn't in the coop at night when we closed it. We found her off on her own just standing. We picked her up and put her in her nesting box but she just stood. The next day we checked her and she was still standing and didn't eat anything even though we put food/water right in front of her. I noticed even more compacted droppings on her. So we took her inside (its become pretty cold here) and I cut off the bad feathers and we gave her a good warm bath. It seemed to help. But at that point I didn't see anything that looked like lice, mites, worms, sore, or really anything other than dirty rear end feathers. I read Backyard Chicken and started to think it had something to do with an egg not coming out. I felt her abdomen and it did feel hard. I put some vaseline on her vent but really didn't know what else to do as we had already done the warm water bath. She did eat some yesterday and her poop was running and all white.
This morning she was very lethargic and didn't want to eat anything. I could tell it was the end as her breathing was getting heavy, so we called the vet and made an appointment. She died just before the appointment but we took her in and they did a animal autopsy kind of inspection (a necro-something). When I spoke ot the vet she said she could see an ovaduct (sp?) rupture and there were literally yolks in her abdomen surrounding her organs. She also did have one large egg that hadn't come out. Her organs were enlarged mainly due to inflammation caused by the yolks/liquids in her belly.
Lucy was apparently older than were were told she was. She hadn't been laying for most of the year but only recently started again. Te vet had seen it before where the reproductive system was dormant for a while, then goes haywire and things similar to this happen (ruptures). The vet seemed to say that its awfully hard to know when a chicken is sick until its too late and there's often very little that can be done.
I just wanted to tell our story because this site has been SO helpful to me. Reading other peoples experiences have really helped me. My family raised chickens when I was a kid but they weren't pets... now my chickens are pets and dealing with them dying is so much harder. Having this site has been a Godsend!

I found Miss Rustie one night outside the coop also and put her inside. She has been losing weight, but still eats and drinks (i give her warm water). i bought her some evaporated milk which she loves and i have also been putting scratch in with her food to help her eat more. She has a bulge underneath her so i think she is egg bound. Gave her a warm bubble bath today (check out my album too cute) and now she is sleeping in a rubber maid container with towels, food, & water. Will give her another bath tmro and try to figure out what to do about her egg bound.

 

[casportpony]

I found Miss Rustie one night outside the coop also and put her inside. She has been losing weight, but still eats and drinks (i give her warm water). i bought her some evaporated milk which she loves and i have also been putting scratch in with her food to help her eat more. She has a bulge underneath her so i think she is egg bound. Gave her a warm bubble bath today (check out my album too cute) and now she is sleeping in a rubber maid container with towels, food, & water. Will give her another bath tmro and try to figure out what to do about her egg bound.

Read these:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/07/chicken-egg-binding-causes-symptoms.html
http://www.avianweb.com/eggbinding.html

 

[The Hen]

Thanks Casportpony, looked at both sites and very informative. Can't wait until tmro.

 

[The Hen]

gave Miss Rustie another soak this morning, put some ky on her bottom and now we are sitting on the couch listening to some classical music while i massage her underside. How long can it take for her to pass an egg. I did also give her some grape seed oil which she really seemed to like.

 

[Kjordanov]

My hen is egg bound I think. Did your end up passing the egg? It's odd my hens egg is more to the side!