Egg bound

[mbrock]

I have talked about this before but I need to address this again as I have had another lose due to this. First I know that there is a lot of post about this. I just want to go int o what I have happen and may it will help someone else and me. First some of you know I lost a Black orpington months ago due to being egg bound. After the death I had a vet friend preform a necropsy. He said that it was a genetic defect in the bird. Now I had I happen again. After the first time I have tried to do everything that I could to prevent this in my girls and also treated her as soon as I saw watch was happening. This case could also be because of the bird, she was the smallest of my buffs and laid the largest eggs. She did manage to pass the eggs after calcium dosing and lube, but the at that time I feel she probably would not make it. It was the largest egg any of my hens have ever laid. ( get somewhat graphic but no pics). The egg was covered in a lot of fresh blood and bits of tissue( lots of bits). I was surprised that she was not prolapsed. I cleaned her up brought her in and placed her in the sick ward. She did not look good. I was going to give her overnight and if she did not look better I was going to end the any suffering. To my surprise the next day she look much better. We all know how well chickens can hide pain and injury. The next day she looked bad and it was clear that she was not going to make it ,and did what was needed. She was my best layer. Are there breeds that are more likely to become egg bound. At this time I only have orpingtons, for now. This is going to sound odd but the neighbor had to 2 the same day that died because of this the same day. His vet said that stress could have caused this and to watch this. I was home that day and noticed nothing has anyone heard of this or know of any other reason for this.

A side note my girls where in the coop cand run because of a laying outside the nest box.
The neighbors have now got rid(re homed there girls).

 

[MrsBrooke]

So sorry to hear about your loss.

I have no extra information about this, but I hope this was your last loss due to this.

MrsB

 

[mbrock]

I've had some people say that they believe that hatchery birds or more are more prone to this. I'm not sure that this is the reason I don't have the experience I have only been doing this for year and one of my birds was a hatchery bird and the other was a non-hatchery bird. I did have a necropsy and it was found to have a genetic birth defect. That hen would not have been a producer in would have died after laying eggs anyway. It's nice when our girls lay but they are mostly Pets my oldest son takes care of them. From now on I do think that we will order or purchase our girls from local breeders or if we have to breeders and have them shipped. I definitely feel that there is a place for hatcheries especially if you are concerned with egg production. we do love the eggs but if there were no eggs we would have them as pets just not as many. Some of you know we currently have an order from a hatchery arriving March 3 of Day old chicks. I do think that even if you are ordering from your local breeder or any breeder you should do your homework as not all breeders are the same. I'm sure there are breeders that are out just to make a dollar in not care about the stock that they breed or sell. If there are any hatcheries that read this I would love to hear your response I do believe that there are some hatcheries that are better for backyard birds than others. Also like I said in my first post if anyone else has had multiple birds have this problem I was just interested if they had figured out why ithappened.