Egg broke inside and now she seems quite ill, any advise?

[Aerliss]

Maggie is nearly 2, a good layer, big hybrid who lays BIG eggs, though some are quite wrinkly.

She hadn't laid for a couple of days, but the days are drawing in, so I thought nothing of it. Yesterday she was first out of the coop as usual, squawking for food. A couple of hours later I looked out on them and she was walking a bit bow legged. On inspection I found the remnants of a broken egg protruding from her vent. I got that out, it was really well and truly mushed so I'm guessing broke quite far in. A couple of specks of blood but nothing major. After that she seemed okay. Pecking around, kicking up old leaves for bugs.

A couple of hours later I found her hiding in the coop, looking a bit sorry for herself. She'd passed some runny poop and a fair bit of what I guess is egg white. I gave her a hot bath and some liquid calcium supplement to help her shift any more remnants. I also got her to drink a little and she was quite happy to demolish some oats and sunflower seeds. Dried her off and poped her back out. She was again happy to kick around leaves, but later I found her hiding again.

Another hot bath and blow dry, some more calcium, and more water. Then I left her in a carry crate with a heat pad (snugglesafe, microwaveable, hard plastic, wrapped in a blanket, gives off warmth for 8-12 hours) in the coop over night. This morning she's really miserable, and kept tilting forward when I got her to stand. She'd passed more egg white and some very runny poop. Her crop is still full.

So I've given her another, longer bath, and some more calcium but only 0.1ml, so about 7mg of calcium as I don't want to overload her. It also contains magnesium and D3. I got about 5ml of water in her. She took a little from a bowl with the beak dip method, but after a few goes just refused so I used a syringe, 0.1ml at a time. She didn't fight too much. I've massaged her crop and popped her back in the carry case in the coop with a heat pad. I think she'll feel less stressed in familiar surroundings than in the bathroom, but I can bring her in if folks think that would be better.

I was hoping she was just feeling rubbish from the egg gunk, and will perk up as she passes it, but the full crop is worrying me. Any other ideas? Is this something that will likely eventually improve or should I be getting her some antibiotics? Would gut stimulants help with the crop? I have some liquid ranitidine on hand for the rabbits.

Oh, I'm UK based. So we can't buy antibiotics on Amazon

 

[azygous]

So far, you've done everything I would have done for your hen. But you might try what I recently did with a young hen who had a shell-less egg collapse inside her.
I tubed about a tablespoon of castor oil into her crop along with some warm water. Over the next several hours, she pooped out "ropes" of the egg leftovers. I don't know how this would work with broken shell remnants, but it hurts nothing to give it a try.

Your hen's crop is probably backed up because of the egg remnants being lodged inside her, maybe even backing up the poop. The oil should help with this.

Do one more thing. Put on a rubber glove and sweep your finger inside her cloaca and scoop out any material that might be lodged there. You'll only be going in about an inch.

I would skip any more soaks as that only adds to the stress of the situation. If the soaks were to work, they would have already. Continue the calcium, though.

 

[Aerliss]

So far, you've done everything I would have done for your hen. But you might try what I recently did with a young hen who had a shell-less egg collapse inside her.
I tubed about a tablespoon of castor oil into her crop along with some warm water. Over the next several hours, she pooped out "ropes" of the egg leftovers. I don't know how this would work with broken shell remnants, but it hurts nothing to give it a try.

Your hen's crop is probably backed up because of the egg remnants being lodged inside her, maybe even backing up the poop. The oil should help with this.

Do one more thing. Put on a rubber glove and sweep your finger inside her cloaca and scoop out any material that might be lodged there. You'll only be going in about an inch.

I would skip any more soaks as that only adds to the stress of the situation. If the soaks were to work, they would have already. Continue the calcium, though.

Thanks for the reply. I've had a gentle poke around and there doesn't seem to be any remnants within reach. I think almost all of it came out in one go, still attached to the inner membrane. A couple of times my poking around has stimulated her to push out more egg white, but no shell.

She's perked up since this morning. Could stand up without falling over, was a lot less ruffled, and had a lot more fight in her while I was trying to feed her more calcium. She's also drinking on her own. I've left her in the carry case in the coop again, with a shallow bowl of water within reach. I'll check on her one last time before the sun goes down, and reheat her heat pad. No more baths, as you say it's probably done all it can do.

I don't have any castor oil. I'll add that to my first aid box.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[Chooks@368]

I’m a newbie. What is a crop and why don’t you want it full?

 

[andreanar]

I’m a newbie. What is a crop and why don’t you want it full?

The crop is where chickens "store" the food they eat. It is located on the front of their chest and often looks like a big bulge. You usually want the crop to feel full, but first thing in the morning it should be flat and empty because they haven't eaten yet. If it is full in the morning before they've eaten, that means the food hasn't digested and is indicative of a problem.

 

[andreanar]

Wondering if you should start her on antibiotics to ward off infection?

 

[ChickenObsession]

Please let us know how your chicken is doing I'm wondering how she broke her leg if she fell on her Roost

 

[Aerliss]

Wondering if you should start her on antibiotics to ward off infection?

If she's not made more improvement by the am I'll book her in for the vet. Hopefully my non-chicken vet will see her, because my chicken vet has no appointments I can make until Thursday.

Just checked in on her and she's out of the carrier and poking around in the coop. Still looking a bit sorry for herself, but tail is up and she's moving. She's passed some super gross poop. Cecal+ grade. But no more egg white, and it's not runny. Nice and firm, just very dark and smelly.

 

[Aerliss]

Please let us know how your chicken is doing I'm wondering how she broke her leg if she fell on her Roost

Not her leg. Her egg. I dunno. She's been laying thin shells recently, so probably this one was too thin to withstand the pressure of being layed. She lays huge eggs.

They've got oyster shells, 4% calc feed, and crushed egg shells to eat, but they do eat a LOT of vegetation in the garden and kick around in the compost heap, eating god knows what. And it's coincided with darker weather and shorter days. I've been adding a liquid calc and d3 to one of their waterers this week, but it can take time to make an improvement. Suppose I just wasn't quick enough to pick up on it.

 

[Aerliss]

Am update. She came out of the coop of her own accord. Not with as much gusto as usual, but she's pecking and drinking. Crop still has a little in it, but she'd pooped more overnight. Runny again, but at least it's coming out.

I did try to get a good dose of water in her, before I have to leave her for the day, but she fought so hard it was just more stress than anything else. I have seen her drink, so I'm happy to leave it at that for now. I've given them some very wet ff (they get a small daily portion), just to help get more water into her.

Fingers crossed we're over the hump.

Funny thing; she's a bit of a bully to the two below her, but obviously she's not bothered them over the weekend. Maybe I'll see a bit of a change, at least for a while.