Egg broke inside chiken

[Bluepheonix13255]

Sounds like your bird may have ascites aka water belly. This is a symptom of something wrong with the reproductive tract or liver(?), often cancer. Birds with ascites don't recover, but will eventually succumb to whatever underlying condition caused the ascites. You can give antibiotics and see if things will clear up. You can remove fluid from her belly (there's threads and Articles on this site on how to do that). But if it is indeed ascites as a symptom of reproductive issues, odds are very high that she will not improve long term. If this were my bird, I would try to treat her and see if she gets better, if so, I might expect a few more months with her, but either now (if she doesn't respond to treatment) or in a few months (when her belly fills with water again), I would put her down. Basically, with ascites, you know the end is coming, and you have time to say goodbye.

In the short term, you can offer cooked egg yolk or cooked scrambled eggs, or yogurt to try to stimulate her appetite. Also moistened commercial feed (applesauce consistency) can tempt them to eat.

I'm so sorry you and your hen are going through this.

I was sort of worried about underlying conditions. Honestly it's sort of a relief that I'll at least know. Bad as it is, at least she won't have to suffer because of my ignorance. Thank you for letting me know.

 

[Eggcessive]

It does sound like she is having a reproductive problem, and possibly has ascites or water belly which is related. I would agree that just the outside of her vent needs to be cleaned up, so that flies don’t lay maggot larvae around her vent. Flystrike is deadly. Calcium may help if she has eggs in production, to help pass them. You can try to make her comfortable, offer wet chicken feed and some watery scrambled egg, but she may not live a very long life. Is her crop empty, full, puffy or firm? The crop may not function well if her lower belly is swollen. If others pick on her, she needs to be kept separate, such as in a dog crate with food and water.

 

[TillyPeeps]

How do I actually clean inside her vent? I really don't wanna just wing it. The other advice is straight forward, but I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to go about that.

Have warmer soapy water in a 5 gallon bucket, and get her cleaned as much as you can. You can use a towel to wrap her head and wings to help her calm down. Rinse her off, and refill the bucket with Epsom salt water. Soak her in the water for about 20~30 minutes. In the same time, wear a rubber glove and stick your finger into her vent to clean inside. Remove any egg shells you found. Be very careful to not cut her with broken egg shells. Blow her dry with a hair dryer at low setting afterwards.

 

[Sammster]

I'm sorry for you and your girl

 

[FunClucks]

I bring my chickens inside and bathe them in my tub in the bathroom. That way I can control the water temp better and rinse as much as I like. The ones I've bathed so far tolerated it surprisingly well. A moderately stiff bristle brush for feet and legs is helpful.

I use non-flea killing pet shampoo or baby shampoo to wash the poop out of the feathers. Could probably also use some mild dish soap to cut the grease in order to get the dirt out. I haven't washed much around their heads/eyes, and try to do as quickly as possible to reduce stress.

hair dryers are great to dry off, make sure you lift up the outer feathers to dry the undercoat/underfeathers. I oscillate the hair dryer so as not to burn or overheat their skin and take frequent breaks from drying.