Eggbound Barred Rock

[mo2872]

Age: 20 weeks, 1 day
Eggs Layed: 1 (we suspect her, anyway)
Symptoms: Lethargic, distended abdomen, watery/clear poop, seeks solitude, no interest in eating.


What we've tried: We've done the vent probing, and my wife feels an egg about 2.25" in. She probed around the egg with a lubed finger, hoping that will loosen things up today while we're at work. We also tried the abdominal massaging. We'll try the warm water bath this evening when we get home, provided she hasn't passed the egg, or away during the day.


Of a flock of 14, all 20 weeks, we've only gotten one egg so far(on 7/3), and with this birds issues, we suspect it was her that layed the first. Is there anything else we should be trying to help her out?



Oh, the first egg seemed to have a lot of what I THINK is the "bloom".......dark yellowish pasty stuff on the shell?? Or is that something else that could be causing the eggbind?



Thanks!

(yes, we're newbies)

First egg:

 

[aart]

That 'bloom' could be a broken yolk from inside...sure looks like the right color.

The other symptoms don't sound so good.

What are you feeding?
Oyster shell on the side?
Calcium content in feed?

Calcium helps with contractions that move the eggs along.

Yes, try the warm water soak....then do some searching on other options.
I am not well versed in this problem..but will ask to have this thread moved to the emergencies forum where more help might be found more quickly.

 

[mo2872]

Thanks.

Feed is a starter/grower ration still. No oyster shell on the side yet, as I'd seen info to wait until they were all laying? Or maybe that was to wait to switch to layer ration........

Fingers crossed she's pushed it out by the time we get home this evening.

 

[aart]

Thanks.

Feed is a starter/grower ration still. No oyster shell on the side yet, as I'd seen info to wait until they were all laying? Or maybe that was to wait to switch to layer ration........

Fingers crossed she's pushed it out by the time we get home this evening.

Yeah, I'd put out some oyster shell right away.


My 'Feeding Blurb':

I like to feed a 'flock raiser' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

 

[mo2872]

Great, will get some oyster shell right away, thanks for the info, aart!


Update on the bird: Got home, and she was out with the others, but not acting 100%. So, we brought her in to the kitchen for a warm bath/massage. We let her soak for a good while, massaging her belly the whole time. After she settled down, she really seemed to be enjoying herself. Also gave her some crushed tums/maalox mixed with water from a dropper(read that one somewhere as well), for the calcium in it. She seemed to start perking up quite a bit, so we offered her some of our leftover corn from our dinner.......tore it up. Definitely felt better in our opinion, but had not expelled the egg in the water as we were hoping.

Took her out, and toweled her off as well as we could, then used a blow dryer from a distance to try and finish it off. She wanted nothing to do with that! So, I bundled her up in another dry towel, and sat in my big chair watching the tube with her in my lap. LMAO. She was living it up. Once she started getting restless, I took her back out to the coop, and as SOON as I let her out of the towel.........SPPPPPPPPPLAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT!!!! HUGE expulsion of poo/clearish liquid, and down the ramp she went for pecking/scratching time. Still not 100% as "normal" as the others, but, I think we may be on the road that way.

She seemed to be acting more normal this morning when we let them out, as well.

 

[aart]

Huh!
Good move(haha) on the maalox and corn.
But I'd check the dosage on the maalox and keep her on easy feed(chicken chow).

Huge poop, but no egg?
Hopefully everything starts moving as it should from here on out.

But if you're sure you felt an egg in there, better keep a close eye on here and maybe probe again.
Could be she was constipated and that was blocking the egg passage....or the stuck egg was blocking the feces passage.

You should look at some chicken anatomy diagrams...I have a great PDF, but not a link to it.
I'll try to attach it here, but not sure I can...never tried it before.....OK, well, that seems to have worked.
I'll warn you, it's very graphic with both illustrations and photos of actual dissection.

 

[mo2872]

Interesting..........very interesting. Now I know what a "capon" is........LOL.

As far as the egg......I'm going by what my wife said, I didn't probe myself.

We'll keep an eye on her, for sure.