Eggbound Chicken still alive

[barefootpaula]

I searched for eggs and found nothing, searched a day or two later and found blockage but didn't feel like an egg. I did a warm sit bath and isolation to find broken egg membranes and poop. Gave her Castor Oil which produced another egg membrane. Took her out of observation because she had become distressed being isolated and she acts fine. Gut feels like a water balloon. The other hens have slowed laying due to heat so I imagine she has too but she'll resume I'm sure. Called my vet and he doesn't "do" chickens. I expected she'd just die and I'll autopsy her to see what happened. She's still happy. She won't coop with the other hens though so I let her be where ever she wants which leaves her in danger of fox hit since I close coop door at night. She's sleeping with the goats now. I'll check her internally again tomorrow but wouldn't want to operate on a critter that's not sleeping. I'm really impressed with all the responses this time! You all care!

 

[ruth]

I too had a hen that filled up like a water balloon. I have a thread on here about it. She kept getting larger over the course of about a month but was laying eggs until the last week or so when I finally knew I had to try something. She was so swollen she could no longer walk - she was just a huge ball - and her skin was splitting open for being so swollen. I could tell it was a water balloon feeling so knowing I had nothing to lose because I was going to put her down - I first sat her in a warm Epsom bath soak, gloved up, and probed her vent. I had to reach way up but it was easy with her being in the water and she didn't seem to mind. I did find an egg and had to break it to get it out. Again, much easier with her soaking in water. It continued leaking out of her for a day so next day I repeated the procedure and got the rest of the shell out that I couldn't find the day before.

Next issue was the fact that she was so swollen with water. I used a hyperdermic needle/syringe and literally drained her. I inserted the needle in the watery balloon area to the left and right of her vent where I could push in and feel there was nothing but fluid there. Unfortunately the only syringe I had was very small so I had to stick her repeatedly but I draw out over a cup of water. Water continued leaking out of her for an hour or so from some of the holes her skin was so stretched. I placed her on folded towels and she soaked through three - I mean soaked. I could pick up the first one and wring it out. I gave her Penicillin shots for a week. The water swelling went down the next day and by two days later she was acting and looking like her old self. Today, three weeks later she is doing great and I can't tell which one she is. I think she is laying again but can't swear to it. I have seen her in the nest and I'm getting large brown eggs again.

Take a look at my thread or PM me if you need more info. If I had it to do over again I would get the smallest needle I could (which I did) but I would get the largest syringe so that you can draw out more water without having to restick. They sell the needles/syringes for pennies at the feed store.

Hope this helps - at this point, like I, you have nothing to lose by trying.

 

[ruth]

Here's the link to my thread that has more info.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=66650&p=1

I've been checking her every day and so far she is not refilling with water. It did take a few days for all that extra skin to refit to her body. For a while it just all hung down.

 

[Jenski]

Holy smokes, ruth! That story is as scary as reading Gail Damerow's Chicken Handbook for the first time. Draining a chicken! Never have I heard of such a thing!! Sounds like it worked, though. Good call.

These birds just get so many different freaky conditions . . . *sigh*

barefootpaula, please keep us posted on how this develops. It is a great help to see it before it happens in our yards! Hope it all works out.


Jen in TN

 

[barefootpaula]

I will surely keep you all posted. I'm thinking that she's probably full of solidified yolk so she's beyond my efforts to relieve her. Besides not finding a vet that would help with a hen, my finances won't allow that expense. Since I think she's occassionally passing a membrane here and there and I don't feel an egg blockage, I might try to draw out fluid but will end up having to put her down to not let her suffer. I'd be sick with myself if I continue to let her expand to a point of splitting open. I'm encouraged to know that Ruth has been successful in drawing out fluid so I want to give that a try if I can get a syringe (our local feed stores will not sell them).

 

[ruth]

Hi Paula - I'm amazed and appauled that the feed store won't sell you syringes. How are you supposed to give your pets and livestock their shots? Maybe if you were buying some meds they would give you the needle to go with it. Wouldn't make sense they will sell you rabies vaccines and penicillin and not sell you a needle.

What about your vet? My vet will also give me needles or sell them to me if I need a bunch.

O.K. now I sound like a junkie - maybe that's what the feed store has had a problem with. I've always known the people in the feed stores because I'm in there daily so maybe they are being cautious with someone they don't know. Ask to talk to the manager - explain the reason.

Again, I think she can be drained of the fluid buildup if she feels like a water balloon. Since she has been laying membranes and bits and pieces of eggs it may not be an eggbound issue. Meat birds are prone to get Ascites, fluid build-up, and other hens get it as well. Sometimes the reason is known, sometimes not.

I don't blame you on the surgery choice - I too wouldn't pay for a hysterectomy surgery for a chicken no matter how special they were to me. There are just too many children dying of starvation every moment to spend several hundred dollars on a chicken. I would let her pass and make a charitable contribution in her name if I had the extra money a vet surgery would have cost.

 

[barefootpaula]

I also have 2 pygmy goats that share space with the chickens. After having them 2 years I found out the goats require shots which can be purchased at the feed store. The lady I bought the goats from told me what to do and how to do it. Two weeks ago I followed her instruction and went to the feed store and asked for vaccines. They have the vaccines in a refridgerator behind the cash register counter which they would sell me but won't sell the syringe needed to give it to them. Breeder lady told me she uses her own stash of diabetes needles. My goats haven't been vaccined yet

 

[GopherBoyFarms]

just go to a walgreens pharmacy and buy the syringes.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Quote:
That's crazy!! Our closest feed store has the syringes out on the shelves, but the needles are in a drawer behind the counter--You have to ask for them as you're checking out. The other local feed store just has everything out on the shelves.

BTW--Rather than doing multiple needle-sticks, if you're careful and the animal isn't too wriggly, you could possibly do one poke and then leave the needle in the animal while you pull the syringe off and squirt the contents out. Then (while the syringe is still disconnected) draw back the plunger just a tiny bit back (which will make starting to pull again more smooth & easy) and then carefully reattach syringe to the needle and draw out another syringe-full.
People often do the reverse to avoid having to do multiple pricks to put multiple doses of something into an animal.

 

[barefootpaula]

I'll stop at WalGreens tomorrow and see if they have them. I'm wondering if Delaware has some sort of rule about selling needles and such without an Rx. I know under 21 you can't even buy over the counter cough syrups of certain kinds so I've heard. Thanks.