Hey all! I've made a few posts here before and have lurked for years. I'm posting today to ask for advice about a potentially eggbound Cornish Cross hen named Red. Before I go into detail, she lives here on an animal sanctuary, so she isn't raised for meat and QOL is the main focus. Also at the time of this post she's 2 years old, and I understand that this is actually quite old for the breed.
Yesterday around 9:00 AM, me and my brother noticed one of our 7 Cornish X hens walking around and pushing like she was eggbound. She also had a very swollen vent and was even bleeding a bit. Strangely enough she also pooped a few times when she was bound? It was rather liquidy though, and after reading that it's possible for them to poo while eggbound we figured it was normal.
We took action immediately, by giving her an Epsom Salt bath for 20 minutes, feeling in the vent for an egg (which my brother did feel one). We gave her a heat lamp, a dark cage, water with electrolytes, and a few eggshells (for calcium) and by around 5:00 PM she finally passed a large egg.
We were relieved and let her back with her sisters, we saw her poo a few times, nothing looked too abnormal. She ate dinner with her sisters, drank water, and went to bed. We saw her struggle to poop a few times that night, but we figure that her muscles were very weak.
But this morning, when we let her out, we saw her showing the same symptoms again! We're going to give her another bath now, but we're very confused! I'd love to hear any and all advice or suggestions of what in the world could be the issue. Thanks in advance!
Yesterday around 9:00 AM, me and my brother noticed one of our 7 Cornish X hens walking around and pushing like she was eggbound. She also had a very swollen vent and was even bleeding a bit. Strangely enough she also pooped a few times when she was bound? It was rather liquidy though, and after reading that it's possible for them to poo while eggbound we figured it was normal.
We took action immediately, by giving her an Epsom Salt bath for 20 minutes, feeling in the vent for an egg (which my brother did feel one). We gave her a heat lamp, a dark cage, water with electrolytes, and a few eggshells (for calcium) and by around 5:00 PM she finally passed a large egg.
We were relieved and let her back with her sisters, we saw her poo a few times, nothing looked too abnormal. She ate dinner with her sisters, drank water, and went to bed. We saw her struggle to poop a few times that night, but we figure that her muscles were very weak.
But this morning, when we let her out, we saw her showing the same symptoms again! We're going to give her another bath now, but we're very confused! I'd love to hear any and all advice or suggestions of what in the world could be the issue. Thanks in advance!
