eggbound/low calcium hen- almost dead with a happy ending :)

[Jen2848]

I'm going through the exact same thing with one of my hens Little Red Maisie.
She is on day three of her calcium/antibiotics/hand feeding regime. She is still so sleepy. We have a recheck appointment at the vet tomorrow night to see how she is doing. I hope she makes it. She's such a sweet snugly little girl. The vet said that if she pulls through we can give her some sort of injection to stop her from laying. We would be retiring her as a laying hen and she would become a bug eating hen. We got her as a spent hen from an egg factory so we knew she wouldn't have a long laying career but she is still an excellent mosquito catcher. She jumps in the air for them.

This update is much later but Little Red never bounced back. She was anemic and wasn't getting better with her treatments. We decided to have her euthanized. It was a hard decision. The vet said she had spent hen syndrome which is commonly seen in factory hens. We are still going to get some more ex battery hens this April, I'll just make sure to be extra vigilant about keeping free choice oyster shells and making sure I slowly decrease their lighting schedule since the egg farm keeps the girls on artificial lights to keep them laying. The sudden shift from long days of artificial light to natural spring light can affect them negatively. I read that I'll need to decrease their lighting 15 minutes a week until they are synced up with the natural sun rise/sun set schedule. I hope this helps someone! Try adding a couple of retired battery hens to your flock, they are sweet natured wonderful girls!