I noticed my lovely black shoulder peahen "Princess" acting lethargic two days ago. Yesterday she moped around all day and this morning she was looking pretty bad. She had all the symptoms of being eggbound - wings drooping, laying around, slow to move when I approached her. I decided I could not just stand by and wait any longer so I searched for threads discussing interventions I might be able to do myself. Following the advice of several members, I put on my vinyl gloves, put some olive oil in a vial, got my bird net and something to sit on in her pen and took action. She was easy to catch and did not fight much when I flipped her onto her back on my lap. Her bottom had some slime around the vent feathers. Upon closer inspection I could see that something was protruding from her vent so I pulled on it a bit and a collapsed soft egg emerged. I put some oil on her vent and my glove and gently felt around inside her to see if there was more shell or even another egg. Nothing. That was 10 am, and now at 8 pm she is moving around more and is obviously feeling better. I am certain she would have slowly continued to fail and I would have found her dead in the next several days if I had not removed the egg.
Thank you! It is so wonderful to have a resource such as this. Plus, I feel so smart. Now I am going to get some calcium to supplement her diet and hopefully avoid this happening again or to any of my other hens.
Thank you! It is so wonderful to have a resource such as this. Plus, I feel so smart. Now I am going to get some calcium to supplement her diet and hopefully avoid this happening again or to any of my other hens.
