We really need more information. can you have your co-worker email me? I can post the conversation on here.
Stuff we need is in the second sticky post of this section. We need those questions answered.
I'd especially ask these things:
Is the bird on laying feed and has she been for about 2 weeks? If not, she should be, please. Preferably 20% as she's young.
Does she have access to oyster shell? If not, she should be.
Has she ever laid an egg?
Can he give an injection if necessary?
I suspect given her age that she's come into laying and is having a difficult time of the first one, or possibly has vent gleet or a bacterial infection.
At the least he needs to make sure she's on nearly straight laying pellets - not a lot of grain, less than 10% of her diet in grain in fact.
That she has free choice access to oyster shell (not egg shells, please) for calcium. If she hasn't been, I'd crush a 1/2 tums tablet and give this to her once today in a quickly eaten mash of her crumbles, water, yogurt, and the tums.
Give her yogurt daily for a week and then taper off for another week.
All of the birds can and should receive the above (minus the tums) if they're her age and pullets. If she's having an issue, they all might be.
He needs to feel her delicately about the vent/abdomen area for an egg. He could also lubricate his finger with olive or vegetable oil (gloved) and insert it gently into the upper part of her vent - against its upper wall. Have someone hold her gently while doing this. Use his other hand to feel her abdoment and see if there's an egg, or the debris of an egg, there.
I suspect what's going on is she's about to lay and might have had one tha tdidn't come out. If there is residue or an egg breaks in the bird, then you must remove all you can gently, and then flush the vent with either cool clean water, or cool water with a little bit of a very mild antiseptic like nolvasan. The egg bits and yolk must be flushed out to prevent infection.
If there's a very large egg that won't come out if she's placed in a warm water bath (and dried after to prevent chilling), then you can pierce the egg's end, crush it, and remove every bit of it but you MUST flush with the cool water and antiseptic like nolvasan. This is only in the case of extremely large eggs that aren't being passed in a day's time. It can be harmful so if you skip the flush, you might kill the bird.
If the egg is smaller and won't pass, you can gently just guide it out by putting some olive oil at the vent, using the finger to lube the egg, and using the finger and gentle abdomen pressure guiding the egg out. Flushing a little with cool water will help any inflammation if the egg comes out intact.
In the mean time, I think making sure her calcium in her diet is optimum is the most important thing.
If she gets at all lethargic, shots with penicillin might be necessary if she has gotten an infection from something remaining up in her system.
I would really like to know the answers to the questions above so that I can adjust my advice, if you don't mind - if it's possible?
Thank you for trying to help your friend.
