Help! My chicken has been breathing weirdly and I dont know why!

[Oceanna Blaney]

Hello, I have a 3 year old red sexlink Chicken and I noticed that she's been breathing weirdly for the past 4 days. she also seems to have been trying to push something out. at first I thought she was egg bound but feeling around her abdomen there doesn't seem to be an egg and looking on google apparently hens cannot last being egg bound for that long. I don' know what's wrong with her everything I find has a bunch of different symptoms but she only has one. Help I don't know what to do!

 

[Eggcessive]

Sexlinks are great layers but can suffer from many different reproductive disorders, cancer, ascites, and others. Is her lower abdomen enlarged or full? Is her crop emptying overnight? What do her droppings look like? Has she laid normal eggs recently? You may check her for being egg bound or obstructed by inserting a clean finger into her vent 1-2 inches. Constipation or lash egg material could be other problems to look for.

 

[Oceanna Blaney]

I looked at her butt and its not it good shape it is bleeding and red and it looks like the poo is coming out from a slit in the side of her butt hole I rinsed her in cold water.
I compared her butt to my other hens and it looks completely different do you know how this could've happened? (Also she hasn't been laying eggs and I noticed the poo that came out was really small.)

 

[Eggcessive]

Could you post some pictures of her vent? It sounds if she has been pecked or injured by others. Is she missing feathers? Prolapsed vents can also be common, but a picture might help to know what.

 

[Oceanna Blaney]

I figured out whats wrong. I found a diagram basically explaining whats happening to her she has an egg stuck in her vent blocking the poo so the poo is going around the egg and coming out at the side. So she is egg bound and yesterday I gave her her first epsom salt bath and will be getting some alfalfa hay for her for calcium when I can.

 

[Oceanna Blaney]

Hi, I am back she's been doing a bit better she had vent gleet and its gone now but she is egg bound and it seems that her infection might've spread to her stomach because last week she had sour crop but she got rid of it herself. This morning she got it again she's the only one that has been getting it and i'm not sure why, she also seems to be losing feathers mostly around the vent area.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

@Eggcessive can you offer more advice with the current update?

 

[Eggcessive]

Did she ever lay the egg before when you thought that she was egg bound? Has she been laying recently? Have you been able to get any pictures? It would be helpful to see what you are seeing. Does she eat layer feed? Extra calcium can be available with crushed oyster shell, and you can also give a human calcium tablet with vitamin D today.

Do you think she was originally pecked around her vent causing an injury?

 

[Oceanna Blaney]

No, She hasn't passed any eggs ever since she was first egg bound. Her vent is looking way better than it was before. we have been giving her mixed feed and she has been pecked around her vent area it was really bad but now it is healed up. here is a picture of her, we have a shed in the backyard that she went into and she was falling asleep in it

here's another picture of her falling asleep this morning.