Help! My hen is sick!

[Berryslippers]

HELP,!!! My beautiful ex-battery hen, Brittany isn't doing well. She is sitting around puffed up with eyes closed and seemed to be sitting in egg white but I couldn't find the shell. (I've been dealing with soft shelled eggs for weeks and giving her extra calcium, but she lays eggs at a rapid rate)

She is straining and some egg white like material came out of her vent. I soaked her in warm water and Epsom salt, gave her calcium and electrolytes and water by syringe and now she's in a warm, dark place by herself. What else can I do to help her???? I fear that she's egg bound and it may have broken inside her.

One hour later I manually extracted a paper like egg shell from her vent but she still looks terrible! What else can I do for her?

 

[ChickNanny13]

Sounds like she's having a Reproductive Problems. If at all possible take her to a Vet, I'm thinking she may need some antibiotics, that an egg did break in her. You can also do a search on reproductive problems, see what others have to say.

@casportpony @Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock @azygous
Thank you all in advance peeping in

 

[azygous]

It's not hard to diagnose this hen's problem. With the broken egg shell as strong evidence, she's had the misfortune of have an egg break inside her. This can set up an inflammation and that can start infection, which by the way she's fluffed up and lethargic, indicates it may have started already.

Has she ever laid two eggs in the same day? Recently? That creates a situation where the shell gland is limited to be able to lay down enough calcium for just one of the eggs and the other one will be thin-shelled or shell-less. It invites the shell-less or thin-shell egg to break inside.

I've had three hens this season with EYP. (Egg yolk peritonitis) Only one is still able to lay eggs after their ordeal, and one has relapsed with what appears to be a chronic infection. Once an egg breaks in a hen, it's not usually possible to have a good outcome.

As @ChickNanny13 mentioned, it would be a good idea to start her an an antibiotic. I usually use amoxicillin 250mg for ten days. And continue the calcium for a while.

 

[casportpony]

HELP,!!! My beautiful ex-battery hen, Brittany isn't doing well. She is sitting around puffed up with eyes closed and seemed to be sitting in egg white but I couldn't find the shell. (I've been dealing with soft shelled eggs for weeks and giving her extra calcium, but she lays eggs at a rapid rate)

She is straining and some egg white like material came out of her vent. I soaked her in warm water and Epsom salt, gave her calcium and electrolytes and water by syringe and now she's in a warm, dark place by herself. What else can I do to help her???? I fear that she's egg bound and it may have broken inside her.

One hour later I manually extracted a paper like egg shell from her vent but she still looks terrible! What else can I do for her?

Is there any chance you could get her to a vet? If not, I think the first thing to do would be to figure out if she has a stuck egg. Since she's been laying shell-less eggs this will be a little harder to verify, but go ahead and try.

To check, very carefully feel inside her vent for an egg or shell membrane. This picture below shows where a stuck egg would be, which is straight in and up. Down a little and to the left is the gizzard, so don't worry about that. It's been my experience that if they have a stuck membrane that it's usually just inside the vent on the hen's left side.

If she were mine I would assume some level of infection and would start Baytril at 0.045 ml per pound orally twice a day.
http://www.allbirdproducts.com/newproductpages/baytril.html
Baytril is banned for use in poultry, but it the best antibiotic for this type of infection. I would also start her on an anti-inflammatory. I recently read that ibuprofen can be given to chickens, but I have not used it in any of mine.

Other antibiotics that you could try are Cirpo, Clavamox, Augmentin, SMZ/TMP, Bactrim, Keflex, or maybe amoxicillin. If you have any of those let me know and I will tell you what the dose is.

Edited to fix typos

 

[ChickNanny13]

Thank you azygous & casportpony for peeping in

 

[casportpony]

This is an example of what you might find:

Saw one of my chicken hens making the "i'm egg bound" noise, so I checked her real quick and her vent was bulging out, like the start of a prolapse, so in the finger went and out came this smelly, blood tinged membrane.

Have seen this in peafowl and ducks, too. All that were treated made a full recovery and continued laying. Note that my peahens and ducks weren't making any noise, they just looked sick.

 

[Berryslippers]

This is an example of what you might find:
View attachment 1422010

Saw one of my chicken hens making the "i'm egg bound" noise, so I checked her real quick and her vent was bulging out, like the start of a prolapse, so in the finger went and out came this smelly, blood tinged membrane.

Have seen this in peafowl and ducks, too. All that were treated made a full recovery and continued laying. Note that my peahens and ducks weren't making any noise, they just looked sick.

Yes! That's exactly what I pulled out of her yesterday. This morning she was acting much better but this afternoon she was back to not feeling well. I checked her vent again but didn't find an egg or shell. There was a small hard thing but after reading above I wonder if that was her gizzard.

She is straining a lot and I'm worried that she will prolspse. I'm a vet tech and the vet I work for gave me Meloxicam for pain and inflammation and SMZ/TMP antibiotic. I gave both tonight as well as calcium, water and electrolytes. She is separated from the flock and is in a cage inside my house .

How long can it take them to bounce back from something like this? I feel bad because I let her go back with the flock this morning because she looked good and maybe I shouldn't have . Am I doing everything I can?

Thank you!

 

[ChickNanny13]

 

[Berryslippers]

Is there any chance you could get her to a vet? If not, I think the first thing to do would be to figure out if she has a stuck egg. Since she's been laying shell-less eggs this will be a little harder to verify, but go ahead and try.

To check, very carefully feel inside her vent for an egg or shell membrane. This picture below shows where a stuck egg would be, which is straight in and up. Down a little and to the left is the gizzard, so don't worry about that. It's been my experience that if they have a stuck membrane that it's usually just inside the vent on the hen's left side.

If she were mine I would assume some level of infection and would start Baytril at 0.045 ml per pound orally twice a day.
http://www.allbirdproducts.com/newproductpages/baytril.html
Baytril is banned for use in poultry, but it the best antibiotic for this type of infection. I would also start her on an anti-inflammatory. I recently read that ibuprofen can be given to chickens, but I have not used it in any of mine.

Other antibiotics that you could try are Cirpo, Clavamox, Augmentin, SMZ/TMP, Bactrim, Keflex, or maybe amoxicillin. If you have any of those let me know and I will tell you what the dose is.
View attachment 1421873

Edited to fix typos

Thanks so much .I started her on meloxicam for pain and inflammation as well as SMZ/TMP. I gave electrolytes and calcium again. She looked great this morning but bad again this afternoon. I was able to pull a soft shell out of her yesterday but didn't feel anything today except a small hard thing that now I wonder if it was her gizzard. How can you tell?

Thanks for your reply!

 

[Berryslippers]

Thanks so much .I started her on meloxicam for pain and inflammation as well as SMZ/TMP. I gave electrolytes and calcium again. She looked great this morning but bad again this afternoon. I was able to pull a soft shell out of her yesterday but didn't feel anything today except a small hard thing that now I wonder if it was her gizzard. How can you tell?

Thanks for your reply!

It's not hard to diagnose this hen's problem. With the broken egg shell as strong evidence, she's had the misfortune of have an egg break inside her. This can set up an inflammation and that can start infection, which by the way she's fluffed up and lethargic, indicates it may have started already.

Has she ever laid two eggs in the same day? Recently? That creates a situation where the shell gland is limited to be able to lay down enough calcium for just one of the eggs and the other one will be thin-shelled or shell-less. It invites the shell-less or thin-shell egg to break inside.

I've had three hens this season with EYP. (Egg yolk peritonitis) Only one is still able to lay eggs after their ordeal, and one has relapsed with what appears to be a chronic infection. Once an egg breaks in a hen, it's not usually possible to have a good outcome.

As @ChickNanny13 mentioned, it would be a good idea to start her an an antibiotic. I usually use amoxicillin 250mg for ten days. And continue the calcium for a while.

Started antibiotics and pain meds from vet today. Fingers crossed. Thank you