Louise is a 2 year old Gold Comet. She and Thelma ALWAYS lay their eggs in the same nest. Lately they have been sharing a nest in the corner of a horse stall with Fez, a duck. For the last 2 days (edit) I have found Thelma's egg (she lays the smaller egg) and Fez's egg but no Louise egg, just a lot of yolkey goo all over the place. I though something was stealing the eggs until just now when I hunted down the hens and Louise has what looks like egg white coming out of her vent. She looks perky enough at the moment, still foraging around with her duckie friends but I am very worried since she lays the most enormous eggs, about 25% larger than a store-bought jumbo egg. I have been warning my son that she would probably be egg bound in a couple of years. Is there anything to help her at this point? She is not wanting to be caught since they were all dusted for mites 4 nights ago
I guess I can grab her after dark but I don't want to go poking around her back end and make it worse. Any chance she will recover? This is really upsetting since they eat Layena free-choice and have oystershell available. You could play croquet with the duck eggs they are so strong with all the calcium. Any experiences would be helpful; I don't want her to suffer and if an infection is inevitable, i would rather give her a peaceful end.
Edited to add: I see that folks have had good luck with warm baths. She is a hen that I bought at 4 months as a started hen. She is not friendly to the point of enjoying being held and she will struggle like crazy if I try to put her in a bath. It would likely be the last time I every caught her (seriously). Is the bath important/useful enough to risk having her injure her innards with the shell as she tries to get away?

Edited to add: I see that folks have had good luck with warm baths. She is a hen that I bought at 4 months as a started hen. She is not friendly to the point of enjoying being held and she will struggle like crazy if I try to put her in a bath. It would likely be the last time I every caught her (seriously). Is the bath important/useful enough to risk having her injure her innards with the shell as she tries to get away?
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