HELP!!!! Pullet eggbound???

[animal nut]

I think my 18 week old comet pullet is egg bound. What are the signs? This is what she is doing only drinking if forced, laying on her stomach, tail feathers bent down and moving up and down, panting. Stands for only a few seconds. No diahria at this point although she has not had a bowel movement for at least 12 hours. I really do not want to lose her but do not know what to do or what is wrong with her. She was fine earlier in the day but when I check on them around 6:00 p.m. last night this is what she was doing.

 

[freerange freaks]

It sound like egg bound although I've never had to deal with this. You could run a search on this topic as I know there is a lot of good information on archived posts.

I think I would put her in a warm bath to see if this would get things moving. And keep forcing those fluids on her.

 

[charpcharp]

animal nut - I just recently had an eggbound girl. Please see my initial message at following link

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=125317

I hope this helps.

Run down of first things to do that I promised myself I would do straight away if it ever happened again:

1. bring inside to warm environment with access to water and tasty food with extra calcium (ie scrambled egg with little extra milk and ground baked eggshells mixed in to help strengthen egg)

2. give warm bath to try and relax her muscles (we had to put gentle pressure on our Betty till she lowered herself into water by herself - we held her the whole time in case she slipped!)

3. dry as well as possible - wrap in warm towels and hold her on your lap while massaging around abdomen (aiming to move egg inside to her vent!) - use oil like olive oil or vaseline to lubricate vent and some up in the vent is also advised somewhere!

repeat above maybe four times or so in the day if you think it's not stressing the bird too much.

Hope this helps!!! Keep us posted! Good luck!

 

[charpcharp]

PS. if it so happens that the egg breaks, just try your best to clear her insides of any remaining shell debris or egg debris. If you can, get a syringe and wash her out with water till it runs clear.

During the week that Betty was unwell, I discovered that this can really go 50/50 and peoples' opinions on it vary so much it can be hard to know who to listen to.

Betty was taken in on the Friday, her egg broke on the Sunday, the eggshell was removed on the Monday and we kept her in till the Sunday before we let her go out again with the other girls. I'm positive every bird will vary though.

Do your best, that's all we can do

 

[farmgirlie1031]

I gave mine a warm bath, massaged her belly, and put her in a dark room for a few days to supress egg laying. I also fed her some bread soaked with olive oil. She passed the egg and quite laying for a few days so she could heal up and then she was back to normal again.

 

[animal nut]

Thank you for all your information. She is inside with us so we will try the suggestions that you have made. I do have one hen laying xlarge eggs maybe she is the one.......Thank you again