Hen had difficulty passing her egg this morning. Looked egg bound. Worried for tomorrow

[ImAussie]

Australian Langshen, as best we know she's about 2 years old. She's not over/under weight.

She usually takes about 1-2 minutes to push out an egg (have observed this on numerous occasions). Today she was pushing and pushing for what must've been 10 mins, I could see the egg at the opening. She had some clearish/whitish discharge. She then started pacing the nest area waddling around, pushing every few steps, the entire time about a 10c piece size of egg was visible (that's maybe 2/3-3/4 of an inch?). She ended up jumping down and continued this behaviour for several more minutes. Just as I was getting her into a crate to take her inside to try a water bath or something she managed to lay the egg. She then carried on, life as usual as if nothing happened. It was a normal size egg.

This is the first time I've seen this with her. Her eggs have been slightly larger than they used to be, but not that much bigger and that's been for several weeks now and have witnessed standard laying behaviour from her with these slightly larger eggs.

There does not appear to be any injury to her vent area, since passing the egg it all seems normal.

She is on a quality layer pellet as well as calcium shell grit (from our produce store) in a seperate dish.
I just wormed the flock about a week ago if that may have contributed?

I'm just concerned that this may happen again now. Is this likely to reoccur, or seeing as she passed it, is it likely a one-off?

 

[coach723]

It's really hard to say, when it's only happened once. I would just keep an eye on her, see how it goes.

 

[Jgarza77]

Australian Langshen, as best we know she's about 2 years old. She's not over/under weight.

She usually takes about 1-2 minutes to push out an egg (have observed this on numerous occasions). Today she was pushing and pushing for what must've been 10 mins, I could see the egg at the opening. She had some clearish/whitish discharge. She then started pacing the nest area waddling around, pushing every few steps, the entire time about a 10c piece size of egg was visible (that's maybe 2/3-3/4 of an inch?). She ended up jumping down and continued this behaviour for several more minutes. Just as I was getting her into a crate to take her inside to try a water bath or something she managed to lay the egg. She then carried on, life as usual as if nothing happened. It was a normal size egg.

This is the first time I've seen this with her. Her eggs have been slightly larger than they used to be, but not that much bigger and that's been for several weeks now and have witnessed standard laying behaviour from her with these slightly larger eggs.

There does not appear to be any injury to her vent area, since passing the egg it all seems normal.

She is on a quality layer pellet as well as calcium shell grit (from our produce store) in a seperate dish.
I just wormed the flock about a week ago if that may have contributed?

I'm just concerned that this may happen again now. Is this likely to reoccur, or seeing as she passed it, is it likely a one-off?

Hi there, just wondering if your hen ever had this problem again and how is she now? I have a 1 year old bantam brahma who I have inside right now with the exact same problem, only this is the 2nd time it's happened. She will pace around a bit and then strain to push out the egg. I can also see the tip of the egg. The first time it happened she took about 15 minutes to lay. Hope everything is ok

 

[ImAussie]

She didn't have that problem again, until over 4 months later. She stopped laying over winter, then not long after she started up again she got completely bound. I brought her inside, gave her a few warm water soaks, gave her calcium mixed into her layer pellets I'd soaked in water to mash them up a bit. The next morning she did end up laying a MONSTER of an egg. 2 days later she wouldn't come down from the sleep area, so I caught her and she had some maggots on her under her vent. I immediately gave her a warm bath to flush off what I could, then plucked any more off that I could see. Repeated later and found just a couple more. There was a very shallow wound, possibly from having caused a bit of damage during the egg bound/laying of giant egg situation. Luckily I must've found it very quickly, as after several days inside the house all looked good, and I put her back out, and a month or so later there's been no further issue and she's now regularly laying again. But after the egg bound issue, she then didn't lay for 2 or more weeks. The next couple eggs she did lay were blood streaked, but the rest have now been normal.

I hope your hen is alright. Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I only occasionally pop on in here.

 

[ImAussie]

This is her monster egg compared to her usual egg (laid the day before she was bound with that).

 

[Jgarza77]

View attachment 2867515

This is her monster egg compared to her usual egg (laid the day before she was bound with that).

Wow! That is a monster sized egg! I'm sorry about the trouble she had, but glad to hear she's doing better. Mine had trouble passing her egg again about a week ago, but has since laid a couple more without issue. I'm hoping this doesn't become a regular occurrence. Thanks for your reply!

 

[ImAussie]

Wow! That is a monster sized egg! I'm sorry about the trouble she had, but glad to hear she's doing better. Mine had trouble passing her egg again about a week ago, but has since laid a couple more without issue. I'm hoping this doesn't become a regular occurrence. Thanks for your reply!

Thank you. Fingers crossed for both of us it’s the end of the issues!