Hen is constipated and/or impacted. Please help!

[Qtpiekim179]

I have a hen that is 2 years old and she is a bantam silkie. I've never had any problems with her being sick but when we went up to the coop the other night to close the door around 8:30 (it was still light but getting dark) we found her in the garden laying on her side. We brought her in the house and gave her layer crumbles and water. She's doing a little better but she still just lays in the cage (although not on her side. She lays upright and looks around. And she DOES eat) her breast bone is REEEEEALLY bony like its sticking out an inch and is like a rail (I'm not exaggerating) and her pubic bone is as big as a baseball! Its VERY hard and it looks, and FEELS like a baseball. So I thought she might be impacted and constipated. She poops and it looks healthy with the white cap on it and everything and its not runny or anything, but its *very* small. What should I do?

I gave her a bath yesterday and she has perked up a little but still just sits in the cage and looks around.

Please don't say anything about culling her. I don't believe in killing chickens unless they're going to die anyways and they're in pain. She doesn't act like she's in pain at all.

Could she be eggbound???

 

[mljohnson05]

She may every well be egg bound.
Is her vent protruding at all?
alot of times sokaing them in really warm water can help. But it helps to stroke her belly toward her vent WHILE giving her the warm water bath.
keep her in a fairly dark place, to keep any more eggs from forming, having her inside is perfect, just keep her dark too.
you can put some oil on a q-tip and run it inside the vent a bit and on the outside of the vent too.
You want to prevent the egg from breaking at all measures.

 

[Qtpiekim179]

Her vent is not really protruding that I've noticed but she is kind of hunched over and her tail is moving up and down slowly. I'm almost positive she's eggbound now. I'll give her another bath thats extra warm but not too warm. I've also heard that moist heat is good for it. I've hear that you can put her in a wire cage with a wire bottom and put a metal pan with boiling water in it under the wire cage, and then put a blanket or piece of tarp over the cage but make sure it doesn't get too hot and make sure she has enough air. Is this good? I'm going to try the warm bath first and if that doesn't work I'm going to dry the steaming thing unless someone advises me not to. Around her vent it is VERY dirty with droppings but her poop isn't runny or anything.

After the bath I'll put her in a dark place. She's been like this for 3 days I don't think she has much time left so I'll take all the advice I can get

Kim

 

[mljohnson05]

Put her is a dim place after her warm bath. Try the oil or warmed vasaline around the vent and inside a little bit...WHen giving her the bath, rub her belly in from under neck to the vent...and keep doing it gently
you can also use a heating pad with with a blanket on top to help keep her bottom warm....you are able to control the temp a little better that way

--laura--

 

[Qtpiekim179]

I have given her 2 warm baths today and rubbed her belly while I was doing it. I put olive oil all around her vent and inside a little too, and I massaged the olive oil around her abdomen where the bulge is. She's been in our living room all day where all the lights are usually off because everyone is outside during the day. Her vent is now protruding. I'm definitely sure she's eggbound. She tries so very hard to lay the egg I feel so sorry for her to be in so much pain

I had called the bird vet and she said that she needed a calcium injection but when I asked how much it was she said that it was 150 dollars and we definitely cant afford that.

So she said to get a calcium supplement for her asap. I've read on google to give her crushed up tums and that may help because those have lots of calcium in them, so I crushed up some of that and sprinkled it over her food. Is this good?

She's very drowsy and acts sick and just sits in her cage with her head in her wing and when she's not doing that she's hunched over and straining trying to lay the egg

Also, I have some liquid vitamin b12, should I give this to her? Will it help?

Thanks for any advice at all,

Kim

 

[mljohnson05]

do you have human calcium tabs that you can crush and give to her....I just don't really like the idea of tums???
she needs to be in a dark room, and try putting a heat pad with a blanket on top of it , and set her on it.
then let her try to get it out. poor little girl, i know she must not feel good

even check your local farming store, they also sometimes carry calcium that you can inject yourself...other wise i would get a human calcium tab and crush a part of it and feed it to her.

Best Wishes,

--laura--

 

[Qtpiekim179]

Tums are calcium, thats why we gave it to her. I had called a couple different feed stores, they didn't have any.

You could feel the egg inside of her abdomen. She was like that since Saturday. So we took her to the vet and the vet said that it could've been a lot of things, but she had guessed it was just too big to pass because she is a bantam (which is a miniature chicken) and we have some really huge roosters. She said the egg felt like it was in between the size of a goose egg and an ostrich egg. So she said that she could go in from the vent and suck out the insides of the egg, and then the egg would collapse and they would suck out the shell (but if any shell was left in there she would get infection, but she was gonna die anyways if we didn't get it out of there so we had no other choice). So she tried to do that and she came out and told us that when they stuck the thing in to suck out the yolk, they couldn't find the egg because it was wrapped in some tissue or something, so they had to stick a needle through her abdomen and try to suck it out. She said that when she started to do that her heart just gave away. I'm really sad because that was one of my favorite chickens, she was the 2nd one that I ever hatched. We have over 40 chickens and they all have names and they're our pets. People always think that chickens are replaceable and you can just go to the feed store and buy another one for 2 bucks, but they don't understand.

Kim

 

[mljohnson05]

Awwww Kim I am so sorry to hear that she did not make it

I am with you when it comes to my chickens...to me they are not replaceable.
I guess the only thing to do to prevent this from happening to another bantam is to keep them separated from the large roosters.
I have all bantams and i love them all .

Laura