Hen stopped laying 1 wk, with pale comb & panting!

[DecaturB]

Help appreciated!

My 6 mo FC maran stopped laying a week ago after about 5 weeks of almost daily laying. Her comb is also pale and flopped. I thought she may be egg bound and gave her an Epsom soak and massaged her belly but found no egg. Belly and vent seem normal. Her poop is wet and i don't think I saw any worms (I'm a newbie). She seemed better after the bath so I dried her and put her off to roost after some water and scrambled egg. I shrugged it off when I saw her sneak off to the nest this morning assuming she'd do her business.

No egg when I returned home. She was also roosting away from the other 4 girls (not abnormal for her) and panting. I've isolated her, gave her water and will have to get electrolytes in the morning. No one else seems sick .

Any other suggestions to make her comfortable? Are there good ways to diagnose worms vs other causes for this save a vet? A risk to deworming if it's not worms? I'm a bit unprepared and will have to start calling around for places that treat chickens near me.

 

[dawg53]

I'd repeat soaking and massaging her again in warm water as before if I were you. She wants to lay. Let's hope she's not egg impacted.

 

[rebrascora]

You might also give her a calcium supplement like a human calcium tablet with vitamin D or a Tums indigestion tablet at a push. Crushed and sprinkled on some scrambled egg usually gets it into them or quarter and place pieces of the tablet in the beak. Calcium will help with contractions, so may assist her to push it out as well as help with shell formation if she has a soft or shell less egg in her system. Those can be particularly difficult to pass.
You may also want to give her an internal exam when you soak her to feel for a stuck egg. Gently inserting your finger into her vent an inch or two with some lubricant can sometimes help to ease the pressure and either allow some poop to pass....build up of waste in the system that can't get past the egg is usually what makes egg binding fatal, so whilst it is gross when you have your hands in there, just helping her to pass some poop will be beneficial..... or the egg to come out.

Diet can be an issue with egg binding, so worth reassessing their diet in case you are giving them to many treats like corn or scratch. These can dilute the nutrients in their feed and mean a soft shelled egg is more likely but also cause fat deposits around the vent which make the opening smaller and it harder to lay an egg. These things can happen for other reasons, so don't worry if you are feeding them a balanced diet, it is just something to consider.