Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Lacy Blues]

I crush up all their egg shells and put them where they can get them (my compost pile, AKA the chickens' candy store). I've been crushing up the egg with its shell for her with the yogurt (and 1/4 t ecinechea).
No, we haven't been freezing here, far from it; I'm in the Deep South.

Is there any way to know whether she was egg bound and it broke or whether that's something else?

@ YardFullOfRocks too:
Thank you very much for all your help and advice!!!

If its clear and slimy like egg white, that's probably what it is. Does she have it hanging from her back end and/or soiling her feathers making a mess of her? If you find a crumpled up egg somewhere that will be the biggest clue outside of what she is passing. I would encourage scratching to get the muscles going. Do you have plenty of litter in your coops or their runs? Scratching is great exercise and gets the muscles around the innards in great shape for egg laying!

 

[gjensen]

Has she been laying and recently quit? Is her abdomen swollen/hard?

Unfortunately this happens sometimes with hatchery birds and occasionally breeder quality birds as well (though not as frequently)

That has become the first thing I look for if I see a pullet/hen look down. I have seen it a couple times now.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Yep, me too. However, it had been so long since I've had this problem that I didn't even think to check for it with an orpington bantam that I lost several months ago. If I'd have checked, I could have saved her.

 

[TeaChick]

That has become the first thing I look for if I see a pullet/hen look down. I have seen it a couple times now.

What do you mean by "look down"?
She's been looking like she's feeling a little under the weather, but today in the brooder she was literally looking down.

 

[TeaChick]

If its clear and slimy like egg white, that's probably what it is. Does she have it hanging from her back end and/or soiling her feathers making a mess of her? If you find a crumpled up egg somewhere that will be the biggest clue outside of what she is passing. I would encourage scratching to get the muscles going. Do you have plenty of litter in your coops or their runs? Scratching is great exercise and gets the muscles around the innards in great shape for egg laying!

So, keeping her in the brooder is a bad idea?
I'll go check her back end, there wasn't anything earlier when I was feeling around back there, but IDK what, if anything, had happened since then.
There wasn't a large enough amount of the egg white stuff on the bedding to have been the entire thing, if that's what it is (that may seem like denial, but I'm just trying to be careful and go about this slowly, not accepting or dismissing anything)... so hopefully, there's time for the shell to...IDK... get covered in calcium so that the edges aren't hard???

I'm so new to this.

Thank you all for all your help!!!

 

[TeaChick]

Yep, me too. However, it had been so long since I've had this problem that I didn't even think to check for it with an orpington bantam that I lost several months ago. If I'd have checked, I could have saved her.

Oh, don't say that, now I"m crying.

Okay; I'm going out right now to check her vent.

 

[TeaChick]

Just checked her. Here's where we are with what's going on with her, the weather, etc.

All advice, suggestions, experience, etc. are all very welcome!!!
And thank you so much for all that you have given thus far; I greatly appreciate all of it!

Her vent is clean and yellow/pink.
Her feet are cold to the touch and the bare spot under her wing is only slightly warm to my hand.
She seems to be feeling better (IDK if it's b/c of being in the brooder and protected from the cold, away from the other hens who pick on her, the yogurt/water/egg/ecinechea/???).
It's windy and it rained today; it's supposed to get colder, we have a cold front moving through right now.

I opened the brooder after she'd finished some of her yogurt, but one of my Leghorns was eating the yogurt, and Beauty (the sick one) was standing on the edge of the brooder almost being blown over by the light wind we've had. So, I put her in the brooder and closed it. Now that the Leghorn knows there's good food in the brooder, and she's re-visited, I don't really want to just open it, but I also want Beauty to be able to go into the hen house to sleep tonight if she wants/will (I think, unless that would somehow be bad for her or the other chickens).

Alright. I'll stop now. Sorry

 

[Lacy Blues]

I sent you a PM. This thread is not the help section and we don't want to get it off track.

 

[Lacy Blues]

oops, double post. Sorry. Computer is being weird.

 

[gjensen]

What do you mean by "look down"?
She's been looking like she's feeling a little under the weather, but today in the brooder she was literally looking down.

If a chicken looks sick or "down" they really are. You will not recognize that something is wrong until there really is something wrong. Look to see if she is egg bound.