How to handle egg bound hen, new layer

[deniseg79]

Our chicken "Peaches" just started laying this week. She is 6 months old. She laid one egg 2 days ago. Then got bound up today. We are feeding her layers feed with some cruched oyster shells in it. She also has access to a lot of water. Shaded pen, well cared for. All the other chickens are fine and producing eggs regularly. We noticed yesterday she was very lathargic and she would even drag her feet as tried to walk around. She ate a bit yesterday, but today nothing. Finally today we decided she was not going to pass this egg. We did some research on here and the best advice was to give her water with calcium in it. We crushed a 600mg calcium tablet and mixed it in the water. She did drink it. We soon after put her in a warm bath with dish soap in it. She soaked in it for about 30 min. We waited a little while longer just to make sure. Still nothing happened, but she acted like the bath felt great. She stretched her legs behind her and seemed to relax. Afterwards she even perked up some. As a last ditch effort and rather than lose this young sweet hen, he removed her from the bath. Put on a rubber glove and use your middle finger to gently go up her vent. Feeling carefully for the egg, be ever so careful not the break it or be too rough with her. You should be able to capture the egg with the tip of your finger. Then slowly massage it back and forth. Gently curve your finger behind the back of the egg, very slowly pull it towards you. You will be bringing your finger with the egg at the same time. This will create a lot of discomfort for her, but she felt soooo much better afterwards. This was only a last ditch effort, but it saved her life. She is eating good now and drinking. She is very happy and back on her roost this evening, not in any pain. We hope this information may help save one of your hens too. Good luck. Post any questions.

 

[<3ChickenForever]

Wow, glad you saved her!!

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks for the post!

 

[ChickLover98]

Great job! I have had an egg bound hen once that laid two eggs at once. Luckily, she's fine now.

 

[starforever61]

Oh I had an egg bound hen but the warm bath did the trick for her

Awesome you could save Peaches as well!

 

[savingpurple]

Good to know as I am sure this will be my next challenge to deal with as I haven't has my fill yet LOL Glad your hen is doing good....good advice and will make a mental note. Thanks !

 

[deniseg79]

Thanks for all the kind words! Peaches is doing great!!! She is now eating and drinking well. She walks normally and appears to have recovered fully. We will keep you posted if anything changes. Thanks again to everyone for their comments on concern for Peaches.

 

[wyo-red]

Can being egg bound kill a chicken? We are new to the chicken scene and and we have recently purchased 4 beautiful hens for laying. They are all 6 months old but only one has started to lay (and her eggs are very small - is this normal)? three days ago, my Rhode Island Red seemed to be lathargic and often sat quietly with her eyes closed. I attributed the inactivity to the heat. She was eating and drinking but not as active as she had been. Yesterday morning I woke up to find she had died in the night. Any suggestions as to what could have happened? She was the biggest of our 4 and looked very healthy. I am sad that I did not recognize any symptoms of her being ill. What is it about chickens that make you get attached so quickly? I just love them and I am very upset about this. Any suggestions would be very helpful! Thank you!

Wyo-red!

 

[deniseg79]

To answer your question...... Yes a chicken can die from being egg bound. It sounds like your chicken that passed away was definetly egg bound by the behavior you mentioned. They only have about 48 hrs to live once that starts at the most to take care of the problem. Follow the advice we posted before this and it should help you if that happens again to one of your chickens. I am very sorry for the loss of your chicken. When they act larthargic like that, that is definite sign of being egg bound. To answer your other question, yes, small eggs or weird shaped eggs is normal for new layers. If you have more questions, please feel free to ask me. Good luck with your chickens and take care...... One more tid bit of information......We take the first 3-4 eggs they lay and cook/scramble them. Feed them back to them. I read that somewhere it helps get them started laying better. Gives them nutrients, etc. Up to you.

 

[deniseg79]

Just a quick update on our chickens. Two days after we had that egg bound episode with Peaches, her sister Cleopatra also became egg bound. We did the same procedure we did with Peaches and she is doing great as well. Both are now laying eggs regularly and appear to be quite healthy. We have changed their food to a pellet style feed with calcium and other vitamins. We think this has helped too. We hope this helps you.....