Ill, Egg bound or injured? Worried sick but unsure if its vet worthy?

[LemonChook]

Hi

We have some lemon millefleur sablepoot bantams, 3 girls and 1 boy. We have had them about 3 1/2 months we think they were a month or so old when we got them, they havn't laid yet.

About two days ago when my boyfriend went to let them out in the morning they were already out, somehow the hatch must have come open. One of the hens was just sitting on the floor, not running about like mad, when she did try to move she couldnt quite stand properly and toppled over. Obviously our first thought was that she had been attacked, we brought her inside and checked for wounds, blood or breaks in the leg, she had none.

I popped her in a box with some hay and we have kept her in the house so we can keep an eye on her. After watching her we noticed she is keeping her tail low and keeps kind of arcing the feathers infront. She keeps sitting down pretty much constantly, when she does stand she is unbalanced and mainly keeps one leg tucked up (hence why we thought it broken) but its this strange back arching/fluffing tail down thing thats odd.

In herself she seems ok, alert, she is drinking, eating and pooing. She isnt moving around but doesn't seem lethargic as such.
As none of them have laid yet we didnt immediatly think of her being egg bound but a lot of the symtoms add up.

This is the first time we have owned chickens so we are freaking out a little :'(
Anyone got any ideas, help or input.

Thanks.

 

[Lesa]

Sounds like she is eggbound. It won't hurt to give her a soak in warm water and see if that helps her expel the egg...

 

[Miss Lydia]

first let me

If you have had her for about 31/2months and she was a month old when you got her, I am thinking too young to lay.. I have heard of them laying at 5 months though. can you feel any swelling in her abdomen around the lower part close to her vent? what does her vent look like is it red. swollen. pulsing? If you could post pictures, tell us what you are feeding, could she have fallen off the perch and injured herself. When you boy friend found her how were the rest of the chickens acting.. where is she in the pecking order? tell us about your coop setup, what kind of bedding do you use.

 

[LemonChook]

Thank you.
Yes we have searched a lot of similar topics on here and now think thats it.

We have bathed her and now popped her on a towel over a warm wheat bag near the radiator. She is now straining a lot so fingers crossed we will see an egg.

Miss Lydia

Sorry posted as you were i think. We have no mean to take a photo im afraid.

She may be older the breeder was a bit vague as she wanted to get rid of them or cull them!! (not the correct colour for the breed)
Her vent does look a little red (her abdomen looks red) and swollen a little and is pulsing. Her abdomen looks no where near as swollen as some pictures of egg bound hens, but then is that due to her size? Noticed some of her poop is greenish, dont know if that means anything.

We feed them pellets recomended by an animal feed specialist nearby (looked on the sack and it has no more info on protein etc sorry) and also a corn mix, are i said we are new to keeping chickens so just asked the best option for them. we give them food scraps/veg which they usually ignore (we assume they are fussy) and they are free range so roam around a lot too in bushes and shrubs.

They have a wooden hut, kind of like a rabbit hutch with a sloped roof, we use medow hay and sawdust as bedding. They get all over the place, sitting on the fence, wall and even bird table so she may have hurt herself falling off any of these or a perch i suppose but as i said i can see no injury and she doesn't appear to be majorly distressed.

when we found her the others were just getting on with normal business, foraging about not paying any attention to her. Our cockrel has been being a little more bossy than normal the past week or so we have noticed, she is one of the two hens which kind of hang around together the other is bottom of the pecking order i guess.

I hope that answers your questions.

 

[Miss Lydia]

well she maybe just getting ready to lay her first egg, so your doing the right thing, and if you feel so inclined you can soak more than once.. you might want to give her some privacy they like to lay in private... but keep her on the warm wheat bag for sure.. just hang in there and hopefully it will come on out on its own I have bantams and they are great little egg layers and great mothers too..

 

[LemonChook]

She still hasn't laid an egg despite 4 baths and sitting on a wheat bag, in fact now she looks less like shes going to.

I have phoned the vet who said she cant help over the phnoe so we are taking her in.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Please post when you find out what is going on with her, thanks

 

[Lesa]

Fingers crossed! Keep us posted...

 

[LemonChook]

We went to the vets about 15 hours ago.
The vet said there is an egg, it isnt broken and has a shell. She gave her some oxytocin, nothing has changed!?!
We have continued with baths & wheat bag.
We feel even more helpless and confused, she cant be egg bound surely its been too long and she would have seriously deteriorated by now?! From what I have read egg bound hens don't survive long unless you get the egg out. She still seems relatively the same as when i first posted.

Argh!

Edit: Have also now spotted her eating something again! Baffled!

 

[poultryrox11]

Ooohh....have you talked to the vet again since the first time? Either way, I think you're doing all you can do. Good Luck!!