Is my hen eggbound. Should I worry?

[Pahlavinka]

Okay so I noticed probably a few weeks ago a soft shelled egg. I have always given my chickens calcium with oyster shell or boiled egg shells. All of my chickens egg shells are really tough. I generally don't worry about it. But lately I've been getting one brown egg every other day that is either very easy to break or soft shelled. I suspected it was probably from just one bird. I thought it was from the RIR that had a leg injury a few months back. But I caught the chicken in the act today. It was my black australorp. I noticed she was penguin walking and then she layed a soft shelled egg right on the ground in front of me. That's why I'm concerned. I did notice her spending extensive amounts of time in the nest box but thought maybe she was gonna go broody. Here I think she might have a problem. I don't really know. Her vent looks normal. Not red. But under her abdomen it's a little red and missing a bunch of feathers she's also missing alot of feathers around her vent. But she gets overmated and has a hen apron too. She's just a mess. I don't know what I should Do? I did take them off the oyster shell for probably a month or so because it was the dead of winter and 3 or 5 out of 7 were molting and I assumed the others were going to also. Is that really too long for them not to have It? Like I said my other chickens coming back into laying are all laying fine and were before as well. Any tips would be appreciated. I'm afraid the egg is going to explode inside her vent and kill her or something.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

If she has passed an egg, per your visual, and If her abdomen doesn't feel distended and squishy and bloated, or has a noticeable hard lump, it is not likely that she is egg bound now.

The penguin walking is a classic sign, but that can also happen with soft shelled eggs as they are hard to lay. A good visual and palpitation should give you information. If she is walking fine, and seems okay, the egg probably just passed.

As to egg shell condition, are you feeding good quality layer feed? Typically that is enough, however more prolific layers do need the additional boost of oyster shell. Removing it for a month could have caused shell softening, but so can coming back into lay after molting. Age also can cause the odd egg.

The red on her stomach could be a number of things including left over molting. Being over mated definitely causes vent feather loss. I would check closely with also a good sniff to make sure she doesn't smell bad (other than chicken poo smell). Vent gleet is an overgrowth of yeast in the vent and can cause egg binding from the inflammation. Typically there is a nasty discharge and smell. Milder cases are treated with tinactin spray or similar over the counter yeast creams. Severe cases need a vet's prescription.

As to feather loss...Is there any sign of mites or lice? If so, treating that with permethrin dust should rid that problem.

Over the years I've had chickens, I have had 1 clear case of egg binding, in of course a valuable olive egger girl. I'm not sure how long she was bound before I noticed her penguin walking...but I don't think it was longer than that day.

Treatment was simply a warm Epsom salt bath. The egg actually did break, but the contents came out. I had some antibiotics on hand and gave that eye droppered to her a couple of days. She is fine now.

So don't panic. Catching it early in an otherwise healthy hen does not have to mean a horrible ordeal.

However, if she is binding due to an underlying health condition, that will be harder to treat.

Good luck, and let us know how she does.

LofMc