Listless sick hen-please help

[Yep]

I went into the coop this morning to find her in a puddle of yoke-like substance. Looked as if she had slept in it all night. Also found she had layed an egg (unbroken). When I first let her out she acted perfectly fine. Drank some water and walked around.
Only a few minutes later she started acting listless and ill. She has what appears to be egg yoke leaking out of her vent. She can hardly walk. She keeps nodding off to sleep.
I've washed her off and cleaned her vent. Her vent is still leaking. She's swollen back there. She'll drink some water, but won't eat. She was perfectly fine yesterday.
She's a banty around three years old. She's never really layed eggs regularly. Lately it's been once in a blue moon. Never had trouble with her before. I've isolated her from the other chickens for now. Please help. I'm very worried.

 

[miss_jayne]

sounds like she's egg bound! she may have fever with the binding.

need to get the eggs outta her. there are many sources on egg binding and how to fix on here. use the search tab.

best of all and bless your little hen.

 

[Yep]

Thank you so much for replying. Since posting I sat her in a warm bath. Which didn't seem to help much. So, I decided to go in and feel around. I think the experience was more traumatic for me then her. After a few failed attempts I finally got my pinky finger in. Before I even got the chance to feel for an egg, some poo and other liquid shot out. Not quite what I'd hoped for. I left her alone for a little while, but she wasn't improving. So I massaged under her vent where she was most swollen. Eventually a thin crushed egg shell popped out.
So now here are my new worries. She's still acting the same. Should I just give her time to get over the shock of it all? She's not passing any poo, which can't be good. Should I try to flush out any leftover egg? Could there possibly be another egg inside her? Any help or insight is very much appreciated.

Still worried.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Have your tried a search here. I know this has been covered but, I can't for the life of me remember specifics. I do know that if you suspect another egg in her you need to try to help her get it out. Massaging is good and sitting her in warm bath water is good. There may also be an infection concern with those broken eggs.

Hopefully once dlhunicorn comes on she will chime in-she is full of knowledge on emergencies/diseases/injuries and cures.

I forgot-

 

[waterfowlrescue]

If the egg is broke I would be very careful about massaging. If there are shell pieces in the oviduct they you can be piercing the lining with shell fragments. Infection risk is very high when that happens. I know in waterfowl oviduct infections can be the cause of some egg binding and peritonitis.

I am not an expert on chickens, in fact know very little about them but i have dealt with this a lot in ducks. I would most likely rubber up and go in with lots of lube. See if you can find the egg or the egg parts. If you can locate them the job is much easier. If there is a whole egg i lube up as much as you can with mineral oil and try to ease it out.

The warm bath does help with some muscle relaxation and lubrication but i wonder if chickens when subjected to baths would not enjoy them and stress, tensing muscles (again i don't know that much about chickens) I had to bathe a rooster this weekend and he was not pleased with me at all.

 

[Yep]

Thank you so much for the welcome

Sorry that my first post was under such circumstances. I'm happy to report she's acting much better. More of her normal self. She still seems quite swollen though. And when she does poo it looks very mucas like. The crushed egg I got out of her looked like most of the shell was there. Still keeping an eye on her. I hope there isn't any kind of infection. The worries never end do they?

 

[chickenzoo]

You might want to put her on an antibotic for any infection she may have. Give some Vitamins and perhaps some scrambled eggs to help her regain strength...

 

[SuperChicken007]

Quote:
Somehow feeding scrambled eggs to a chicken sounds WRONG...............................

Yes, it sounds like she's eggbound. Don't massage her as the eggshels may pierce the walls of the.....whatever the organ that produces eggs is called.

Good luck!

 

[keljonma]

When our SLW had problems (without the broken egg shell inside), I tried the warm water bath. SHE HATED IT!!! So not wanting to leave her in her sorry state, I brought her into our laundry/mud room, which we use as an infirmary.

So I set up a quiet "nest area" on the hall tree bench. I made it of a couple of bath towels, a heating pad set on low, another bath towel and circled it with a couple of pair of old blue jeans and some straw and hay to make it look more nest-like.

She sat right down and after a couple of hours, her muscles relaxed enough to the point that she was able to expel the egg. It was the largest egg I ever saw - triple yolker, wide and long.

Maybe this would work for you too?

Here is a pic of Ida on the infirmary nest.

 

[waterfowlrescue]

What a beautiful chicken you have keljonma. The heating pad nest is a great idea.