My hen is egg bound HELP,HELP,HELP ME

[trixanned]

She is straining really hard and her feathers are really fluffed up. This has been going on since yesturday. I see no egg or feel no egg. Her thing is pulsing all the time but she is not swollen. What should I do??? I think her egg is stuck up high in her.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Poor hen. People often soak their hen in warm water because it helps them relax their muscles and pass the egg. Place her in a sink or container and add the warm water gradually. It is also recommended to "lube" her vent with some vegetable oil.

 

[trixanned]

I've already soaked and lubed once last night and twice today.

 

[chkn]

She could have the remains of a soft shell in there. Get some gloves, put your lubed finger straight in and feel around the edges way in there to see if you feel something different, then try and slide it out. You'll have to fish around in there a little bit to find it.

 

[trixanned]

I feel nothing up there unusual.Her tail is up and does not seem sick except for the pushing. She ate some sunflower seeds and meal worms I gave her and drank water this morning and I put a bowl of water in her nest.She will not leave her nest.

 

[trixanned]

Could she be broody? She fluffs when I open the nest lid and her tail goes straight up.There were eggs under her but were not all hers and yesturday there were 4 eggs under her That I dont know if any were her.They all want to share nests. If I peek in the other door she is not fluffed at all. Just lays in her nest and doesnt want to leave.I have 4 chickens and have 3 to 4 eggs a day. What do you think?

 

[trixanned]

I believe she is just broody. I took her out of the coop to let them all free range and within 5 min. she was back in the nest (after a big drink of water. I hope I didnt hurt her. I gave her 3 soaks, and stuck myfinger up there with surgical gloves and ky jelly twice. Also when I put her outside she was laying on another egg. Do you think the ky will give her an infection? Better safe than sorry I guess.There is no poultry or exotic vet arouund here so I did what I thought was the problem. New to raising hens.

 

[chkn]

No, plain KY should be just fine. I use a little olive oil myself. She does sound broody. Fluffing up and getting screetchy and icky sounding is broodiness. You don't want to let that go on to long either but I'd leave her alone for awhile and see how it goes.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Your hen could have had a couple of things going on. The pulsing vent is not part of broodiness (at least not with my hens), so she probably did have trouble passing an egg. But if her vent is not pulsing any more, maybe she did pass an egg, broken egg or soft shelled egg. The puffing when you look in on her and returning to the nest box does sound like she is broody though. The ky shouldn't cause an infection, but on the off chance that she had an egg break inside her means you might want to keep checking her vent for any sighs of infection like discharge. There are threads that describe flushing the vent with vinegar and water after the hen passes an egg that broke in her oviduct. I hope she is fine now.

I bet you did not envision raising chickens would involve performing gynecological procedures on your hens. lol

 

[mammasilkie]

sounds like she was just broody, mine fluff up and squeel at me everytime they see me while there brooding. if i were you id look into seeing if any of your vets around there would mind looking at a chicken incase something does happen so you have somewhere to go. like the vets where i work will help any animal that can fit thew the door.as vor the ky, i have no clue. i would guess she would be fine but good luck with your hen!