Newbie question about sick hen (possible egg bound?)

[Dobie]

Hi,
We've only had chickens for a few weeks. One of our black-sex linkeds has been sick since yesterday. She's about 6 months old. She sits huddled by herself, sometimes going into her nest. She pumps her tail a lot and is covered in white chicken poo (at least I think that's what it is). Yesterday, I found egg white and a weird membrane and a gob of something brownish and hard in the nest, so I'm assuming that was hers. She seemed better after that, but now is back to sitting huddled. She has not laid an egg today. Is this a sign of being egg-bound? If so, what next?
Help!

 

[Miss Lydia]

First of all has she laid a true egg yet? If not she might just be trying to get the kinks worked out it takes a while. If she has poop on bottom you need to wash it off not good to let it stay. And the stuff you found in her nest I think all of us have seen at one time or another and freaked out about, keep an eye on her feel her gently around the opening of her vent to see if you feel anything hard like an egg if so let her soak in a warm water bath but don't let her get chilled sometimes if they have an egg in there this will help. keep us informed

 

[Dobie]

She's definitely laid her first eggs (or else somebody regularly lays 2 a day). .I looked at her vent -- I can't say I know what they ought to look like, but this was open wide and had what looked like egg yolk around it. Also, there were small pinkish colored insects - about 1 mm long around the vent. So I took her to the sink and held her in warm water for a half-hour (hint: turning off the light and closing the curtains made her chill out!). We haven't felt any egg - unless it's up really far? Anyway, she's still among the living, though she's very lethargic. We just sat her in our dog crate with an electric blanket (wrapped in a garbage bag). I feel like we've done what we can and either she'll perk up or not.

Any thoughts on the insects?

Thanks!

 

[Dobie]

I'm afraid the chicken was dead when we got up this morning...

A quick autopsy didn't reveal anything. We actually didn't see any eggs at all.

 

[HarryBun12]

Sorry about your hen. Sounds like you did all you could for her. You're brave to do an autopsy... I'm sure I couldn't do that. I've had my birds for 1 1/2 years and although someday something's bound to happen to them, it'll break my heart.