- Mar 12, 2009
- 570
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I searched to see if I could find some info. for you. This doesn't tell everything but maybe will help a little bit. I think the warm bath would help if it is an egg. The full article is here: http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page3.htm
" Be sure the hen has plenty of fresh water to drink (hand water if necessary), and lubricate the cloaca (vent). Use a water based lubricant such as K-Y Jelly. This should be applied at regular intervals. Attempt to get some just inside the cloaca - but be cautious not to cause a tear in delicate tissues. If you can see the tip of the egg through the cloaca, even better - lubricate it too. An additional step that can be taken is to attach a heat-softened piece of small tubing to a 3 cc syringe and inject warmed KY or warm soapy water (mixed with sterile water) via the tube up past and around the egg.
A warm, moist environment is helpful. If you have a duck, you can begin by offering her a very warm bath. (Bantams fit nicely in the kitchen sink - much to the dismay of my spouse.) If you can find a small screen to lay over the top and put something heavy on the edges to secure it, then you can walk away and let the girl float about for awhile. If you have a hen, then you'll have to support her so that the bottom half of her body is submersed for about fifteen minutes. As long as the bird seems fine otherwise, I would just repeat this at regular intervals, and give Mother Nature a chance to work.
If you can palpate the egg to determine that it's close to delivery, and your bird seems to be having a hard time, you can go beyond the warm water baths and put her into an incubator. Set the temperature between 85-90 degrees with high humidity or place wet towels inside the incubator. Make sure the bird has a fresh airflow. Most incubators have a good intake and exhaust system for fresh air - but make sure the air holes are open so that you don't suffocate your bird. Don't leave her in there more than a few hours. And keep an eye on her condition.
If she still hasn't expelled the egg, and you don't think she's going to on her own, then you can move to manual manipulation. This only applies if she is still bright and not in shock. Palpate the abdomen to find the location of the egg and gently manipulate it in an effort to move it along. GENTLE is the key word here. If manual manipulation fails and you can see the tip of the egg, another option is aspiration, implosion, and manual removal.
First, get someone to help you hold the bird very securely while you work (preferably not upside down). Then, using a syringe and a large needle (18ga.), draw the contents of the egg into the syringe. After aspiration of the contents, gently collapse the egg all around. You want to do this gently in order to keep the inner membrane of the egg in tact, which will keep the eggshell fragments together.
Last, gently remove the egg. (Copious amounts of lubrication would be good here.) Go slow and try to keep the shell together (although broken). If all fragments do not come out, they should pass, along with remaining egg content, within the next several days."
" Be sure the hen has plenty of fresh water to drink (hand water if necessary), and lubricate the cloaca (vent). Use a water based lubricant such as K-Y Jelly. This should be applied at regular intervals. Attempt to get some just inside the cloaca - but be cautious not to cause a tear in delicate tissues. If you can see the tip of the egg through the cloaca, even better - lubricate it too. An additional step that can be taken is to attach a heat-softened piece of small tubing to a 3 cc syringe and inject warmed KY or warm soapy water (mixed with sterile water) via the tube up past and around the egg.
A warm, moist environment is helpful. If you have a duck, you can begin by offering her a very warm bath. (Bantams fit nicely in the kitchen sink - much to the dismay of my spouse.) If you can find a small screen to lay over the top and put something heavy on the edges to secure it, then you can walk away and let the girl float about for awhile. If you have a hen, then you'll have to support her so that the bottom half of her body is submersed for about fifteen minutes. As long as the bird seems fine otherwise, I would just repeat this at regular intervals, and give Mother Nature a chance to work.
If you can palpate the egg to determine that it's close to delivery, and your bird seems to be having a hard time, you can go beyond the warm water baths and put her into an incubator. Set the temperature between 85-90 degrees with high humidity or place wet towels inside the incubator. Make sure the bird has a fresh airflow. Most incubators have a good intake and exhaust system for fresh air - but make sure the air holes are open so that you don't suffocate your bird. Don't leave her in there more than a few hours. And keep an eye on her condition.
If she still hasn't expelled the egg, and you don't think she's going to on her own, then you can move to manual manipulation. This only applies if she is still bright and not in shock. Palpate the abdomen to find the location of the egg and gently manipulate it in an effort to move it along. GENTLE is the key word here. If manual manipulation fails and you can see the tip of the egg, another option is aspiration, implosion, and manual removal.
First, get someone to help you hold the bird very securely while you work (preferably not upside down). Then, using a syringe and a large needle (18ga.), draw the contents of the egg into the syringe. After aspiration of the contents, gently collapse the egg all around. You want to do this gently in order to keep the inner membrane of the egg in tact, which will keep the eggshell fragments together.
Last, gently remove the egg. (Copious amounts of lubrication would be good here.) Go slow and try to keep the shell together (although broken). If all fragments do not come out, they should pass, along with remaining egg content, within the next several days."
