possibly still eggbound!?

[Caitlin342]

Hi this is my first time posting here, I own eight chicken (7 hens, 1 rooster) and recently one of my bantam silkie chickens was egg bound (about 4 days ago). I did the hot water bath gave her yogurt and heated her up with a blow dryer (which she loved) and after about 8 hours of doing this on and off she laid a shriveled up leathery-type egg and was then able to have solid poop. I thought everything was good after, she acted a little funny the next night but I am starting to think it was just me being paranoid because ever since then she is pretty much running around like normal. My concern is that she has still not laid any eggs. I know that silkies, especially bantams, really don't lay many eggs but you would think if she passed an egg bound egg that another egg would come out within four or five days right? Another note: she was recently broody at the same time with a bantam araucana, and the aracauna has been back to laying pretty regularly (1 or 2 eggs per 3 days) for a few weeks now. I have felt the silkies abdomen and to me it seems to be a little bit large ( i am comparing to another silkie chicken that is broody right now so is a little thin just from being broody, darn silkies go broody after laying five or six eggs! lol). I am worried that maybe she still has eggs in there or she is becoming an internal layer and I'm wondering if anyone has any advice. She overall is acting normal it seems eating and drinking regularly. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

unless you take her to the vet the only way you'll know the answers to your questions is to wait. If she is acting normal and doesn't seem to be in distress then I'd just watch and wait. Not a whole lot you can do anyway other than have her spayed. But hopefully she is just going to be fine.. I think I read that it's about 3 weeks after being broody that they start to lay again, also I want to encourage you to post in the Silkie thread under breeds and genetics people that have one particular breed like Silkies can give you alot more info.. I wish you the best and also

 

[Caitlin342]

thank you for replying! i just walked outside and noticed in the coop that there is what appears to be just the insides of an egg, like the yolk and white, but no shell at all. My chickens have never eaten eggs so I don't think if there were a shell they would clean it up so quickly. Also, this "egg" was in the middle of the coop, not in a box. Going to see if there are any threads about this. I am assuming it is the same slikie that laid the shelless egg because everyone else seems to be laying normally. Anyways thanks for the advice about the special breeds threads will go post there now!

 

[Miss Lydia]

every once in a while I come across a shellless egg, never know who it is so just watch to make sure there are no other problems, you don't say how old this hen is, but hopefully it's just a glitch in the reproductive track and it will work itself out. but you will find alot of good info if you go to the google custom search that will take to to BYC archives.. all the best.

 

[Caitlin342]

Oh sorry, this hen is a little over a year old. all of the chickens are the same age, except for the rooster who is about 6 mo. (sweetest rooster gets picked on by all the girls and crow is so quiet that we get to keep him, he is a mama's boy). Just wanted to add a side note that I believe is completely unrelated, but it is a mystery to me and thought it might be helpful in case someone knows something on here that i don't..... About a month ago I went outside and one of my hens ( i believe it was a cornish? it was a dual breed layer and meat chicken, although I do not eat my chickens) who was also the same age as my others appeared to be injured. Upon further inspection it seemed that she was paralyzed and could not stand up. She could kick with her feet and could flap her wings but could absolutely not stand up. I went online and thought maybe it was Mareks, which is highly highly contagious. I separated her and hand fed her for five days. At first she seemed to like eating food but she started to deteriorate, and after five days she was panting an closing her eyes and we decided it was cruel to keep her alive any longer (she was defecating on herself so I would have to rinse her every time she went to the bathroom, couldn't even balance and would fall forward when you tried to set her upright) and we euthanized her. I basically braced for the worse and expected at least some of my flock to fall ill because of how contagious marek's is, but nothing has happened yet (knock on wood). I think that this is totally unrelated to the egg laying incident with my silkie but you never know!

 

[Judy]

It would be very helpful to know exactly what kind of cornish the other one was. Cornish cross, which are bred and sold to grow fast and be eaten, commonly develop leg problems (or heart problems) because their bone and organ systems have trouble keeping up with their very hight rate of growth. I suspect you had a cornish cross. Although they can occasionally be raised to laying age, it usually takes some special handling to accomplish this, and even then they generally do not live as long as other breeds.

I don't think there is anything special about egg laying problems in Silkies as opposed to other breeds. They are just something that happens, and there is usually not much you can do about it, depending on the specific problem, of course.

Here are a couple of threads from the FAQ page you might find helpful:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=32648&p=1
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=22308

I do hope your chicken recovers from this.

 

[Mattemma]

You could keep her indoor in a cage for a while to see if she lays. I had a hen inside to heal bloody/missing feather areas. She laid an egg every day in the cage. Once her feathers were in she was back outside.

Glad to read you got your hen to lay. I just killed my one hen today that was swollen like a ballon for almost 2 months. She was probably an internal layer and got infected.

 

[Caitlin342]

wow that is very interesting about the cornish... will do some googling and get back to you on exactly what kind she was but that sounds like it could be a very good possibility. Also just wanted to interject that i give them a layer feed and they have free choice oyster shell. She is definitely not being picked on and she has the personality that I think she would be irritated if i took her away from her friends. But I guess what I have deduced from the responses is that I just have to wait it out and see. thanks for all of the feedback will update if anything changes!

 

[Caitlin342]

Okay I hope that this thread isn't too old for anyone to look at it... went outside this evening and noticed a semi-solid poop with a little bit of blood in it

blood seemed almost cloudy looking. I am assuming this is the chicken that has been having the egg problems because everyone else is acting normal. Sometimes with chicks you just know something is a little bit off... I mean she is eating and drinking and pecking but i still feel like something is off and now with the bloody stool i am getting more and more worried! again, thanks in advance for any responses!