Severe egg bound- our treatment and she begins recovery

[zzGypsy]

I don't know about chickens, but I know with turkeys if they're in pain or sick, they'll often fluff their feathers and suck their neck back in so they look almost neck-less. had a turkey lose the end of a toe, nail and all (don't know how) but the first clue there was a problem was that fluffed-out, hunched, no-neck look. might be like that with chickens too. might try to get a bit more asprin water into her.
good luck with her, sounds like you're doing well.

 

[roxyblue]

Hello there,
I really hope that your pullet makes a full recovery and lays a plentiful amount of eggs dureing her life time. She is very pretty. Please keep us updated. One of my hens was eggbound over the summer, she had prolapsed vent but it wasn't nearly as bad as your poor girl. i'm keeping my fingers crossed

 

[9chickens]

I am new to chickens but I know from having parrots that fluffing feathers is a sign of discomfort or illness. Fluids and rest will do her a world of good. It sounds like she is in good hands. Good luck with her. You might want to try some electrolytes since she isn't eating.

 

[Gargoyle]

We lost Dottie last night. Midday she was doing ok, she visited her siblings, walked around and ate some food. We didn't start her on antibiotics until the evening, and also spread honey on her rear at that time- I found that out from searching Prolapse here. The honey did start working, in 20 minutes the swelling went down considerably, but she just sat in her nest very still, breathing heavily, and after an hour or two she passed away.

One of the major dangers with being egg bound, especially when it is this severe, is internal infection- she could have gotten a severe sepsis infection.

In retrospect, two things I should have done differently- I should have started antibiotics immediately, not after 24 hours, and we should have spread the honey on her as soon as we cleared the blockage. But we didn't know. This case was so severe it might not have made a difference. I'm going to be watching my other pullets butts much more closely from now on, so if anything happens I can catch it early on.

I hope this thread helps others here.

 

[CapricornFarm]

So sorry you lost your girl, you did your best

 

[terrilhb]

I am so sorry for your loss. Sending you all hugs.

She was very obviousley loved very much.

 

[Lucysmom002]

I'm sorry you lost her. She was beautiful.
I went through the same thing here with a leghorn. I kept her quiet and in the dark to let her rest, did all the same things you did, every time she pooped she pushed everything back out again. This went on for a few days. We finally put her to rest to end her suffering.

 

[ninabeast]

Thank you for sharing your painful experience. You HAVE helped others.

 

[OrpingtonHopeful]

I am so sorry you lost your girl. It sounds like you guys did an amazing job of trying to save her.

 

[Gargoyle]

Thank you all for your support. It's been a rough month, I'm glad November is past.

36 hours before Dottie died, and about 6 hours before I spotted her problem, we lost our 19 year old love bird, Originally we had two lovebirds, lost one 5 years ago, but this one was amazingly resilient. He had a very long life; he'd been sick on and off the past 2 years but every time he weakened my wife would nurse him, and he'd spark up and come back around. He was singing and chatting with us to the end.

Early in November a raccoon untied the chicken wire under the soffit of our coop and killed our first three chickens. I rebuilt the coop and run, replaced all the chicken wire with hardware cloth and plywood sheeting, reinforced everything, and they we got these 4 wonderful birds a few weeks ago; all are about 5 months old. Then this happens. A sad period.

Our lovebird tweeting: