Sluggish hen, has not laid an egg lately!!

[ChickenPeep]

My favorite hen Ebony has not been her spunky self lately. Usually she is peppy and excited but recently she has not been running around as much and I have caught her standing in one spot a lot more than normal. I also noticed that she has not laid an egg in a few days. I'm not really sure how long it's been since her last egg but I think it's been a while. I have felt her rear end and it seems a bit more swollen that usual, but not drastically different.
I'm not really sure what's wrong with her but she's kinda scaring me. Can anyone give me some help, please?

 

[ChickenPeep]

Today she is not doing much better. She usually is all over the place looking for food and foraging, but right now she's just hanging around the same area. Her rear seems slightly swollen. I was wondering if she could be having some reproductive/egg problems? Would that cause a swollen bottom? She's probably not eggbound as she is lethargic, but she is still active as well.
I also noticed that she looks to be having just a slight respiratory distress. Sometimes she looks like she is very very lightly gasping. When I picked her up today she made a weird gargle type sound.
I have some Duramyacin if anyone thinks that could help. I'm really worried about my girl and I don't want her to get worse!
Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

 

[MySweetChickens]

found this at the chicken chick.com i haven't figured out how to do links yet lol

When a hen has an egg inside her oviduct, she is referred to as being egg-bound. Egg-binding can be a life-threatening condition that must be addressed quickly
Causes

• Calcium or other nutritional deficiency
• Obesity
• Excessively large or misshapen egg
• Oviduct infection
• Premature layer (hen began laying eggs before her body was fully mature)
• Egg retention due to lack of sufficient nesting areas

A hen's uterus (aka: shell gland) is the muscle responsible for squeezing the egg out of the vent. Since muscles require calcium to contract properly, if a hen has a calcium deficiency, the egg can get stuck in the uterus.

Possible Symptoms

• Loss of appetite
• Disinterest in drinking
• Shaky wings
• Walking like a penguin
• Abdominal straining
• Frequent, uncharacteristic sitting
• Passing wet droppings or none at all (egg interferes with normal defecation)
• Droopy/depressed/pale comb and wattles

Dangers

• Infection
• Prolapsed uterus
• Damage to oviduct
• Bleeding
• Death

Prevention

• Avoid supplemental lighting with young pullets to avoid premature egg-laying
• Feed layer ration, which is carefully formulated to provide balanced nutrition to laying hens
• Make available oyster shell (or another calcium source) free-choice (never add to the feed)
• Avoid excess treats that can interfere with balanced nutrition in layer ration Treatment
• Calcium (injection, liquid or via vitamins & electrolyte solution)
  Warm bath
  Apply KY jelly
  Massage
  To assess whether a hen is egg-bound at home, gently feel on either side of her vent with one hand (think: squeezing the cheeks of a cute kid). If an egg is felt, giving the hen calcium is the first course of action. Absent liquid calcium, vitamins and electrolytes in the water contain calcium and can help. Even if she's not interested in drinking, try to get some into her with a dropper or syringe carefully. If she is too weak to drink, don't try it. The calcium may be enough to get her to pass the egg on her own within a half hour or so.
  Put the hen in a tub of warm water for 15-20 minutes, which will hydrate her vent and relax her, making it easier to pass the egg.
  
  After a warm bath, some KY jelly applied to the vent can also help hydrate the cloaca to allow for ease of passage when the egg gets to that point (don’t use olive oil, as it can become rancid). Massage the area around the egg gently towards the vent, being careful not to break the eggshell.

At this point, put her in a crate in a darkened, quiet room. If a truly egg-bound hen does not pass the egg within an hour of these measures, the egg may need to be manually removed, which can be dangerous but is possible but proceed at your own risk.

"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 dwn). 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."