Thought it was a worm. . .

[SheaLoner]

I thought she had some big ol' worm hanging from her. Instead it seems she broke an egg at some point. Its a membrane all rolled up.

Its stuck in there, Almost prolapsed when I put pressure on it. I've got her seperated from the flock right now, but what can or should I do? I wont be putting feed down for her tonight, but maybe I should mix some epsom salts into her water?

 

[Fluffs_flock]

When I have to wash my chickens when it's cold I keep them in the garage and blow dry them.

 

[SheaLoner]

Was hoping not to have to stick my finger up there. No disposable gloves on hand. Will grab some tomorrow though just incase.

 

[SheaLoner]

Tried lubeing her up with mineral oil. No vaseline or coconut oil on hand. Not a happy bird. Looked like I disturbed it a bit too much. Hopefully it was enough for her to pass it on her own and nothing tore in the process.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would just pull it out as gently as possible. It is not anything dirty, just wash hands before and after.

 

[LaFleche]

You should up her calcium intake to prevent further soft-shelled eggs.

 

[SheaLoner]

Give her some McDonalds' she'll be #$$tting within a few minutes after eating that if it works the same for birds as people...

Id put more calcium into her diet, maybe some free grit on the side for her to eat if she needs it, it's not very expensive at all and the gravel also helps in the gizzard as well for grinding stuff up.

If you don't have gloves, rubbers work too, or plastic bags, or balloons, there are plenty of hand / finger coverings you can use in a pinch, or use your toe... hey it's not the finger

If you do use a prophylactic, get the politician sized ones, they are tiny enough to fit snugly on your finger w/o having to worry about falling off.

Aaron

Edit: Are you sure they are not eating the grit, or you just are not seeing them eat a lot of it, they won't gobble it down like they will the daily meal. On that, if you must, throw some feed pellets into water, just a little, you want to make a paste out of it, not a runny soup, when it's like soft squishy formable dough, throw some grit into that and squeeze / blend it into the feed dough mixture. Then make little balls out of it and feed them that. Maybe can even put some sort of snacky stuff in that ball to make it even more appetizing. They will tear at it and gobble it right down, taking the grit right with it, viola. If it's not forming balls good or a bit crumbly then just put it into a bowl like oat meal, they will still gobble it down and take the grit with it.

A

Most of them will eat it but this hen and one other will turn their beak up at it. Even when mixed in with some soaked scratch. I'll just have to start getting sneakier.

 

[Eggcessive]

We always saved all of our egg shells, crushed them, and fed them back to the chickens. They seem to prefer those, but we always had crushed oyster shell as well. Some chickens can either not process the calcium, or she may have a reproductive issue that has affected her shell gland part of the oviduct. That could be an injury, an infection, or tumor.

 

[HappyClucker7]

Maybe you could try loosening it with some Vaseline or coconut oil?

 

[HappyClucker7]

Was hoping not to have to stick my finger up there. No disposable gloves on hand. Will grab some tomorrow though just incase.

It's probably better to get it out today. Maybe you could wrap some plastic wrap around your hand?