Watch out with the warm water baths

[ShonaUK]

I'd just like to share my experience trying to help one of my egg-bound chooks: Following suggestions on this forum and on info in books, having already lost two of my ladies seemingly overnight, I bathed 'Hope' in warm water, gently rubbed oil around her vent and hoped for the best. I discovered she enjoyed the bathing and would happily sit in my bidet (I live in Italy) for 20 minutes whilst I did the other feeding and watering chores. Then I watched some videos of a Canadian vet explaining how to help an egg-bound chook and also tried to apply gentle pressures to her abdomen ... nada.
The second idea, which I had tried with limited success on another chook was to reduce the contents of the blocked egg with a large bore syringe ... nada. Nothing came out, perhaps the needle wasn't big enough? Perhaps, as my own vet suggested on palpating her abdomen, it was a tumour. It measured approx 10 cm long and 5cm wide. What to do? What to do? This all took three weeks and though she was eating and drinking a little, she was getting thinner and thinner till she was really just skin and feathers. I decided to put her out of her suffering and when I was sure she wasn't going to come back to life, cut her open to see just what was inside her ... Yikes: Not one egg, four yolks all fused together and solidified aka boiled eggs. Argh! so were all the other nearby eggs that couldn't get past that huge one. No shells, even though she had access to oystershell and although her liver and kidneys were much darker than normal, her heart seemed ok. So go careful with the warm water baths and perhaps it would be better to try reducing the blocked egg first.
Any thoughts or feedback on this welcome. Thanks.

 

[welasharon]

What your hen had is not egg bound and the warm water bath would not have caused it nor aggravated it. If it was a tumor that caused it or if she was an internal layer nothing you could have done could have caused nor stopped it from happening. I am sorry. It is frustrating to lose a hen to such issues.
sharon

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
x2 I agree. I've personally have had hens lay the egg in the warm water, as have others.

 

[ShonaUK]

Thanks for the feedback guys I was feeling pretty guilty there that I had boiled her eggs in situ. My four remaining ladies are all bantams and don't seem to have the problems their larger run mates had.
Fingers crossed. Ciao!