4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[emmaw298]

Hettie has been eggbound for at least 2 weeks now. I realised after a few days I think, as I had a few days of only getting one egg and then all of a sudden she went downhill, just sitting around and went very pale and swollen underneath and you could also feel an egg if you massaged the area. After a night of holding her over a steaming bucket and lots of olive oil, I took her to the vets who agreed she was eggbound with peritonitis but unfortunately couldn't get the egg out (she nearly put her whole finger in but still couldn't reach it!). She prescribed her a strong dose of baytril and said to continue with the olive oil and to massage the area to try and manipulate the egg and push it up and out.

Two weeks later she's much better in herself - her colour has come back and she is eating and drinking well and scratching around with the others but she hasn't laid yet and I can still feel the egg!!! i'm still doing the olive oil therapy every other day (via syringe direct into the vent like the vet showed me) and massage but no result

Can anyone suggest anything else to try? I'm worried just how long she can keep this up before a massive infection takes hold

[Egluntyne]

Poor thing.

 

Article on egg binding **here**

 

I think I'd give her extra calcium.

[Budgies]

Calcium is likely to increase the contractions which might help to push the egg out.

 

However if she's been diagnosed as having egg peritonitis, there is no cure for that I'm afraid.

[emmaw298]

thanks egluntine - will check out the article.

fingers crossed it will pop out soon

[Lizzie]

Hi

Hope your chook manages to pass the egg - we have a hen with excatly the same problem

Very mopey last week

I brought her in on Sunday, gave her bottom a bath and massaged the area. Gave her a small dose of Baytril and a neat 1ml dose of Zolcal.

Monday bright as a button and I think she passed the egg but can't be sure. Fine Tuesday but this morning mopey again

 

Can you please advise what you do with the olive oil, ie syringing into her vent - how much and any olive oil ?

 

I have been putting vaseline around her vent and also a little onto her chest hoping that she will ingest a small amoutn which might help ?

 

We go on holiday Friday- have never left the chooks before (nearly a year now). Our live in cat sitter will take over and she is an ex midwife so hoping that she might be able to help !!

 

Liquid Paraffin has also been recommended and tried but no joy yet

 

Regards

Liz

[ellisyellis]

hi,

 

i dont think for one minuite your hen is egg bound as a hen which is egg bound (and i have had many!) either lays the egg or dies very quickly. it is simply not possible for a hen to be egg bound for 2 weeks. this is because if the hen does not lay the egg the next egg is still being made and will be behind the first problem egg by the next day. they will build up and will not stop being made by the hens body. this kills the hen normally within 48 hours.

 

is your hen still behaving poorly at the moment? if she is not laying eggs for a period of 2 weeks she is "off lay". this could happen for a number of reasons. the main reason being broodyness. illness is also a reason for being off lay. is your hen still under the weather?x

[Hen Watch]

Hi. I have 2 hybrid hens with suspected peritonitis at present.

 

I was convinced the first one was egg bound, did the warm bath/oil stuff but then the vet said she could not feel an egg. So maybe peritonitis, or some other underlying condition. She had Baytril antibotics and was find after a few days even laid an egg. But then 6 weeks later, we are back to square one. Swollen abdomen, sitting down, laboured breathing. PLUS second chicken exactly the same.

 

So both were given anti inflamatory drugs plus diuretic drugs to remove fluid from them. They have had the drugs for 7 days now and are much less swollen and much more fiesty and run away from me (which is a good sign). But I worry that this might only be a short term solution......??? Not sure what will happen when they're drugs course finishes tomorrow?

[Budgies]

Hi Henwatch, sorry to hear you've got two wee girlies with peritonitis.

 

Everyone has to make up their own mind with this condition but basically I'm sorry to say there is no cure.

 

I do know that some people keep girls who do suffer with this condition and regularly administer antibiotics in a bid to keep them comfortable.

 

Once they've started filling with fluid though, there's not really any way back. It is supposed to be a very painful condition, and as you've probably noticed, their breathing at rest can be very laboured and difficult.

 

I talked to my vet at length when Mango developed it and was told I had two choices: the first was to drain off some of the fluid (they can only drain off around half at any one time because the shock can kill the hen if they take more), to administer anti-biotics and to implant her with a Supralorin hormonal implant. It was designed to stop her egg laying but it's not very well-tested in chickens yet.

 

The second choice was to have her put to sleep.

 

We so very much wanted to keep her with us (but happy and well if possible) and went with the first choice, which I didn't hold out much hope for. We were told that the implant would probably take around 3 weeks to start working, but within two days Mango was fluid filled and very uncomfortable again and her comb was going purple when she rested - the implant hadn't begun to work in that time frame of course.

 

At that point we decided to go for the second option sadly.

 

Good luck whatever you decide.

[Biker Betty]

Hello there - I can add a little something to this - my chook was very eggbound a month ago - she had a course of baytril and I gave her metacam as an anti-inflammatory and loads of extra calcium. The vet felt the egg inside her so it was definitely that. The advice I was given was to just take care of her and hope that she would pass it herself. Two weeks wernt by and I finally gave her some liquid paraffin as recommended on the ex-batt careline. She popped it out the next day (as horrible as it was - more like a lash).

 

I am back to the same stage again and will be giving her LP again this weekend (I need a helper as I live on my own and syringing in a chicken's beak is not easy). She is otherwise completely normal though - eating loads drinking loads and running around with all the others.

 

All advice I have had from vets, ex-bat careline etc is that the girls can live with one stuck for quite a while - it depends on if she has any others backed up. My girl is definitely testament to that!

 

I hope your girl recovers and soldiers on. Sounds like you're giving her lots of TLC which is the main thing - that does wonders in itself sometimes.

[Riarub]

My bantham hen is egg bound I've tried olive oil sitting her in bowl of warm water it will be 48 hours tommorow can anybody give me more advice what I can do please 

[Kitty]

On 5/20/2009 at 8:17 PM, ellisyellis said:

hi,

 

i dont think for one minuite your hen is egg bound as a hen which is egg bound (and i have had many!) either lays the egg or dies very quickly. it is simply not possible for a hen to be egg bound for 2 weeks. this is because if the hen does not lay the egg the next egg is still being made and will be behind the first problem egg by the next day. they will build up and will not stop being made by the hens body. this kills the hen normally within 48 hours.

 

is your hen still behaving poorly at the moment? if she is not laying eggs for a period of 2 weeks she is "off lay". this could happen for a number of reasons. the main reason being broodyness. illness is also a reason for being off lay. is your hen still under the weather?x

I would have agreed with you until my most recent experience. I collected some hens from the British Hen Welfare Trust 4 weeks ago. One of them had a swollen abdomen but was very well in herself. I decided to give her a chance to settle in and then look her to the vet thinking it might be ascites. The vet scanned her and told me it was a very large egg! She gave her calcium, antibiotics and anti inflammatory meds, and that evening after 2 warm baths, there was lots of pushing and panting but no egg. I can feel the egg inside her but it's sat very low down. The next day she was absolutely fine and the vet is completely baffled as to how she is so well. 

I found this thread because I'm trying to find if this has happened to anyone else!

[Kitty]

On 5/20/2009 at 8:17 PM, ellisyellis said:

hi,

 

i dont think for one minuite your hen is egg bound as a hen which is egg bound (and i have had many!) either lays the egg or dies very quickly. it is simply not possible for a hen to be egg bound for 2 weeks. this is because if the hen does not lay the egg the next egg is still being made and will be behind the first problem egg by the next day. they will build up and will not stop being made by the hens body. this kills the hen normally within 48 hours.

 

is your hen still behaving poorly at the moment? if she is not laying eggs for a period of 2 weeks she is "off lay". this could happen for a number of reasons. the main reason being broodyness. illness is also a reason for being off lay. is your hen still under the weather?x

I know this is an old post, but I've been searching the Internet for information on hens being egg bound for long periods of time. My hen, Lorraine, is an ex commercial hen and when we got her about 2 months ago, I thought her abdomen looked distended but I wasn't sure and she seemed happy enough. In those first few weeks she seemed very well but didn't lay. I eventually convinced myself that her abdo wasn't normal and took her to the vets. They scanned her and found an egg. They have calcium which started her muscle contractions, I gave her a warm bath, but the egg was so low down in the abdo, she couldn't pass it. The following day she was back to her usual happy self and has been the same since then. This was a couple of weeks ago. We drained some fluid from her abdomen, the vet thinks she has a sterile peritonitis. Her prognosis is guarded but I'm keen to hear from anyone else who's been may have been through similar? She seems so happy despite this egg being such inside her!!

[Beantree]

It's peritonitis, so the yolks are missing the oviduct and going into the abdomen. They will build up to the extent that the swelling in the abdomen won't let a complete egg pass through. So your vet is missing the point and so her abdomen needs to be drained first. Unfortunately this will be a recurring problem until she has a hormone implant, or until her active ovary is removed. Yes it is sterile peritonitis, so no infection fortunately. Naturally they can absorb 13% of the yolks (Poultry Behaviour and Welfare. a book based on commercial practices), but any more than that and they will just build up in the abdomen creating pressure that blocks the passage of a complete egg. Hope I have helped. She sounds like a real fighter, so deserves a chance for a happy extended life.

[Sue Dunlop]

Dear all chicken experts, I have read the posts about potential 'stuck' eggs, and am no further forward. One of my chickens (aged 18 months old)  hasn't laid since mid-May, apart from one finger like egg. I have been treating her as broody as she sits on eggs. 

I have been waiting for her hormones to go back to normal and start laying again.

But, a few days ago she started looking 'depressed'.She is also puffed up like a partridge. She appears to be eating and drinking. 

I have given her a warm bath, and applied Vaseline around the vent, which is moving. There appears to be a lump under the vent, but presumably this cannot be a stuck egg as she has not been laying for so long?

I am reluctant to take her to a vet as I have read they will probably treat with antibiotics and I don't think she is septic. 

Any help would be most gratefully received.

Yours Sue 

 

[Beantree]

There is a natural 'lump' under the vent, so unless it is exceptionally large that isn't the problem. She could be broody and have stopped laying as a result, but 10 weeks is a very long time; three weeks is normal. Is her abdomen swollen compared to the others? It shouldn't be solid/ firm, but slightly soft. What are her poos like?

[Ana]

On 5/15/2022 at 12:30 AM, Kitty said:

I would have agreed with you until my most recent experience. I collected some hens from the British Hen Welfare Trust 4 weeks ago. One of them had a swollen abdomen but was very well in herself. I decided to give her a chance to settle in and then look her to the vet thinking it might be ascites. The vet scanned her and told me it was a very large egg! She gave her calcium, antibiotics and anti inflammatory meds, and that evening after 2 warm baths, there was lots of pushing and panting but no egg. I can feel the egg inside her but it's sat very low down. The next day she was absolutely fine and the vet is completely baffled as to how she is so well. 

I found this thread because I'm trying to find if this has happened to anyone else!

Hi , yes it happens . We have a hen that is egg bound for around 3 weeks now , she does eat and drink but not huge amount  . We have been giving her warm bath twice a day , one day I can feel the egg and next day it’s gone . Couple of days egg is there again and she is pushing but it is not coming out, then it goes away . She is pooping but some poops are small stringy but mostly wet runny . She is still keeping active but of course not her usual self . Very confused about this situation as it seems it doesn’t happen often but clearly does