The Poultry Keeper

Aussie Chick · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 4:53 pm Post subject: Egg Bound?

My sister is Australia has one chicken. She use to have more but they died off, old age, heart attacks etc. She is getting a couple of chicks next week, but at the moment she has a problem.

Hughie, her hen, was laying from 18 weeks for about a year, with an off period in winter. Then about 6 months ago she stopped, I told my sister she was lonely. Anyway, a Scrub Turkey has been coming into their yard, they are protected so she was having trouble getting rid of it. The turkey was a boy! he tried all the moves and Hughie started laying again just for one month. The the turkey got a bit too randy and now Hughie has stopped laying and walks around with the John Wayne sway. My sis thought she might be egg bound. I still think she's lonely. The Turkey has been moved on.

Any suggestions welcome and sorry about the long post. Wink

Lisa · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 7:47 pm Post subject:

Not had experience of it myself, but I thought when they were egg bound they were more distressed and obviously ill....

summayah · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 4289 Location: luton

sorry, I can't offer any suggestions at all. Is Hughie behaving normally apart from the walk, eating/drinking well etc. Does she have any other signs ~ runny nose, odd noises?
Maybe she's just been under a lot of stress and needs time to re-adjust ~ can she get acv over there, just as a pick me up for poor Hughie?

Lisa · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject:

Ooops, yes, forgot about the walk symptom....

When I first had the problem with Ninja I posted about it on PP too. Both Krys and Mollie said they had owned birds that had "the walk" but carried on fine apart from this.

If it continues to worsen though, as it did with Ninja, it is a sign of fluid in the abdomen which should not be there, swelling their belly and making walking difficult. It can be there for a variety of reasons (infection, tumour, liver problems etc) none of which are good Sad

AFAIK being egg bound, or egg peritonitis, come on (so I am told) very quickly and the hen goes downhill over a matter of days. Its the ones that drag on for weeks or months with vague symptoms that are difficult to diagnose....

I think its just a case of monitoring the general health of the hen, and if it deteriorates too far then its time to do the last kindnest you can for them Crying or Very sad

Sorry, that's not very hopeful Confused