is she egg bound?

[janeyo]

My fave hen hasn't laid for a few days. She is now all fluffed up and a bit lethargic, and slow to get out of the way. She is still eating and drinking and helped me to clean the coop earlier but is walking in a way that can only be descibed as waddling, with her feet splayed funny, like she has something stuck. I can't at her to examine her til OH comes home when he can help me, but what signs should I be looking for if she is? And what do I do?

Many thanks

[RichmondHens]

You'll know more after you've examined her, but the most common signs of egg bound-ness are that the hen repeatedly goes into the nestbox to lay, but doesn't produce anything. She also may show signs of straining. Over time she will become more withdrawn and uncomfortable. The waddling you describe may well be due to something else - build up of abdominal fluid perhaps - is she an ex batt? They seem to be prone to ascites - Suechooks has had several with this I believe.

When you examine her you can gently slide a lubricated finger into the vent to see if there is an egg stuck just inside. If there is you can have a go at wiggling it out but you may well break it which may then lead to egg peritonitis if not completely cleaned out. Perhaps a trip to the vet is in order?

[janeyo]

Thanks, she is not an exbatt, had her from POL and she is coming up for 3 yrs old now. Not had any bother with her before, but she has just had a moult and is growing her bum back again!
She does keep going into the nestbox but nothing has happened. I will hopefull get OH to come down with me and fish her out tonight so we can have a look.
She just doesn't seem right and the waddling is very odd.

Thanks

[rustylady]

Hope she is OK

[mr darcy]

i'm wondering if anything has changed? when i had an eggbound hen i'd only had hens for a few weeks and didn't read the signs, she died, and that's how ended up on this forum, the brilliant advice i received saved the life of another eggbound hen a few weeks later (don't i have all the luck!) both hens were in the first weeks of lay and both were laying huge double yokers. the signs for mine were those described in your first reply to this post. I brought the hen into my warm bathroom and sat her in a washing up bowl of warm bathwarm almost, water, i stood her in gently then by gently pressing down between her 'shoulders' she sank down and seemed very relieved,the water just covered vent, not her back etc, closed eyes etc, left her about 15mins still with my hand resting on her back, took her out in a (fluffy!!) towell and gently applied vaseline around and in vent, then dried her and left her in the bathroom in a box of hay, undisturbed, 30mins later she laid a really huge egg!
do not try to fish out the egg, egg peritonitis killed my first bird sadly, not thru me fishing, but thru her straining or maybe pecking at herself, the problem is that eggs go on forming behind the stuck one and you get a sort of egg pile up in the oviduct.
Anyway hoping you've found the cause of her unhappiness by now, good luck!