Prevention of Hen being eggbound

[Mcgyver]

I am aware of the importance of calcium etc., even to the point of an article I read about not giving the calcium on a daily basis, as somtimes the body does not take in the calcium and is excreted.

Giving the calcium a few days apart insures the calcium is fully absorbed and should an emergency arise, and the calcium needs to be administered quickly then the body will absorb it otherwise, in the other situation, the body may choose not to absorb the calcium and excrete the calcium the bird may need and it could die??

 

This is not precise but as close as I can remember.

 

I am really after any factual or proven method of avoiding this situation, I could not handle the loss my grey.

Cheers ...Rick

[Rachel]

Hi Rick,

 

The best person to speak to, to make sure the facts are 100% accurate, would be an avian vet I would imagine.

 

Firstly, I am no expert, the following is a few things I've read on different posts here.

 

One is to not remove eggs from a laying hen as it may force the continued production of eggs leading to egg binding.

 

Another mentioned the fact a Grey's skin can become dry and to make sure your bird is bathing, if not, then being sprayed reguarly or if not, a humidifyer. For egg binding this I imagine stops the bird absorbing moisture from within the body which may make it difficult to lay an egg.

 

Another post mentioned a vet injecting a particular hormone into a hen who had been ill. This is what it said:

"So we decided to go ahead and give her a shot of Lupron (a hormone) which should hopefully keep her from laying and calm her down sexually"

 

Personally I think the above is a pretty extreme measure. I believe if you purchase a hen then there are going to be some things she is going to naturally want to do. From past experience with birds egg binding tends to be few and far between but you need to make sure you really know you bird to recognise any signs of distress. Before she gets to the age of laying, you should find out the approx length of time there generally is between each egg and how many may be laid. This way if an expected egg doesn't arrive and your bird seems slightly 'fatter' and shows any signs of distress - straight off to your vet!

 

I don't believe there is anyway to 100% make sure it doesn't happen.

 

Good luck!

Rachel

[Mcgyver]

Thanks for the info ...I agree with you on the Vet.

When I went to buy my grey there were both males and females and this hen chose me ...she was out of the cage and onto my hand before I had a real chance to look at any of the others.

It just hit me the other day about this eggbound situation and I nearly freaked, having realised that my grey was a hen and I could be faced with this threat.

I have a really good Vet so that's the way to go but I just thought there might be a more hands on approach to dealing with the problem, especially regarding my bird Nandi, she will let me handle her anyway I want, so that would make things easier than racing off to the Vet

Thanks again.

Cheers ...Rick

[kiwibarb12]

My TAG , Beckett , was a rehome. He was 10 when I got him, I have had him almost 2 years. a month or so ago, I realized there was something wrong with him. After dinner I sat down to watch tv with Beck on my shoulder. He was very quiet, and still, fluffed up and breathing hard. I realiszed that when I came home, he hadn't called to me.

he was sitting crouched down. I didn't know what was wrong with him. When he pooped the poops were urind and urates only - no feces. After a time he seemed a llittle better, so I put him in his cage and went to bed. The next morning he seemed about the same, so I wnet to work and called my vet clinic who had no avian vet available until the next day. I called the one that I used to use all the time,until I moved. I took him in - he xrayed him - and I just knew that he had a bowel obstruction due to a tumor (I'm a nurse) and he would need surgery!

 

the xray was conclusive- she was egg-bound! with two large eggs. I elected to have him gas her down and remove the eggs. He was able to get the first one out - the second one was thinned shelled, and broke in her way up. he wasn't able ot remove the shell fragments because of the risk of rupturing or lacerating internal membranes, and doing more damage than already present.

 

I got Beckette back shortly there after, she was very groggy, and leaking mucus from the cloeac. Her vent feathers were mucky, and she couldn't poop cleanly, as if she didn't have control of her sphincter.

 

I watched her very closely over the next couple of days - especially her poops. I had to wash her vent off a couple of times to her indignation . Thankfully, she passed the shell fragments without any injury or damage. Ihave read statistics that suggest that over 50% of birds with eggbounding die.

 

Since then I have been altering her diet to ensure she gets plenty of variety and calcium rich foods.

 

One thing the vet had me feel was just proximal to her vent, when she was full of eggs I could feel the shape of the egg under her skin. If your hen is egg bound you will be able to feel the egg.

 

Advice my vet gave me - calcium rich diet in natural foods. Keep her out of anything that looks like a nest ie cupboards, boxes and so on. Decrease light exposure to somewhere between 6 and 8 hours a day. No petting on her back - keep toys away that brush across this area, if she becomes aroused ie drops wings and crouches down, immediately stop what you are dooing and distract her - i pick her up and move her so she has to pull in her wings or use them for balance.

 

I was scared senseless when she was sick and am dedicated to stopping this from happening again.

 

Anything you can do to stop your hen from laying is a good think!! good luck.

[judygram]

Thanks Barbara for a very informative post on eggbinding. I have a female also but she is not old enough for this to happen yet as she is only 16 months old. I am glad to hear that everything turned out well for Beckett and your suggestions will come in handy one day maybe for more than just me. Karma to you.

[lovemyGreys]

what a story, very informative, thank you for posting this, & im pleased all turned out well.