i gave it a try. i just couldn't get around the egg--it just felt like i hit a wall in there and with all the swelling, couldn't tell if i was even touching the egg itself or still feeling it thru her insides. what's hard for me too is that i really haven't examined my hens closely when they are healthy so i don't know what i'm feeling. her little belly is so hard it feels like she has an egg on each side. i think we've both had enough for one night. i gave her another warm bath, got some prep h and put her under the heat lamp. i just hope she's warm enough. if i wake my hubby up with the hair dryer he'll kill us both. will you be around tomorrow ?

she's just such a tiny hen. i feel like i'm tearing her to shreds inside. poor little angel. she needs a miracle.

well you know best at this point cause you are there with her..you're doing a great job! A rest is probably what she needs with the meds anyway. Try it again after she's rested. I have a diagram of a chicken showing different areas for diseases, and although it doesn't really apply, it does show you where the cloaca is in reference to the vent. A little "rough" the drawing is, but will give you a general idea. Just go HERE

I'll keep checking back tomorrow on this thread..i won't be able to hang around too much except for really early in the morning as i've got a ton of things to do around this house and get some vege beds put together still yet.

hi there,
i just woke up from collapsing early this morning. i'm horse-sitting and by the time i dragged out to them it was after 7:30, and once i got done with all the chores it was nearly 10: and i just laid down with the intentions of grabbing a half hour or so. i she had some breakfast this morning with aspirin and some rolaids (no tums in the medecine chest) i smooshed some more prep h on, then collapsed. i just checked on her again, doing the same as this morning.if it weren't for the ammonia smell and the prolapse, she's not behaving any differently than normal. she isn't attempting to strain, and the only time she spasms in her rear is after i've been fussing with it. she does appear to be passing a bit of poop more readily and the ammonia isn't half as bad as yesterday. thank you for the diagram, things make more sense now. she didn't seem to mind the baths, but never really sat down and acted like she wanted to be in there.. does this sound normal for an eggbound chicken? what do i do now ? give her another bath and see if she starts passing it, or should i start getting mentally ready for a breakage and flush situation? i just don't think there's enough room to get this large, hard, egg out past my finger. she's just so small. (i guess it would have been better in htis circumstance had her egg been on the soft side--it might have given me some wiggle room. if we decide to go with breaking the egg, how does that happen? the guy at the feed store yesterday said to squeeze her abdomen from the outside (but then again, he never mentioned anything about prep h, warm baths, or calcium) or should i be thinking of breaking it with my finger from inside the vent. according to your diagram, the membrane i'm feeling in between my finger and the egg could just be that i haven't gotten past the point where the digestive canal and egg canal meet. does that sound about right? i cannot even describe to you what an immense headache i have had since i found her yesterday afternoon...it's just making this whole thing doubly lousy for me. i can't even imagine what meggie is going thru. thanks again for sticking with me. you are truly an angel of mercy. with a very fierce avatar...lol.[font=Trebuchet] [/font]

OK lets see here..since that egg is hard and she's passing poop..and the ammonia smell is down..I'm tempted to go with this..being that you say she is so tiny and it's great difficulty in getting around that egg..just double up on the warm baths..let's treat this like a cockateil bind. I don't think it's wise to bust that egg at this point..see if she can pass it. This is going to sound bizarre, but pick her up and blow on the vent and see if she is flexing. If she is that is a good sign. Still keep up with the meds and lets see how this goes. I'll watch for more posting too..i've been busy today..sorry!

sad news and quick update. my nextdoor neighbor, an emt, with very little fingers came over to assist this afternoon and she couldn't get past the hard lump at the end of the cloaca either. unfortunately, meggie died during the attempt. we decided to perform a necropsy so that we would have a better idea of what went awry, should we encounter anything like this again. her entire egg canal was impacted with rock hard, extremely dry yoke-like matter, possibly several eggs but the yolky matter was so hard that we had to remove it breaking of sections. the yolky matter had a thin slightly darker area , slightly leathery, that i am assuming was shell that had been soft, but had turned leathery over the course of the impaction. the sections below the impaction were necrotic and the sepsis was apparent throught the abdominal cavity. she had been eating and passing fecal matter, within a half hour of time of her death,
but it is clear now that her condition would have been fatal and inevitable regardless of any treatment we could have offered. i am sorry that i do not have a digital camera, so am unable to provide pictures of the necropsy, but if any questiobns regarding the details come up, i would be happy to answer to the best of my ability.
thanks so much for all your assistance during this crisis. if you have any thoughts on how this played out, please let me know. your input will be much appreciated. i don't ever want to see another hen (or myself) experience such a horrible situation again and i'm sur my ignorance of basic sbicken physiology delayed the recognition of symptoms past the point that i might have been able to assist her.

OOH! I'm soo sorry! Please do NOT Blame yourself though. I do wish you had a camera to post some photos. Things like this do happen, but don't give up. I've been through several of these over the 20 someodd years i've been messing with chickens and it's never pleasant. I too have lost a few and a couple have been horrible..and it happened to be the first few times..it makes you stronger. Just jump back on the bandwagon and everything will be ok..just takes some time. Hugs to you!

Yes, I agree, don't blame yourself. The first time you experience anything, it will be hard to spot, and to treat. By you stating that you took the time to open her up to learn what was wrong, and to understand better tells me that you are willing to do what has to be done to take care of your fowl, and is more than a lot of people would do. I think you handled the situation very well, and it doesn't sound like you could have done anything that could have helped anyway. I can tell you that I have had fowl for a few years, and I still learn new stuff all the time, and still make mistakes so don't feel bad. Sorry to hear she didn't make it, but the experience you have learned from this, will help you keep it from happening again in the future, so at least some good came out of it.

you would make a great midwife China. But since you have goats I would be suprised if you did not know this. around here when someone is having trouble with a doe kidding they call my wife and she goes a running no matter the time or place. she has saved a lot of kids and made some owners turn green around the gills when they saw what had to be done.

Sorry to hear about your trouble with tour hen, I hope everything worked out to the good. I lost a good hen this year that had an egg break inside of and she bled out. Fortunately I did grt a few eggs out of her hatched. that was a first for me.