Possible broken egg inside my chicken

[Camilla7]

I'm hoping for some help!

Last week I noticed one of our hens was very lethargic and appeared sickly. I thought she was egg bound and tried to feel around. I ended up taking her to the vet who couldn't feel an egg and prescribed her antibiotics.

However, since then (5 days) she doesn't seem to be any better. She appears to be constantly straining, she has what appears to be very yellow poop stuck on her, and today her comb looks very pale. She isn't molting and I am worried that an egg broke inside her.

I have a call into the vet and am waiting but is there anything I can do in the meantime?

I have tried to feel around and applied some lube, as well as a warm water bath to see if that would help. I don't believe she has passed anything out of her for a couple of days maybe 3.

She is about 2 1/2 years old and literally a week ago was totally fine. We have 2 other chickens who are completely fine.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings, Camilla, and . Happy you joined us but sorry to hear about your chicken. I typed in "broken egg inside chicken" in the BYC search bar and here was one of the threads that came up https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1000575/broken-egg-inside-hen-help
Hope it yields some helpful info. Good luck to you!

 

[polish hen]

It sounds like a soft shelled egg may have broken inside of her and there are pieces of the soft shelled egg still inside...which antibiotics were you given? , baytril along with clavamox work best for this type of situation, given for 14 days, the fact that you're seeing yellow in the poop sounds like this is the case, she should poop thease pieces out but if she caint you may have to go back to you're vet, keep me posted and I hope she gets better

 

[polish hen]

This might become an ongoing issue with you're bird, is she usually a steady egg layer?, what breed is she? , I have a Polish hen that had this same problem 3 years ago, she's going to be 4 years old in October I had to take her to a avian vet and she's been given a deslorelin implant aka suprelorin since then, it's a hormonal implant and it stops her laying cycle (stops ovulation) sort of the same as birth control and this way she dosent have to lay anymore and be at risk for more eggs breaking inside of her. The implant last about 4 to 6 months then has to be repeated once it starts to wear off, you'll notice you're hens comb start to get red again and she'll start looking around for nests also she may squat as if excepting a rooster but when on the implant you'll notice her comb shrivel up and go a pale pink like when chickens are out of lay from a molt ect, implants should be fairly easy for you're vet to obtain as there also used in dogs and ferrets

 

[polish hen]

It's possible that the infection is still going on as well, ask you're vet to do a blood test to see if white blood count is elevated, antibiotics may not have cleared up her infection and the fact that she's straining sounds like a soft she'll could be lodge up in her vent, I whould go back to the vet and soon

 

[Camilla7]

Hi all ... Thank you so much for the advice and information.

Unfortunately she passed away some time last night. I spoke to my vet this afternoon and he has given me the information on where to take her for a necropsy so I can see if my other two are susceptible.

My gut and research tells me that an egg broke inside of her but my vet also told me that yellow poop could be a sign of liver issues. Either way hopefully the necropsy will help us understand what happened.

Thank you so much for all the information.... It felt good to know other people were there during this time.

Will update with results to share for more knowledge.