Urbanforestchickens
In the Brooder
- May 13, 2022
- 7
- 21
- 28
Hi,
I have been trying to figure out what is going on with my young Hyline Brown, Ophie, who has been having all kinds of symtpoms that I can't narrow down to one illness. Yesterday evening I put a finger inside of her to see if I could feel an egg. I read that I would be able to push my finger straight back but her anatomy doesn't seem to work that way. I felt an egg through some tissue, it seemed to be further in and above my finger.
This morning there were some eggs, but none of them were bloody. Someone has been laying bloody eggs and I figure it is Ophie because her vent has been a bit bloody, so I didn’t think she had laid her egg. I checked inside again and it felt like there was an egg up there in the other side of whatever tissue is at the back of her cloaca, still above my finger. But it felt further in, and smaller. I thought maybe she had laid the egg I had felt the day before after all, and that this was another egg moving down. I expected it that was the case I would have one more egg than I am used to these days. I went out this evening to give them some greens and check fir more eggs, and she was hunched behind a crate with her eyes partially closed. She was dripping blood and discharge, her vent was open pretty wide and kind of purple, and the other hens were pecking at her as they walked by.
I picked her up and brought her to a small little coop we set up to isolate her if needed. I checked her out, and saw what looked like at egg. It looked like it was coming up from below. I touched it to confirm that it was an egg and it started to show more. I put her in her small coop to lay. When I came back about an hour later, she had not laid an egg. I cleaned her up, and went in again. This time I found the oviduct and was able to touch the shell of the egg with my finger. It was in and to the left (my left if facing her butt). I was surprised that it seemed to have gone back in! I moved my finger around the egg to see if it was broken or something, and what I could feel felt intact, but it almost seemed like the egg was sticking to the side of her oviduct on one side. It was tight up to that side anyway, my finger could get around it one way but not the other. I was being as gentle as I would with myself this whole time, and she was very calm while I did it so I don't think she was in pain though I'm sure it was uncomfortable!
Can a hen's egg move around in her oviduct?! Is she pulling it back somehow after I poke at her? Could she have just been laying her egg, and the blood is from something else, and when I isolated her she decided to not lay it and scooted it back in? Does anyone have any other theories?
Thank you for reading!
I have been trying to figure out what is going on with my young Hyline Brown, Ophie, who has been having all kinds of symtpoms that I can't narrow down to one illness. Yesterday evening I put a finger inside of her to see if I could feel an egg. I read that I would be able to push my finger straight back but her anatomy doesn't seem to work that way. I felt an egg through some tissue, it seemed to be further in and above my finger.
This morning there were some eggs, but none of them were bloody. Someone has been laying bloody eggs and I figure it is Ophie because her vent has been a bit bloody, so I didn’t think she had laid her egg. I checked inside again and it felt like there was an egg up there in the other side of whatever tissue is at the back of her cloaca, still above my finger. But it felt further in, and smaller. I thought maybe she had laid the egg I had felt the day before after all, and that this was another egg moving down. I expected it that was the case I would have one more egg than I am used to these days. I went out this evening to give them some greens and check fir more eggs, and she was hunched behind a crate with her eyes partially closed. She was dripping blood and discharge, her vent was open pretty wide and kind of purple, and the other hens were pecking at her as they walked by.
I picked her up and brought her to a small little coop we set up to isolate her if needed. I checked her out, and saw what looked like at egg. It looked like it was coming up from below. I touched it to confirm that it was an egg and it started to show more. I put her in her small coop to lay. When I came back about an hour later, she had not laid an egg. I cleaned her up, and went in again. This time I found the oviduct and was able to touch the shell of the egg with my finger. It was in and to the left (my left if facing her butt). I was surprised that it seemed to have gone back in! I moved my finger around the egg to see if it was broken or something, and what I could feel felt intact, but it almost seemed like the egg was sticking to the side of her oviduct on one side. It was tight up to that side anyway, my finger could get around it one way but not the other. I was being as gentle as I would with myself this whole time, and she was very calm while I did it so I don't think she was in pain though I'm sure it was uncomfortable!
Can a hen's egg move around in her oviduct?! Is she pulling it back somehow after I poke at her? Could she have just been laying her egg, and the blood is from something else, and when I isolated her she decided to not lay it and scooted it back in? Does anyone have any other theories?
Thank you for reading!
