Help! Needing my hen to miscarriage, she will die otherwise.

[Snowy Canadian]

Hello, I know the title of this post sounds horrible but it’s the best way to describe what I think I need to do.

I have a hen who stops eating completely before she lays her egg, but it can take her several days before she actually lays the eggs.

Right now she wants to lay an egg and hasn’t eaten any food in about 5 days. I’m starting to worry that she may not be able to lay the egg on her own, and I’ll have to do something to clear her reproductive tract so she stops this behaviour and doesn’t “feel” like she has to lay an egg.

She is NOT egg bound! She’s always been bad at laying eggs, had a bad shell gland, and has had this issue and been healthy for her entire 5 year life. The issue is that shes spending much more time before laying the egg not eating anything. After she lays her eggs previously, she immediately goes back to normal again.

I’ve seen how other hens prematurely lay their eggs when they are stressed or sick, and I need my hen to do this, but I’m not sure exactly how to make this happen, and am afraid of hurting her in the process.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about, is there anything I can do to her to break the hormones that tell her “I need to lay this egg, so I’ll stop eating”? For broody hens you can give them an ice pack, and this changes their bodies hormones to stop their habit and save their lives, so can I do something like that here?

My local vets cannot help chickens, they aren’t trained for it, which is why I’m asking here for your help.

If I can save her life I’m going to try getting a hormone implant to stop her from ever laying these eggs again. She’s my best girl and I want to save her.

Hopefully someone has an idea about what I can do to help her.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

I would give her a calcium pill. If you have some Calcium +D3 around 400 iu., that'd be the best. Otherwise, whatever you've got or a Tums even. This will cause contractions. You can do this once a day for up to three days.

You can give her the calcium pill whole. Just pull down her wattles gently and she'll open her mouth. She can swallow it.

Try offering her some mash, (wet crumbles or pellets) or scrambled eggs. She hopefully would eat those.

 

[nuthatched]

Hi there,
I dont think you quite understand how a chickens reproductive system works, or at least don't know the terminology.
Can you explain what you mean by:

I’ve seen how other hens prematurely lay their eggs when they are stressed or sick, and I need my hen to do this

What does this mean? A egg does not form then take days to reach lay, there's no "pregnancy" or "premature" laying. There's no 'miscarriage' either.
A hen can go a few days between laying, but an egg is formed and laid within 26 hours.

If shes not eating between eggs, but not acting egg bound, how do you know shes not eating because of an egg?

How have you determined it's her shell gland? Are her eggs soft?
How often does she lay?
Has she ever been wormed?
What's her diet, including all treats?
Have you tried using calcium therapy ?

 

[janiedoe]

Hello, I know the title of this post sounds horrible but it’s the best way to describe what I think I need to do.

I have a hen who stops eating completely before she lays her egg, but it can take her several days before she actually lays the eggs.

Right now she wants to lay an egg and hasn’t eaten any food in about 5 days. I’m starting to worry that she may not be able to lay the egg on her own, and I’ll have to do something to clear her reproductive tract so she stops this behaviour and doesn’t “feel” like she has to lay an egg.

She is NOT egg bound! She’s always been bad at laying eggs, had a bad shell gland, and has had this issue and been healthy for her entire 5 year life. The issue is that shes spending much more time before laying the egg not eating anything. After she lays her eggs previously, she immediately goes back to normal again.

I’ve seen how other hens prematurely lay their eggs when they are stressed or sick, and I need my hen to do this, but I’m not sure exactly how to make this happen, and am afraid of hurting her in the process.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about, is there anything I can do to her to break the hormones that tell her “I need to lay this egg, so I’ll stop eating”? For broody hens you can give them an ice pack, and this changes their bodies hormones to stop their habit and save their lives, so can I do something like that here?

My local vets cannot help chickens, they aren’t trained for it, which is why I’m asking here for your help.

If I can save her life I’m going to try getting a hormone implant to stop her from ever laying these eggs again. She’s my best girl and I want to save her.

Hopefully someone has an idea about what I can do to help her.

I'm tagging someone who may be able to help. @triciayoung

 

[Snowy Canadian]

I'm tagging someone who may be able to help. @triciayoung

Thanks!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

What do you feed, including treats?

Do you provide calcium in the form of crushed oyster shell, always available?

If your vets do not treat chickens, how do you plan to get her the implant?

 

[Snowy Canadian]

Hi,

I would give her a calcium pill. If you have some Calcium +D around 400 iu., that'd be the best. Otherwise, whatever you've got or a Tums even. This will cause contractions. You can do this once a day for up to three days.

You can give her the calcium pill whole. Just pull down her wattles gently and she'll open her mouth. She can swallow it.

Try offering her some mash, (wet crumbles or pellets) or scrambled eggs. She hopefully would eat those.

I’ll try this. As I mentioned she has shell gland issues, so it’s possible she has trouble getting the egg along it’s path.

 

[Snowy Canadian]

What do you feed, including treats?

Do you provide calcium in the form of crushed oyster shell, always available?

If your vets do not treat chickens, how do you plan to get her the implant?

I feed them a self ground feed that’s made with whole grains, concentrated layer nutrients, and oyster shells according to the package instructions. None of my other hens have had any issues laying eggs.

At the vets no one is trained specifically in chickens, so they may not have the knowledge or experience to diagnose and treat what’s happening to my hen. They have basic knowledge of birds, and so I think they could probably install an implant because this doesn’t take any guesswork. I live over an hour away from the vets, and they told me before they only offer limited help for chickens, otherwise I would take my girl in even for the basic testing.

 

[Snowy Canadian]

Hi there,
I dont think you quite understand how a chickens reproductive system works, or at least don't know the terminology.
Can you explain what you mean by:

What does this mean? A egg does not form then take days to reach lay, there's no "pregnancy" or "premature" laying. There's no 'miscarriage' either.
A hen can go a few days between laying, but an egg is formed and laid within 26 hours.

If shes not eating between eggs, but not acting egg bound, how do you know shes not eating because of an egg?

How have you determined it's her shell gland? Are her eggs soft?
How often does she lay?
Has she ever been wormed?
What's her diet, including all treats?
Have you tried using calcium therapy ?

quite a while ago one of my leghorns laid 2 rubber eggs at night, and this was after they already laid a normal egg during the day. The two eggs were shrunken and didn’t have shells because the yolk was dropped prematurely and the egg was laid before it was properly developed. I’ve also had a hen lay a rubber egg instantly after they got super stressed from an attack, that’s what I mean by premature is that it was laid before being fully developed.

So for a miscarriage I want my hen to get the undeveloped egg out of its system that’s causing it to act like it needs to lay. This hen used to only take a few minutes or longer to relax before laying eggs, like every other hen, and then it became hours, then days, and I’m not sure if that’s because the hormones hit before she’s ready to lay, or if the egg is traveling slow though her systems or what the case is. She just sits around outside waiting, like a normal hen does inside the nest when they are preparing to lay.

 

[Snowy Canadian]

Hi there,
I dont think you quite understand how a chickens reproductive system works, or at least don't know the terminology.
Can you explain what you mean by:

What does this mean? A egg does not form then take days to reach lay, there's no "pregnancy" or "premature" laying. There's no 'miscarriage' either.
A hen can go a few days between laying, but an egg is formed and laid within 26 hours.

If shes not eating between eggs, but not acting egg bound, how do you know shes not eating because of an egg?

How have you determined it's her shell gland? Are her eggs soft?
How often does she lay?
Has she ever been wormed?
What's her diet, including all treats?
Have you tried using calcium therapy ?

for the final set of questions, I know this is because of her laying an egg because she’s taken longer and longer every time and her symptoms are identical to previous instances where she’s done this. She shows no other signs of disease, and when she has to fly or run away she does so normally, but otherwise doesn’t like to move. It may be directly related to forming the eggs, or laying them, or the hormones created when doing this, but whatever it is, when the egg comes out she goes back to normal.

I don’t know if the shell gland caused this, or if the shell gland is caused by the same issue, but she has not laid an egg with a shell in the last 4 years. It’s not calcium intake issue because she has strong bones, eats lots of calcium shells, and all my other hens lay really good strong eggs. Her eggs have no shells at all, not even a thin bit of calcium, so her shell gland just doesn’t work.

She used to lay rubber eggs every night when she was younger but now she’s laying much less often, but for being 5 years old that isn’t unusual for hens to slow down. She lays them at random times of the day and lays them usually outside or on the roost wherever she is at the time.

She has been dewormed once months ago, but she’s had the rubber eggs before and after the deworming.

She eats a cracked feed which is a mix of whole grains, oyster shells, and concentrated nutrients according to the instruction. None of my birds have an issue with this. Treats are sunflower seeds and fresh corn, but this isn’t much of their diet.

I’m not sure what you mean by calcium therapy, but I feed all my hens a decent amount of calcium and she just does not produce shells.