Hen with egg membrane stuck in bum

[Kawkawkaye]

Hi all, I have a troubled hen. She appears to have an egg membrane that’s she’s halfway to passing, as if she was laying a soft shelled egg and it burst halfway through, and now it’s too thin for her to push out herself or something.
She’s spent 4 hours now on her nest, trying to get it out. She doesn’t appear to be in pain, other than pushing occasionally to try and get it out (but not with any abnormal pressure). Luckily, the weather is surprisingly pleasant today, so she’s not in any additional discomfort. My questions are:

- does an egg membrane have any resemblance at all to chicken guts? As in is it possible that this is actually part of her tract that she’s pushed out? How would I know? This is a worst case scenario that I’m trying not to think about. We had this happen to an old chicken when I was young but I can’t remember what it looked like

- does a stuck membrane pose any immediate threat to her wellbeing? As in will it be safe for me to moniter her for a few more hours to see if she can do this herself before intervening?

- If we do intervene, what are our at-home options? Warm bath? Pull it out???

- Or is this a vet visit thing?

She is about eight months old, isa brown. She’s been our most consistant layer so far, has laid every day since she started until today. The climate I live in is very hot and challenging, so a lot of older chickens cease to lay at all this time of year, although younger chickens like herself tend to be able to handle it. She’s free range, has adequate supply to fresh water, food, etc. It also looks like she has pooped recently as there is a bit stuck to the membrane.

Thank you all in advance for your advice

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post a picture of her vent? Sometimes you can gently try to pull out an egg membrane. Eggs can break inside, but they can sometimes only pass a membrane by itself. She may be suffering from some reproductive problems with her oviduct. How often does she lay? Do you have any calcium supplements, Tums, or Rolaids, and can you give her one orally?

 

[azygous]

Are you in Australia? Just curious. No, I doubt the weather, as unpleasant as it is, would cause this. You can probably treat this successfully yourself, but you should try to obtain a broad spectrum antibiotic for her to head off possible infection caused by yolk being broken in her reproductive tract. It's a bacteria growing medium.

First thing to do is to pop a calcium supplement tablet into her beak. Calcium citrate is my choice, but gluconate, and carbonate will work.

This activates her contractions and helps her to expel the egg remains. There's no need to pull the membrane out, as it will pop out soon with contractions. If you were seeing her innards, you'd know it. It would be red and slimy and pretty startling.

The next thing is to provide moist heat. I like to use a heating pad under a moist towel rather than a soak, but with your heat spell, perhaps a quick soak would be better so has not to overheat her.

Then place her in a quiet place with water to drink and let her contractions work to expel the unfortunate mess. If you can get her on an antibiotic, I've found that it increases the likelihood that she will recover fully and continue to be the laying rock star she is.

 

[Kawkawkaye]

Can you post a picture of her vent? Sometimes you can gently try to pull out an egg membrane. Eggs can break inside, but they can sometimes only pass a membrane by itself. She may be suffering from some reproductive problems with her oviduct. How often does she lay? Do you have any calcium supplements, Tums, or Rolaids, and can you give her one orally?

Struggled to get any pictures but other than the membrane sticking out her vent is in good condition, not swollen or red. The membrane itself is about 7cm long. She lays everyday, same time every day, same size egg every day. She’s very regular, so I’m quite surprised this has happened, actually. She doesn’t take any supplements currently, but I might pop by the vet soon and see what they have.
In your comment, are you saying that it may have been a shelled egg and the shell is still in her abdomen, only the membrane coming out? Sorry, I couldn’t quite tell from the way you’ve worded it.

 

[Kawkawkaye]

Are you in Australia? Just curious. No, I doubt the weather, as unpleasant as it is, would cause this. You can probably treat this successfully yourself, but you should try to obtain a broad spectrum antibiotic for her to head off possible infection caused by yolk being broken in her reproductive tract. It's a bacteria growing medium.

First thing to do is to pop a calcium supplement tablet into her beak. Calcium citrate is my choice, but gluconate, and carbonate will work.

This activates her contractions and helps her to expel the egg remains. There's no need to pull the membrane out, as it will pop out soon with contractions. If you were seeing her innards, you'd know it. It would be red and slimy and pretty startling.

The next thing is to provide moist heat. I like to use a heating pad under a moist towel rather than a soak, but with your heat spell, perhaps a quick soak would be better so has not to overheat her.

Then place her in a quiet place with water to drink and let her contractions work to expel the unfortunate mess. If you can get her on an antibiotic, I've found that it increases the likelihood that she will recover fully and continue to be the laying rock star she is.

Thanks for your detailed reply! Yes we are in australia (in the tropics). There’s an ex-cyclone passing through right now so it’s nice and drizzly right now.
Comforting to know that it isn’t her guts coming out, thank you for that!

 

[Kawkawkaye]

Are you in Australia? Just curious. No, I doubt the weather, as unpleasant as it is, would cause this. You can probably treat this successfully yourself, but you should try to obtain a broad spectrum antibiotic for her to head off possible infection caused by yolk being broken in her reproductive tract. It's a bacteria growing medium.

First thing to do is to pop a calcium supplement tablet into her beak. Calcium citrate is my choice, but gluconate, and carbonate will work.

This activates her contractions and helps her to expel the egg remains. There's no need to pull the membrane out, as it will pop out soon with contractions. If you were seeing her innards, you'd know it. It would be red and slimy and pretty startling.

The next thing is to provide moist heat. I like to use a heating pad under a moist towel rather than a soak, but with your heat spell, perhaps a quick soak would be better so has not to overheat her.

Then place her in a quiet place with water to drink and let her contractions work to expel the unfortunate mess. If you can get her on an antibiotic, I've found that it increases the likelihood that she will recover fully and continue to be the laying rock star she is.

Do you suppose that applying the moist heat by itself would be beneficial? I don’t have any of what you said on hand, so I’d like to try other remedies before I go out and buy things (although I do think I’ll grab some antibiotics next time I’m in town)

 

[azygous]

There are lots of ways to supply moist heat. Even a bath towel soaked in hot water and rung out in the washer would work long enough to help her relax those muscles and let her contractions be productive.

The calcium supplement is very important, though. It's just simple calcium women take for strong bones. Even Tums or Rolaids or any calcium antacid will work.

This is a glitch in her "works", and after this, you should have every reason to expect she will go back to laying normally.

 

[MickWithChicks]

You can get liquid calcium (brand Avi-Calcium) at any Petstock and most feed stores (in NSW at least). It's good to have on hand at any rate and will be easy to get into her now rather than if she gets sick later.

I'd dip her in a warm bath (with epsom salts if you have them (Aldi have epsom salts in their specials atm)) if she's not the flighty type. I've had a few egg-bound hens who were able to pass their stuck eggs in or after their bath.

You won't be able to get an anti-biotic without a vet visit, so if it's out of the budget, just get to a feed store or even a chemist to get some calcium. That's pretty important right now. Also, if you go to Petstock, buy the crushed oyster shell to give to them ad-lib. It could help with problems like this in the future.

 

[Shadrach]

You are probably better off trying to gently pull the membrane out. Essentiallly with lash eggs (fetus and yolk formed with partial membrane) there is no back pressure for the hen to push against when trying to eject it. Think of the size and shape of an egg compared to a slippery piece of membrane. My belief is it is better to have this dealt with as quickly as possible because it is possible for the lash egg/membrane to interfere in the delivery of the next egg.
Once the membrane is clear you can then check by inserting a clean and oiled finger into the vent for shell pieces. They are usually quite obvious. Look at a picture of a hens oviduct and you will see there is a double bend in the oviduct above the uterus where the shell is formed so even broken shell pieces have difficulty getting into the Isthmus where the membrane is formed.

 

[Eggcessive]

It can be common for a hen to lay a shell-less egg. They also can lay just a membrane if the oviduct is having a malfunction. Shell-less eggs are harder to pass, and hens may become eggbound, while the oviduct is still producing eggs, membranes, etc. Many times these things hanging out of the vent may be grabbed and eaten by the other chickens before we see them. I have only witnessed one hanging out of a vent before. Calcium can help to push the egg or the membrane out.