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I'm pretty sure one of my chickens is eggbound. The last time she layed was Monday (I'm writing this on Thursday*). Yesterday she started behaving a bit strange and jumped on top of the coop where there is a load of jasmin and honeysuckle hanging over creating a lovely shady spot. I thought she was just investigating, but when I looked closer she was crouched down and was doing her egg-laying noise and was shaking her head a lot. I'm not sure if she usually shakes her head while she's laying because she usually goes in her nest box. Anyway, no egg came (I've checked the floor around the outside of the coop). A bit later she went into her nest box and did her little noises again. She was in there ages, but no egg came. I also noticed that the pile of poo under the perch where she had slept was smaller than usual, so I watched her for ages to see if she did any poos in the garden. Eventually she did a small, runny one. This morning, there's only a tiny amount of poo under her place on the perch, and she still hasn't laid an egg.

OH has looked up the condition on the internet and some people say to lubricate the area with something like KY jelly (imagine going in a chemist and saying "Can I have some KY jelly for my chicken, please?" + = ). Other advice says to hold her over a bowl of warm water for a while. The problem with both is that since she's become egg-bound, she won't let us pick her up. She's a bngger to catch and if we do, she struggles and hunches her 'shoulders' making it really difficult keeping hold of her.

So, any suggestions please?

PS, I know the smilie is a duck, but it's as close as I could find to a chicken

*I was actually writing it on Friday. Doh!

I already have some KY type stuff for prolapsed ducks but I didn't have to ask for it, it was on the shelf.

I've just been looking on Stoney's blog as I'm sure he wrote a useful article on egg binding and what to do, but can't find it there. It might be here on ish.

We did have this problem once with a duck and it can cause prolapse from all the straining. I'll see if I can find the info here.

Edit: Sorry Rosey, I've just gone through everything under 'egg bound' in forumsearch but can't find anything helpful.

Thanks for the pointer MMM. I looked on Stoney's blog and couldn't find anything, so I looked him up as a member on here and searched his posts. I found this which is helpful.

Yes, those methods do work much of the time. However, we've found that if a hen gets egg-bound once, then it's almost certainly going to happen repeatedly and you'll probably end up losing the hen in the future. So you have to think about how often you're prepared to assist an egg-bound hen, about the stress it puts her through, and whether she needs to be culled. Personally, I'd extract the egg no more than twice before culling.

oops I missed that thread. Hope the hen pulls through and/or you are able to help her.

Thanks Stoney. We'll give it a try this time. She doesn't seem distressed today and hasn't even tried to lay, but she's still not pooing enough, so somethings definitely wrong.

She's layed! I think I may have mis-diagnosed. Remind me not to become a vet

When OH came home from work yesterday he managed to pick her up to have a feel around, but couldn't feel anything, so he put her down again and she almost immediately had a poo . A bit later, I managed to pick her up and gave her tummy a stroke and talked to her. She was her normal perky self for the rest of the day. She didn't look distressed in any way, so we decided to leave her until this morning to see how much she poos during the night. Well she only pooed a little bit, but she did lay an egg this morning.

We'll keep an eye on the poo to make sure it goes back to the normal quantity, and of course we'll keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't start to look miserable, but really, I think we were fussing about nothing. Again.

Thank you for being here for me

It's possible that "feeling" her loosened things up, helping her lay the egg.

With our hens, both Scots Greys and Isa Browns, it's very obvious that they're egg bound. They walked with a pronounced waddle, they look run down, and when I feel their lower abdomen you can feel the calcified egg. If I gently open the cloaca, I can see the tip of the egg.

As for breaking the egg for manual extraction, I've found it best to carefully pierce the tip of the egg with a large-gauge needle and syringe. Then suck out the yoke. When the egg is empty, collapse it by squeezing the hen's abdomen—not too hard as you want to keep the internal membrane intact.

Squirt warm KY or sterile saline into the cloaca, then slowly work the collapsed egg out. Take it all slowly and have someone reliable holding the chicken very still throughout. If you don't get all the egg out, don't worry. Fragments will come out over the next day or two.

Anyway, Rosendula, at least it's all turned out well for you and your hen.

Good, I'm pleased about that!