Egg Bound Chicken

I noticed late this afternoon that Muffin was egg bound. I'm not sure if Hy-lines are prone to it, but so far it has happened twice to our other Hy-line, so maybe they are.

An egg bound chicken has an egg stuck in her oviduct. It is most common in young chickens. Muffin is 18mths old. It could be due to a large or double yolked egg that is too large to pass through, genetics or a calcium deficiency. I am hoping it is just a large egg and won't be a regular thing. Calcium is needed for proper muscle contraction.  Too much protein in a chickens diet can also cause egg binding.  Other potential causes are stress, internal worms, low quality feed, dehydration or weakness from a recent illness. I don't think she falls into any of the list so that's why I am thinking a large egg. She is the only one to go through a full moult and now her eggs are much larger than before.

So we brought Mufin into the bathroom and she sat in warm water with some epsom salts added. She loved it once she got used to it.

She needed to be carried carefully to avoid breaking the egg inside her which could lead to peritonitis which sadly in turn could lead to death.

An egg bound hen must pass the egg within 48hrs or they will die. We dried her off and put her back with the others. I will keep checking on her until I go to bed and then hopefully in the morning she will have passed that egg.

**UPDATE** I just went to check on her and I found a broken egg at the bottom of the perch! Hooray!