# My bird is egg bound!!!



## Brooke

My homer is egg bound. She was supposed to lay an egg on Thursday but she didn't. I had forgotten until today when she started acting weird. Another of my birds have been egg bound before and the vet said to raise the temperature to get thier blood flowing. Is this all I can do? I don't have any money to take her to the vet. Please help.


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## zoo keeper

I think Terry will be along shortly and will be able to give very good advice


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## Pigeonpal2002

Hi Brooke, 

Have you inspected the bird? Can you see if the egg is protruding from the cloaca at all? I've never been through this myself but from what others have said you should make sure the bird is hydrated. Offer some water to the bird if it will drink. Keep the bird warm and quiet. Lubricate the vent with a small amount of mineral oil and if all that fails you may need to get the bird into a warm tub of water (not too deep but deep enough to submerge it's bum) so that the water can lubricate and relax the bird to pass the egg.


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## Brooke

The egg is not protruding. I am keeping her very warm in hopes that this will help. Thanks for the advice so far...any more?


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## Pigeonpal2002

I'm afraid that is all I know to do. If you have some liquid calcium you could give the bird a few drops with an eye dropper down the throat. If you took the bird to the vet they would give a calcium injection as well. There are not many other things to do to help. She may not be egg bound though, does she seem in distress? What is her behaviour like right now? I thought my bird was egg bound about a week ago but she wasn't. You're going to have to keep a close eye on her though tonight because problems can arise very quickly and you'll have to act right away. Usually putting the bird into a small tub of warm water will help a great deal.


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## TAWhatley

Hi Brooke,

If your bird is egg bound, then the advice given is right on .. keep the bird very, very warm (on a heating pad set on low or under a low wattage bulb .. not just inside at room temperature), carefully lubricate the cloaca, and get some calcium into the bird ASAP. You can get liquid calcium from the drug store or in a pinch dissolve a TUMS in water and syringe it to the bird. As Brad posted, the warm water soak can also help as can holding the vent area of the bird over some steaming hot water (take care not to burn the bird).

You want to be very careful to handle the bird gently and not break the egg inside. If that happens then egg yolk peritonitis will result, and this can be deadly.

Best of luck to you and the bird, and please do keep us posted.

Terry


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## re lee

I use cod liver oil If they are capsule cut the end and squeeze out 2 down the throat. And the bird will lots of times get the egg laid within a couple of hours. You can put some mineral oil for lub But I just use cod liver oil. Calcium will not help this problem at all. It will help the bird build a better calcium level for breeding And laying good eggs. If you can not get the bird to lay. You may have to puncture the egg to relieve the pressure. But try this method first.


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## TAWhatley

Hi Robert and all .. Robert, your advice is very, very good. Do be aware, however, that vets will give an injection of calcium to an egg bound bird to help give enough strength to the muscles to expel the egg. That's why some of us suggested giving calcium orally. It's not to help harden an egg that's already in trouble but to help the hen "kick" that egg out.

Terry


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## Pigeonpal2002

Thank you Terry for posting the reasons for the calcium. I myself wasn't exactly sure what good it did either. I just listen to what others have said and make decisions on what seems "right".


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## Birdmom4ever

Calcium also helps the muscles function. I have a hen who has gotten into trouble several times with prolapsing when she laid. One time she also became eggbound. The vet gave her a calcium injection and he also gave her oxytocin to stimulate contractions and help her pass the egg. It worked--she popped it out the next morning without further trouble.


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## Motherlodelofts

There is some very good stuff here, And absoulutly you want to give the hen every oppertunity to lay on her own, It is when all else fails that you have to react, and it isn't fun. I went quite a few years with no problems at all , but this year I have had two situations with two different hens. Friday night was spent dealing with one of these. I gave her 48 hrs to pass the egg and it just wasn't happening. First and foremost make darn sure that you aren't jumping the gun. Ok here is what I do, (First) I tape the wings to the tail to inhibit the movement and make the bird easier to handle, (second) I boil water on the stove, I hold the hen over the steam with my hand under the keel to gauge the heat, then I use a q tip with olive oil and insert it and gently go around and around the egg, I just keep inserting the oil on the Q tip and going back around the egg over and over, this also makes her react and she starts pushing , next using my forefinger and thumb I find the end of the egg from with my thumb on one side and index finger on the other side I " very very slowly" and gently from the back of the egg start working it to the vent, then I swab it more, them I work it closer again to the vent, and inbetween all of this she is going back over the steam, I just keep doing all of this over and over again until the egg is at the vent and you can see it, . At this point you have to determine whether to drain the egg and extract the shell or to keep working it out, if you work it out becarful as there is a point where you need to add a little more pressure than you like, this is what it takes but not to the point of hurting the hen. You "MUST" go about this very slowly!!! hope this helps. So how did my problem go Friday night ? Well the hen is now sitting on "the" egg in the nest bowl. 
Scott


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## Lin Hansen

Scott,

Glad to hear it all went well with your hen.....sounds like a very nerve-wracking experience!

Linda


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## pigeonmama

I don't hold my egg bound birds over steam. I use moist warm packs.
Daryl


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## Motherlodelofts

Linda at that point it is simply a do or the bird dies situation , plus you hit a point where you can easily hurt the bird if you aren't careful. It is one of those things that you just can't go slow enough, the more time you spend slowly working the egg the easier it is on the bird and the less of a chance you have on hurting her, I spent a solid hour to hour in a half working this one, but it was a hard one as the egg was so far back, some are much easier to deal with than others. It is a good feeling to see the results and her actually sitting on the egg showing no trauma, many times due to the trauma they won't sit the egg.
Scott


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## re lee

Well I give calcium tablets to my hens at pairing themup for 5 days. To build up reserve. and It helps on eggs and keeps them from going down when they lay sometimes. I have never took a bird to a vet ever. But I was taught thru the years extra calcium was A preventive. BUT I can see where if the bird is weak from being egg bound then perhaps calcium may help. BUT if it is given on a 5 day dose. and grit kept to eat. Then the bird would have a good calcium level for breeding season. oyster shell tabs work well for calcium treatment. Any walmart or drug store should have them. So I perhaps stand corrected. I recomend breeding hens be given oyster shell tabs prior to or at pairing then calcium will not be a problem.


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## Motherlodelofts

Robert I use Calciam Glucante (sp) in the water also during breeding season. it's good stuff. This hen that I recently had a problem with had a broken tail bone at one time , I was a little concened about her when I paired her.


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## re lee

Was it her tail bone or vent bone. You may have more problems with her. I do not have much problems with egg binding in my birds. But every blue moon I will. Last year I had a 8 year old hen bind . But gave her some cod liver oil and she laid within a couple of hours. It does seem like on some birds in the cooler breeding season hens get more prone to having problems. I am finaly putting some birds together. Have 11 pair as of today. hopefully tomorow I can get the other 5 pair. together. It took me about 5 hours today to put 8 pair together. pick ,trim tails and vent. nest fronts . I put a hen on a cock that I may change. she does not complinment it as well as I think she should. Figure The birds should go to work by 5 of march hopefully. If im lucky I hope for 75 young birds. this year.


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## Birdmom4ever

I just want to point out that a few hens have underlying problems that prevent them from absorbing calcium. 

I give my pigeons lots of supplements. They have grit available to them all the time, vitamins a couple times a week, calcium gluconate in the water a couple times a week. They also have various pickstones available to them and I add trace minerals to their water. My problem girl (Jasmine) was even on calcium _glubionate_--a highly-absorbable calcium syrup you put in the water. It's expensive and not practical to give the whole flock, so for a long time we kept her and her mate in a separate small aviary. But she eventually prolapsed again and also became eggbound last fall. That's when the vet administered a shot of pitocin, which helped her pass the egg.

Keeping her alone kept her from laying, but she became depressed and lost weight. The vet and I discussed her at length and he believes her problems are caused by an abnormality in her pituitary gland that prevents her from properly absorbing calcium. Since I doubt there are any avian endocrinologists, I don't think there's much else we can do. I don't know why she has this problem. We have a bunch of her sisters and none of them have ever prolapsed or had any trouble laying eggs. For that matter, none of my other hens have had problems, and we have 60+ pigeons.

We allowed Jasmine to raise a few chicks last year and she prolapsed after the second round. In retrospect, I think it was a mistake to let her have more babies. It seems to take too much out of her and predisposes her to egg-laying problems. 

In January my other vet tried her on Lupron, an injectable drug that has been used with some success to prevent companion birds from laying. It didn't work. She laid again last week after a three month break. Fortunately she didn't prolapse or become eggbound this time. I pulled the eggs and gave her wooden ones and I won't allow her to raise any more chicks. She's back in the loft where she is happiest and gets the most exercise. I'm crossing my fingers that she won't have more problems, but I'm guessing she will. 

This probably seems like a lot of trouble to go through for one little hen, but she's very special to us and we don't want to give up on her.


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## TAWhatley

*Interesting Articles About Calcium ..*

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww22eii.htm

http://www.africangreys.com/articles/nutrition/calcium.htm

Terry


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## Motherlodelofts

Robert it was a broken tail bone, This hen was on her way to stock before this happened after a major fly, heavy wind pushed the team down low over the house when they were full of roll and she miscalculated and made a mistake. Her tail hangs a tad low now which indicates a weak lower back, generally such problems are once in a blue moon here also. I think that up until this year it has been about 7 years since I had one but most of my stock are seasoned hens. I think that you are right though in that she will have more problems, luckily she only had that one egg and if it is fertile I'll foster it and pull her back out of breeding, But then the egg can easily have a problem due the oil blocking the pores of the shell even though I washed it real well, we'll see , of coarse she still has to come out of breeding regardless.

Birdmom I think that this hen is in the same boat, different circumstances but allowing her to breed will end up killing her, So she will go back in the team. As for your hen I would becarefull that the ones that you did get out of her aren't carrying the same genetic fault that can be passed on down the line. It may even skip generations only to show up down the road. Just something to consider here.


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## Birdmom4ever

Yes, I've wondered about that myself, the possibililty of her passing on the defect. (Though none of the rest of her family has the problem.) I only have one of her offspring left, a cock-bird. I took the others to the show last Oct. and some guy was so enamored of them that he bought them, though I hadn't intended to sell them. They were beautiful yellow baldheads like their mom. The one we kept is our last baby out of her. He was from the egg she laid at the vet's office. My husband felt sorry for her after all she went through to lay it and wouldn't let me toss it. Turns out he was the best marked of all of them. 

What about her continued laying? She first prolapsed in 2003, when she was a year old. For the rest of the year I didn't let her have any young and she continued to lay, but didn't prolapse. Last year we let her raise two sets of chicks and she prolapsed again and the next month became eggbound as well. I'm afraid of her having the problem again if she continues to lay, especially as she ages. 

The last resort would be permanently separating her from the flock. I'd have to bring her in the house and though I love pigeons dearly I don't like having them inside. We already have 7 cage birds (other species). Besides, there is no place in our house where I can keep her out of earshot of the other pigeons. And no guarantee that if I bring her in, she'll stop laying forever. She got pretty chummy with my husband when we kept her alone for awhile last fall and I wouldn't be surprised if she started laying eggs for him, were I to make her a house pet. 

We did discuss surgery with our vet, but as I understand it, it is risky and difficult, not to mention expensive.


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## re lee

what other then egg binding does she do. does she go down can not fly or walk well. or does she just have problems when she lays. by binding.


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## pigeonraiser

*my bird is eggbound*

hi,i had an old dutch capuchine hen a couple of years ago that got eggbound.through help on this website i was able to save her by soaking her in real warm water.she not only laid both times but hatched the eggs.i fed that hen crushed egg shells after that and it never happend again.PIGEONRAISER


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## pigeonraiser

*pigeonraiser*

HI,I Had a capuchine hen that got eggbound twice and thanks to help of this website I was able to save her.I dipped her in hot water both times and she passed the egg easily.I fed that hen crushed egg shells after that and it never happened again.PIGEONRAISER


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## Birdmom4ever

She just has problems when she lays, no temporary paralysis or anything like that. The prolapsing has happened 3 or 4 times. Other than that she's perfectly fine. Last time we did blood work on her (about a year ago), her calcium levels were normal.


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## TAWhatley

But, it's not just the calcium .. but the ratios of calcium to phosphorus and other vitamins and minerals ..

Terry


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## re lee

poeple used to give brewers yeast tablets to birds that wnet down when laying or egg bound. This worked well to. Then years later oyster shell tabs started being used at the begining of breeding season. And alot of problems reduced. I can safely say. I have had only 3 times I can ever remember since 1958 That I had a bird go egg bound. And two times a hen went down after laying. I would compare pigeons more to poultry and doves then hook bill needs. As most hook bills are far removed from there habitat. when caged and bred. While pigeons and such are still left near there pirimary food type. And are supplemented well. BUT alot has been leaned thru the years about what helps or not in the keeping of pigeons. I have heard mostly of egg binding during the cooler seasons of breeding. But a healthy diet and such can reduce some problems. But we all have a problem of such every once and awhile. And I think perhaps some breeds get more prone to certion problems. And some families wind up carrying problems that have to be bred away from.


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## The pigeon man

If this ever happens again for you to know and ever one else who has or had simular problems the best thing to do is wrap it in wollen cloth or give it a luke warm bath


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## jerseygeorge

TAWhatley said:


> Hi Brooke,
> 
> 
> 
> You want to be very careful to handle the bird gently and not break the egg inside. If that happens then egg yolk peritonitis will result, and this can be deadly.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Terry


This is how I lost Mama bird. I found glops of Egg yoke but no shell on the floor and around the nest box . One morning several days later I found her dead.


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## Skyeking

Thank you all for your great contributions.

This is a great thread on egg bound hens.

I just have three more things to add:

1. You can also give some olive oil down the throat to lubricate the inside, especially if the egg is further back not near the vent. That has worked for my hens.

2. Calcium not only provides necessary material for strong egg shells, and allow the hen to grip and push the egg out-as it strengthens the muscles, but it also allows the muscles to relax so she can expel the egg and not be stuck in her.

3. Keep bird excercised,& not overfed, so she is in tip top shape, not overweight.

Also, I have a hen who lays nothing but soft shell eggs, I tried everything and figured she was not absorbing calcium, I put a tiny bit of organic hormone cream on her foot for several weeks, and then she layed a normal egg.


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## feralpigeon

Trees Gray said:


> Thank you all for your great contributions.
> 
> This is a great thread on egg bound hens.
> 
> I just have three more things to add:
> 
> 1. You can also give some olive oil down the throat to lubricate the inside, especially if the egg is further back not near the vent. That has worked for my hens.
> 
> 2. Calcium not only provides necessary material for strong egg shells, and allow the hen to grip and push the egg out-as it strengthens the muscles, but it also allows the muscles to relax so she can expel the egg and not be stuck in her.
> 
> 3. Keep bird excercised,& not overfed, so she is in tip top shape, not overweight.
> 
> Also, I have a hen who lays nothing but soft shell eggs, I tried everything and figured she was not absorbing calcium, I put a tiny bit of organic hormone cream on her foot for several weeks, and then she layed a normal egg.


Must say I was surprised to see Motherlodes, and then saw the date of this thread and realized it too, is one of my favorite threads on egg binding as it has alot of really good information in it. Treesa, I was curious exactly what it is that you are putting on the feet for hormonal creme and what the contents are?

Thanks,

fp


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## Skyeking

feralpigeon said:


> Treesa, I was curious exactly what it is that you are putting on the feet for hormonal creme and what the contents are?
> Thanks,
> fp


Regardingremier Natural Gesterone Cream

Ingredients:ECOPS (beneficial electromagnetically charged organic particles)with natural vitamin E,C,A,K, and B complex, natural wild yam (laboratory processed to bio-identical natural progresterone) grade 10 herbs, apricot kernel oil, hazelnut oil, grape seed oil, grape seed extract, horsetail extract.

No toxic chemicals, ( NO paraben, propylene glycol, peg-8 stearate, cetyl alcohol, polysorbate 60, carbomer 940, etc)

I asked my rehabber about trying it on Frill, as I had exhausted all resources, and she gave me the go ahead. This works very well for people, so why not birds...LOL


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## jojo67

Hi all, I was reading this thread and was starting to worry because i have a bird which has only laid one egg and i have been waiting for six days now for the other, so when i read this i went to the loft to see if the bird was alright and everything seems to be ok. I was then talking a friend who has pigeons and he said its a young pigeon and sometimes this can happen and not to worry about this, he said if the bird was egg bound you would tell clearly that something was wrong with her. so he has put my mind at ease,as the bird looks happy to me. The info on this thread is very good for future ref if i come across this problem,
I hope all works out good for brooke.


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## Skyeking

Is this her first egg?


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## jojo67

Yes trees gray this is her very first egg, i got her as a late bred last year.


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## Skyeking

That is possibly why she only laid one egg, I have some hens that only laid one egg the first time they laid.


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## naturegirl

Another thing you can do for what it is worth is take a little bit of Olive Oil in a eye dropper and put a few drops in the cloaca this will help lub the vent opening and the poop shoot so it can help expel the egg. 

Cindy


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## jojo67

Trees Gray said:


> That is possibly why she only laid one egg, I have some hens that only laid one egg the first time they laid.


maybe this is whats wrong with brookes pigeon is it young and the first time.can she actually feel the egg.


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## KIPPY

*



Thank you all for your great contributions.

This is a great thread on egg bound hens.

Click to expand...

*I agree!

I have hens that lay eggs and this is one of those things that worries me.
Is there any way we can condense this thread down and make a sticky on another thread? Please. 

What to look for would be good to. I had a feral that showed up awhile back and I could not tell what was wrong and the pij died the next morning.
I was feeling around her vent area and it felt odd but everything looked normal.

*



Regardingremier Natural Gesterone Cream

Click to expand...

*Is Premier the brand name? I take it, that's it's for human use and what would the purpose of it be. Just trying to narrow it down on what direction to go at a health store.


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## KIPPY

I just happen to get Sprouts Farmers Market ad in the mail which I never usually open.

Progesterone or Phyto-Estrogen Cream

All natural ingredients with organic erbs, *supports hormonal balance* for women of all ages.

I think I need this!....................


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