[Bikeswalnuttree]

I am new to your forum and am rather desperate for help. we have a 4 year old maran called Nancy, who is a very characterful bird and has been a fairly reliable layer. Following a moult over the winter months she started laying again regularly but a couple of weeks ago she stopped. Two days ago she suddenly looked very off colour - sitting down, tail and comb drooped, not wanting to eat or drink. When my husband picked he up quite a lot of undigested grass/fliud came out of her crop. Following a very gentle internal she doesn't appear to be egg bound, but equally she doesn't appear to have passed any poo either. She did have some left over cauliflower cheese last week! Would this have caused her such a problem? - the chickens regularly have kitchen vegetable scraps. I am in need of assistance - so is Nancy. Any help gratefully recieved.

Not very computer savvy so I hope this is actually updating. Nancy has been in our boot room all night much to the surprise of our three now traumatised cats (cowards). We have tried her with the olive oil and she has passed some poo - green/white, slightly lumpy mostly runny. Could this be bile due to her having so little to eat? Am on my way to find live bio yoghurt. At the moment Nancy is wandering around the garden rather aimlessly, but her tail is up a little and she seems alittle more alert. Thank you for help so far recieved.

[Vember]

Hi Bikeswalnuttree

The fluid coming from her crop might suggest she has sour crop. Does it smell when you open her beak?

There is info on how to treat this here :
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=4345.0

Re the egg, I've used oil in the vent to help eggs out but have read that some people pop the hen in warm water. I shall try and find a link to this as I've never done it.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=32695.0

Might be best if possible to get the hen to a vet, if she is egg bound then they can give a calcium injection which will help her muscles relax and help her to pass the egg


Sarah