So after my poor parents dealing with escaped birds ( and may I add my dad catching one in mid flight was impressive, even more so cause he only has like 5% tunnel vision in one eye!) I get home to be greeted by a mess....

 

So I head out to the aviary and find poor Boof sitting on the ground looking sorry for himself. He just does not seem to be fitting into my aviary. The other birds either ignore him or attack him... He is a really nice bird so I brought him in and had a look. Poor guy is going through a really bad case of Molt. He has a few blood feathers around his cere and looks like a pin cushion at the moment. So I have pulled him inside. Buddy is a really nice bird and I had thought about maybe putting the two together and taming the both. Boof is still a young bird and does not bite, will step up if he has no other option so I am thinking that in the long run he might be happier inside with me and Buddy then in the aviary.

 

I have a video of Boof which when it finishes loading I will put up here, I can't seem to get a good picture of his head.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EH8N89yspI

 

I also seem to have an issue with Lemon... she has taken to sitting on the bottom of the cage

 

 

She puts her head down lifts her tail up and seems to be straining I think... please don't tell me she is egg bound I just can't handle that this week.

 

 

So yeah maybe I am stressing over nothing, maybe I am just freaking out over every little thing, part of me really wants to take Lemon to the vet but I know that it's probably nothing and she is not a young hen, she did fall off her perch a little while ago and without running large amounts of test that will most likely come back and tell me she is an old hen there is no real reason to take her. There is no reason for her to be egg bound she has never been before and gets everything she needs, *** I don't even know what an Egg bound hen looks like... maybe I should Google that?

Edited July 11, 200816 yr by Angelic Vampyre

I'm sorry, but Lemon looks egg bound to me - I had an old hen lay and egg and get egg bound with prolaps a couple of years ago. I was not breeding then and it was out of the blue. - she was put to sleep

 

Warmth, calcium and hopfully she will pass it.

Edited July 11, 200816 yr by **Liv**

Lemon doesn't look very happy, I have never had an egg bound hen so I can't help you there but I hope everything settles down for you and that Lemon is okay

Was she only like this this afternoon when you got home??

Like Live said warmth and Calcium ( put a drop of calcivet on her beak)

i am so sorry to hear that things keep going wrong with your budgeis, i really hope good things start coming your way.

gee thanks guys... *goes and find a brick wall to throw myself against!*

 

I don'y have calvet but I do have a Liquid Calcium Supplement by Avian Science so I put a drop of that on her beak.

 

She is still pass poo and it's big and nasty!

 

 

I thought that they can't pass if they are egg bound but then maybe I am going insane.

 

She was quite upset about being caught and is now sitting up on the perch so maybe she is just trying to give me a heart attack. Can you give a bird to much calcium? if not then I will add a drop to her beak each day for a bit and see if it helps.

 

She was known as a ground nester, and Ivan said not to have her in the avairy as she will nest and have eggs on the bottom of the aviary so maybe she is just doing what she normally does... I can't handle any more!

Has she got egg bum to indicate that there could be an egg there?

Has she got egg bum to indicate that there could be an egg there?

 

 

I don't think so to tell you the truth, she seems sort of flat, last time I caught her and did a full body check I felt she was a little underweight and I have started to add some oats to their seed mix to help them along over winter. Again tonight she seems sort of flat in that area which is why i am hoping that it is not that.

That HUGE poop looks like a pre egg poop too :hap:

If she seems otherwise healthy maybe she is just thinking about nesting on the bottom of the cage.

That is what I am hoping, she seem really active now, running around chasing Lime trying to get him to mount her and they are feeding each other so maybe she is just one of those hens who will not nest in the box?

 

Any idea what i could put on the bottom of the cage to make it nicer on her?

Feathers wrote this up for our FAQ about eggbound hens....

 

Eggbound Hen

. This is a very serious condition and should be considered a medical emergency.

 

Egg binding occurs when a hen is has difficulty in laying an egg. There are many signs and symptoms that a hen that is egg bound may display. These include:

a hen that looks distressed

a hen sitting on the bottom of the cage

a hen that has very large droppings that are very runny or contain blood

a hen who whips her tail or strains painfully

a hen that looks weak, depressed or is breathing rapidly

a hen that looks nervous or moves rapidly from perch to perch

a hen that is trying to stretch her body up to get relief

 

If you look carefully, you should notice a slight roundness of the underbelly or you may be able to feel the egg if you lightly palpate the area..

 

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOT TRY TO REMOVE THE EGG. If you do this and the egg breaks it can result in the death of the hen.

 

There are many causes for this condition including:

 

a hen that is too young

an egg that is too large

an egg with a rough shell

an egg that is too soft

the hen's oviduct (where the egg comes out) is not elastic enough

poor nutrition, a lack of vitamins or calcium

a hen that is kept in a room that is too dark, cool or damp

a hen that has laid too many clutches with no rest in between

 

As stated before, this is a medical emergency and a visit to your avain vet is essential.

Avian Vet Look-up

 

You can try to assist the hen by placing her in a warm environment, such as a hospital cage that is covered and has a soft cloth bottom (ensure the hen's claws can't get caught in the material) and dripping some warmed castor oil onto the vent. However this will usually only help if the egg is visible at the vent entrance. Keep the hen as calm as possible and transport her to your avian vet as soon as possible.

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196/2%Last update: 2007-04-25 15:54

Author: feathers aka Aly

Revision: 1.0

Thanks Elly and Feather... see now I think she might just be a bottom nester

 

a hen that looks distressed

Not really

 

a hen sitting on the bottom of the cage

Yes

 

a hen that has very large droppings that are very runny or contain blood

they are large but not runny and do not contain blood

 

a hen who whips her tail or strains painfully

She is not whipping her tail it sort of sticks in the air and shakes every now and then

 

a hen that looks weak, depressed or is breathing rapidly

weak not really, depressed some times, breathing rapidly no more then the others

 

a hen that looks nervous or moves rapidly from perch to perch

Only when she is chasing Lime around

 

a hen that is trying to stretch her body up to get relief

Not that I have seen

 

If you look carefully, you should notice a slight roundness of the underbelly or you may be able to feel the egg if you lightly palpate the area..

Nope it seems flat to me

 

 

Hmmm might go get a flate plate and a soft cloth and move her onto that. She alreay has heat, so will up it a bit. It now really looks like she is sleeping and Lime has joined her

 

Maybe they are just bottom dwellers!

Givn she has a history I suspect she is just looing to nest. If you give her an open topped nest on the floor made out of something like a cut down icecream container you might actually get a clutch out of her AND get her to sit on them

I have given her a flat plate with wood shavings on my dads suggestions, Lime has fallen in love and spent the last few mins thorwing shavings all over himself (and the cage) and is currently lying upside down in them, Lemon is sitting next to the plate

 

Will see how she is tomorrow, going to give her another drop of Calcium just to be on the safe side keep her warm and keep an eye on her over the weekend.

Update on lemon, she seemed fine today. Spoke to Ivan he said that she never showed intrest in nesting boxes and had her clutches on the ground... he said he did tell me this But as I have said before I adopted them cause no one else wanted them and they are just my happy old couple.

 

Rang the vet, not allowed to give her much calucim as she is on doxy and they count each other out. So she now gets 3 drops of cod liver oil in her seed... I had never hear of this but if she has eggs then it will help her pass them. I have set up a ground nest for her but Lime seems to have more fun playing in the wood shavings then Lemon who seems to ignore it....

 

Buddy and Boof are getting along well. Buddy seems more settled now that he has a cage mate Boof is all cranky with going through molt so i am going to let them settle before going back to handling them. The size differece is funny, Buddy is SOOOOOOO small compared to Boof and there is not much difference in age!

 

Boof seems to go from being all friendly to being all "go away I don't like you" poor Buddy does not know if he is a friend or foe.... Keeps trying to feed Boof!

glad she is getting better...