What is it about weekends?!?
The egg
laying hen, the only egg laying hen at the moment, wasn't
feeling well last weekend. Female Handler opened up the corral in the early
morning to let the chickens out. Muñeca seemed to be nesting, so Female Handler
left her alone to finish up on other chores. A check in the chicken coop an hour later revealed
no egg, and no sign of Muñeca. She was found fairly motionless near a bush. Muñeca
is rarely motionless so this raised an alarm. Female Handler got down to her
level and had a peek at her vent. Seems she was straining to expel something,
and straining a bit too hard.
Some thought had to go into figuring out the Google search
parameters, and after some quick reading, Female Handler decided Muñeca might
have an egg stuck. Egg binding can kill chickens within 48 hours if left
unattended.
What she needed was a bit of spa treatment! And if egg binding turned
out NOT to be the issue, the spa treatment certainly wouldn’t hurt her.
So what constitutes a chicken spa? Start with a warm bath (to
clean the vent), and a little bit of oil lubrication at the vent. Canola oil
was selected because it was handy. Then Muñeca was put in a cat carrier (that
was out and ready for the new arrival of goat kids) with a warm water bottle
under a layer of straw. A towel draped over the carrier such that it was dark
inside, and there Muñeca rested until early the next morning.
The next morning Muñeca was alert, and happy to leave the confines
of a dark cat carrier. And there in the straw was the residue of an egg.
Whew!
It took her a day, but she's back to laying (on Monday!).
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