Yesterday Nestor, a chicken farmer from Red Hook, NY was in town for a farmer’s market. He very graciously stopped by to examine Edie. He was very caring with her and held her expertly. She didn’t struggle or flop around at all. He experienced the same thing I did. He felt the egg, but there was tissue between the egg and the vent (exit door). No matter how much he explored, he couldn’t find an opening. She could either be swollen and her tissues are creating a block, or her body has determined that this egg is a foreign object and has built tissue around it. It’s kind of like an oyster making a pearl.

I’m really hoping that scenario 2 isn’t the case as it is pretty dire. He said that sometimes he’s made an incision to get the egg out, but there’s usually only a 50% chance of survival from that. I was crushingly disappointed with the outcome. I had pinned all of my hopes on Nestor as a chicken expert. I am at a loss as to what to do. He said give it a few days and see what happens.

Poor Edie.

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Edie is still doing well. She’s eating, pooping and waddling around. I did another internal exam yesterday, determined to get the egg out one way or another. Sticking my finger inside her pulsating vent was a particularly odd and unpleasant experience. I was able to feel the egg, although it was through a membrane. Not knowing chicken anatomy enough, I wasn’t comfortable fishing around and possibly doing more harm than good. As you can see from these illustrations, the oviduct is a long and windy road that leads to the cloaca. There are several other things that lead to the cloaca, so the chicken’s pee/poo and eggs ultimately come out of the same opening.

I was able to get in touch with a semi-local chicken farmer named Nestor, who comes to Brooklyn to sell his eggs at our farmer’s markets. He agreed to come over tomorrow and take a look at Edie. I am very  hopeful.

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Well Edie continued to do okay yesterday. Although she didn’t lay her egg, she was walking slowly, eating and making some clucking noises. Towards the end of the day I decided to feel inside her cloaca to see if I felt the egg yet. I didn’t feel an egg, but almost instantly the grossest thing popped out.

This thing was about 3″ long and rubbery. I suspected it was a malformed egg and when I cut it open I saw some yellow yolk. I’m really hoping that this is what has been causing the blockage. I can still feel an egg inside of her.

I spoke with the vet who agreed that as long as she’s eating, drinking and walking about we can wait and see if she can pass the egg herself. If she shows signs of straining or stress like she did the other day, I need to bring her in immediately. I feel like Edie’s labor coach.

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Yesterday I went to let the hens out to their larger run and noticed that Edie wasn’t up and about. She was sitting on her nest box, but I could tell that something was wrong. She was listless, silent and her bottom was kind of tucked under. When I picked her up to go out in the yard (something they love), she didn’t move from where I set her. In fact when I first put her down, her toes were curled under and she was resting on her knuckles until I straightened them out.

The rest of the morning was spent trying to figure out what was wrong with Edie, my favorite hen. It was also spent in trying to find a vet that would take chickens. They will see any kind of parrot, cockatiel, etc. but chickens are considered exotic here. Go figure.

I finally found a vet and took her last night. She found out that she was egg bound, but wasn’t able to reach the egg. They gave her some iv fluids, antibiotics, pain killer and gave me a calcium supplement for her water. $300 later, I still have an egg bound hen. I know that any chicken farmer reading this has probably fallen off their chair at this point. Either with shock or laughter.

It’s hard to find a neighbor that knows how to probe a chicken’s cloaca to help guide an egg out, so I have to resort to a vet.

Today Edie was up and about, which was a vast improvement over yesterday. She didn’t pass the egg, so she’s kind of waddling around. I had to give her antibiotics, which I was told taste really bad. Now that she’s more feisty, that was a huge challenge. I did a lot of reading about egg binding on the Backyard Chicken forums. It seems as though a warm sitz bath can help relax the muscles. I tried that but I’m not sure if it was relaxing or irritating to Edie.

I’m afraid that I’m going to have to bring her back to the vet to have the egg imploded. Wish us luck!

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A friend of mine just started a blog called A Long Hot Simmer. As you can probably guess from the name, she’s a food person. Her name is Victoria and she’s a multi-talented woman. She writes about food for various magazines, she cooks, she makes food look beautiful for some very famous photographers (Irving Penn!!), she even wrote a cookbook. She’s also hilarious, so catching up is always a treat.

So I was honored when she asked me if she could interview me about my chickens for her new blog. You can see the post here.

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