Egg Binding

[dan78]

WHAT IS EGG BINDING OR EGG BOUND
Egg binding or egg bound is when a hen is unable to pass an egg that maybe stuck near the cloaca or further inside the reproductive tract. Egg binding is most common in small parrots eg/cockatiels,budgies and finches. Egg binding is a medical condition not a disease so medications such as antibiotics won't work. The potential of an egg breaking inside the hen is high which can result in an infection or damage to internal tissue and if left untreated will result in death. If a hen is suspected having a broken egg inside immediate veterinarian assistance will be required. For this reason care is needed when handling an egg bound hen.

SUSPECTED CAUSES FOR EGG BINDING
-low calcium levels
-low vitaminD3
- malnutrition
-obesity or lack of exercise
-egg deformities
-cold

SIGNS OF AN EGG BOUND HEN
-fluffed and generally looking not well
-sleeping alot
-abdominal straining and or swelling
-wobbly on perch or floor, unable to stand (leg paralysis)
-bobbing of head or tail or laying on belly while tail pointing straight up
-dirty vent
-abnormally large droppings or extremely wet droppings
-loss of appetite
-rapid breathing

METHODS TO HELP AN EGG BOUND HEN
-heat approx around 99'F (55'C) -birds body temp 105'F (58.3'C)
-olive oil/KY jelly, rub on vent area and don't place any inside of vent as this may cause damage to hen or egg
-calcium shot direct to beak
-warm bath- shallow water just enough cover vent
-steam room, 85-90'F with a humidity of 60%
-peace and quiet, remove bird to a cage by herself for peace and quiet and don't keep bothering her an occasional check is fine no extra stress is required through this period.

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES
-a good varied diet consisting of lots of vitamins and minerals, not just a seed diet
-a good grit with egg shells, cuttle bone and any other product that can help with calcium
-alot of sun light or other artificial lights that help with D3
-time to strech their wings for exercise, mainly based on caged birds not aviery
-cod liver oil added during breeding season about once a week
-try not to breed through the colder seasons unless heat can be given

Breeders of birds will come across egg bound hens throughout their lives as this is a common problem. Prevention is the best way to help reduce the amount of hens that get it but even with all the preventative measures in place some hens are prone to egg binding than others. If ever in doubt seek veterinarian assistance. Please note that adding extra calcium supplement should only be given occasionally not every day. Adding D3 supplement should be only given occasionally also as to much D3 supplement can cause kidney damage.

[Hilary]

Thank you! This is indeed a common problem. The heat and drop of Calciboost to the beak usually helps my girls when this happens.

[jls7453]

Great information. Thank You.

[MicheleTx]

great information for new owners

[dan78]

Thank you for you kind words. I done this post due to alot of people not knowing what eggbinding is, what the symptoms were and how to rectify the problem. This was aimed mainly at the new breeders but I believe some of the older breeders just may have learnt something. I myself have had these issues and hoped that what I've learnt can help someone. Knowledge learnt should be shared.

[cindy]

Thank you Dan for providing an easy to understand outline of the issue and what you can do to try to ease/aid the hen's difficulty passing the egg.

There are sometimes cases when the egg does not pass within a reasonable amount of time, there could be underlying medical issues. The help of a good avian vet is vital if to much time passes.

Could this be a sticky for easy reference?

[kathmcm]

A few months ago my GS hen laid 2 clutches of 3 eggs apiece. I noticed that the day before each egg was laid, she would often sit slighly puffed, and I could see her breathing and her tail bobbing slightly. She just looked sick, actually. This occurred even though she was laying the eggs daily so I figure it couldn't have been a binding problem. She acted fine as soon as the eggs were all laid. I assumed it was like being in labor. For a small bird the eggs are big, and there must be 3 of them forming in her at some point. Has anyone else noticed that hens seem unwell even during a normal egg-laying phase?

[dan78]

Cindy you are correct that sometimes there are other issues that can cause this and a avian veterinarian assistance will be required. Ifin doubt seek the help of a professional.
Kathmcm there are some hens that seem to look down and not so healthy when laying. Its a belief of mine that its due to the whole process of making and laying eggs that puts alot of strain on a hen. Once all eggs are layed the hens bounce back very quick and look normal again.

[LuxandLolita]

Very helpful! sticky?

[Marg Evans]

Hi all;

I've been trying without success to breed RCCBs. I introduced a new female to the male and all seemed fine. The female appeared normal for the week I had her--normal appearance and activity. The morning of the 8th day she was in the nest but refused to move. I removed her from the nest but she was very lethargic Her vent seemed normal. She was not fluffed and did not seem in respiratory distress. An hour later she ceased to breathe. Could this have been egg binding? She did not appear ill the night before.

[tinysparrow]

hi marg,
welcome to the forum! i am sorry to hear about your hen its really difficult when they pass away and i am sorry for your loss. i hope that another member may be able to give you some ideas on what happened with your hen.

[Sally]

Hi Marg, and so sorry for your loss. When it is a hen, I always suspect eggbinding, but there is often no way to be sure. She wasn't showing the classic signs of eggbinding (sitting on floor of cage, puffed, droopy wings, squinty eyes), but that doesn't mean she couldn't have been either. The fact that she was in the nest could mean she was trying to pass an egg.

Did you quarantine her before introducing her to the male? If it was something else, and she had not yet been put with the male, you would have been able to rule out eggbinding.

And welcome to the forum, though I'm sorry it had to be under sad circumstances.

[fahimshahir]

THANK U .... THE POST IS REALLY HELPFULL ....

[TheWhiteFinchAviary]

THIS POST IS AWESOME!! Egg binding is one of those little known problems until it's too late, I think all breeders should mention it before the money is exchanged. It kills in a matter of hours!

There are 2 things I talk about when people first visit my aviary or buy from me. (Funny I'm talking about it now since I literally went through the schpiel again last night while giving someone a NG pair as their first ever finches.) 1. EGG BINDING. 2. Sudden drops in temperature which will eventually make them sick.

Even using vitamin/nutrient supplements and a ton of fresh organic foods - I STILL end up with cases of egg binding. Had one literally this week with a BC female who I swear does it just to test me. I always make sure they're warm, and then I give them a few drops of Calcium Plus through a syringe. If they're particularly stubborn I'll dilute it into their drinker and place it on the cage floor so they can reach it. Hours later they always are doing a lot better. Sometimes it takes 4-6 hours for it to pass if it's gotten to the point where it's severe.

Egg binding is SO important for everyone to know! Huge kudos to you just for knowing all of this, let alone taking the time to make sure others do also.

The only thing I would add is that D3 cannot be synthesized by ingesting supplements alone. UVB LIGHT is needed whether it's from the sun or if you keep your birds indoors through artificial lighting. Also why I use the Repti Glo 2.0 bulbs since many full spectrum bulbs do not have the UVB rays needed.

Also, not sure if anyone has seen them but I do have 5 videos on my Youtube channel that document egg binding in one of my hens (yes she is the BC I was talking about - the last time she was egg bound was in the videos). It shows the first stages when she is severe with it and can finally no longer hide her symptoms very well. The 5th video shows her totally back to normal, she even goes to her sleep perch as if to tell me she's done and I needed to turn the lights off.

Part 1 - Noticing the symptoms
http://youtu.be/_WTUYMnpjDw

Part 2 - 1 hour after Calcium Plus
http://youtu.be/iu7pN4FvKkM

Part 3 - 2 hours after Calcium Plus
http://youtu.be/-4xhZEj4m8s

Part 4 - 3 hours after Calcium Plus
She starts eating and feeling much better
They ALWAYS get hungry when they start feeling better
http://youtu.be/ZjFG6KRMr3Y

Part 5 - 4 hours after Calcium Plus
"I'm fine now so please turn off the lights when you leave!"
http://youtu.be/wDHvbl9-e3A

[Sojourner]

OMG, I came on just now to post about one of my finches and found this posting.

This is how my little brown bird is acting. Last night I noticed she didn't seem to be feeling well - she was down in the bottom of the cage and just didn't seem her usual self. But when I checked on her again just before going to bed, she was back up on the highest perch nestled up against her little white buddy.

Then this morning she was down on the bottom of the cage again, but she was still feeding and drinking and aside from looking like she still wasn't A-1, she seemed to be managing. So I cleaned the cage, refilled the seed cups, and put a bath in there with her.

She has used the bath, but now she is in the bottom of the cage again, in the corner, panting and leaning her head back. She is wet so she looks pretty awful, but aside from that, it is obvious that she is not doing as well as she was earlier in the day. Hopefully she's just resting up from her bath, but she really has me worried.

I can't find anything that looks like a liquid calcium supplement on the Petco or PetSmart websites. There is a parrot place in town, but they typically don't stock a lot of things, but that is probably my best hope for finding that without having to mail order it.

What else can I do? I do have a desk lamp with a regular bulb in it pointed into one corner so she can huddle up there to be warmer (plenty of room to get away from it if its too hot).

She has been getting D3 in her supplement but they have been without natural sunlight for probably a month or month and a half due to fumes in the spare room pursuant to some repairs. Its probably safe to move them back in there now. I have all compact fluorescents in all the lights in the room where they are right now (except for the one I replaced with a regular bulb to get some heat to her) - do fluorescents have UVB?

They have a mineral block and they had a cuttlebone up until a few weeks ago when I tossed it (it had gotten really nasty due to the birds pooping in the holder all the time - so the holder went and I tossed the cuttlebone as well due to contamination). They have some HATCHED! crumbled egg shells and a mineral supplement I can't remember the name of that is little blue flakes which I offer free feed in small cups.

It's late on a Sunday night here and everything is closed so I doubt I can get anything in the way of supplies until tomorrow - what else can I do?

BTW, I am as sure as I can be that both of these birds are in fact female. They were both juveniles when I got them. At first the white one would sing along with a recording of a male Bengalese, but that stopped after a few weeks. Then the brown one would sing along for about a month after the white one quit, but then that stopped as well. There have been no mating songs ever in the absence of a recording, and no song anymore when I play the recording either lately. One or both of these birds have previously laid a very small clutch (2 eggs) which mysteriously disappeared just about the time they would have been about to hatch had the eggs been fertile (which I doubt they were given the lack of testoterone bearers in the cage, LOL!)

So I don't know why she is trying to lay, if she is, in the absence of a mate, but she has been hanging out in one of the seed cups off and on (as if it were a nest) in the past couple of days. My mother had a canary - female, unmated - that would NOT stop trying to lay whatever we did, and she eventually got egg-bound and died. I hope that isn't going to happen again!

EDIT: So I went and checked and apparently CFLs do give off SOME UVB -

"typical CFLs emit a small amount of UVB (280-315 nm)"

Is that enough to be helpful? Given there were 3 CFLs pointed at them? 2 - 60W equivalents and one 3-way 50-100-150 equivalent which was always turned all the way up ...