FINCHforum

I believe I have an egg bound finch. She woke up off balance..bottom heavy. So I immediately put oyster shells in. She seems less tipsy. But has not passed the egg yet. I put oil on the vent and have warmed the room and put towels on the cage. I have some old calci boost but past expiration by 2 years. Think this would help or any other advise?

Do you have a lamp you could put over the cage to warm her even more? I would go ahead and give her calcium/ It couldn't hurt....

Good luck!!

Yes I have a lamp. I have space heater and have put a lamp in.

Yes plenty of warmth. Shake calciboost well to mix and give.
Increase humidity.... I set a steam kettle next to the cage , some people put them in the bathroom and run a hot shower to steam the room up. I tend to not want to change there surroundings that much as I feel it would stress my bird more.
Other than that... give her peace and quite.
I hope your little hen pulls trough

Warm air humidifier works as well

It has been a couple of hours but she still hasn't passed the egg. She does not seem to be in discomfort. She is moving around and eating. She keeps picking at the vent since I put oil on her. So now I'm not sure if the egg is bound or not. Her vent area looks distended but it could might look this way because the olive oil tends to mess the feathers up and you can see her vent better. I know for sure she was low on Ca but seems to have recovered from that. She is not tipsy. Any thoughts on if she is egg bound or not.

When you say her vent area is distended, is there a protrusion / bulge of some sort? Was she having difficulty flying at all?

We've had some hens that have displayed egg bound like symptoms but turned out they had some type of calcified growths inside that seemed to swell during times of when they be in their "egg cycle." Sadly nothing could be done for them and they eventually passed. Another just started with the same problem a few weeks ago. All girls would constantly futz with their vent area, eventually plucking out most of their feathers, in turn revealing a nice sized bulge. Which then would cause them to fly in a lopsided fashion.

Really hope that isn't the case with your little girl. I'd keep with the program of moist heat and calcium for now, unless her symptoms change. Keep us up to date on her progress.

Usually if a hen is truly eggbound, they will sit puffed up, often with droopy wings, and often on the bottom of the cage. They will sit with their eyes closed or almost closed, and just look miserable. If this is the case, it is usually pretty serious. Heat, humidity, and some liquid calcium (1-2 drops) administered directly in their beak, and then just give them some quiet and privacy and see if they pull thru. If she is eating and not showing signs of discomfort, I would question whether she was eggbound. Eggbinding is often fatal, and they sure don't feel like eating.

She seems to be doing just fine. Thanks for everyone's advice. It believe she had the CA deficiency but isn't eggbound. I put them outside today to get some sun to process the Vitamin D. I ordered some CAlici boost and will start supplementing with it. They also love oyster shells which I always worry might cause constipation so maybe I can change out between oyster shells and calci boost.

Boil some eggs and crush fine, shell and all. Eggshells are a great source of calcium and the egg yolk contains vitamin D so that the calcium can be absorbed.
Cuttle bone is also another good source for calcium and also supplies the salts needed for good health.
Glad to hear she is not egg bound

Happy to hear a good report for her!!

Whew!

She passed an egg yesterday. So she is looking good now. She is still fiddling a bit with the vent area but is flying around just fine. . I was wondering about the Calcified growths. What do you think causes them? I read negative things about oyster shells but they seem to love these so. Do you think the liquid CA is better than the oyster shells? I have read that oyster shells can cause them to get constipated.

I think the thing about egg shells and oyster shells is that they can eat what they need, vs CA in the water they have no control over how much they consume.

I use the water as a suppliment during breeding. I put CA in the water at half dose, for a base level of CA. I put a lot of egg shells out, so they can eat what they feel they need to get the CA level up to what their body needs.

My problem is my gouldian hen refuses to eat egg, so she has to get her CA and vitamin D via the water. She will eat some egg shells but w/o vitamin D from the egg yoke she won't absorb much of the CA from the egg shells.

MIne will eat egg yoke but only hard boiled.