Egg Bound Jenday

Hulabird

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Jul 28, 2015
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Hi, I'm new here and am trying to search through the forum but there is just a multitude of info that I don't have time to read all of it about egg bound birds. Hoping its ok to start fresh.

My question, and then I'll give the background story. What is your impression of this poop?

20150802_063303.jpg
This was from about 10PM last night to this morning just before 6AM. They are 3.5", 4", and 4.5" long all one color of a nice healthy looking green. There is dried liquid surrounding each 'strand'

This is an 8 year old apparently female but not DNA tested jenday conure. I got her with 2 other jendays all living together in the same cage on Friday, July 24, 2015 so about 2 weeks ago.

At that time until now, this bird has had a bulging lower abdomen. She tends to hide herself, it seems like to me, by always clinging to the side of the cage facing away from where I am.

Yesterday, I took her to the vet and had a number of tests run which I won't get the results for til next week. He also did an ultrasound and determined that it is most likely an egg. He also said that all the structures surrounding the 'egg' look normal.

He gave me 3 options:

1 - exploratory surgery - nope
2- leave her there for a few days- that they have a 90% success rate of helping birds pass their eggs
3- take her home and try it myself using his instructions and see if she can pass the egg on her own with my help for a couple of days before we try option #2.

I chose the 3rd option. He gave her supportive fluids and vitamins to harden the egg and calcium, etc by injection and prescribed this fortified prescription food by LeFeber called Nutri-an Cakes.

She only weighs 116.7 g and her keel bone is quite pronounced. Avg normal weight for a jenday is 118g with a range of 105-130 according to http://www.scottemcdonald.com/pdfs/Average Weights.pdf . This would seem to put her WNL but that keel bone...

Before I got her, her diet consisted of some unknown brand of hookbill formula seeds and papaya.

Since I have them for these 2 weeks, they have gotten very little Volkmans hookbill mixture of seeds while I wean them to the diet the rest of my birds get which is:

AM VERY bountiful (at least 10 ingredients daily) fruit/vegetable/flax & chia seed mixture every morning lightly coated about every other day with some organic coconut oil. I sprinkle all their food, every time (only for about a week now) with a mixture of spiralina and chlorella powders.

They eat on that for an hour or so, then I clean it all up and give them their pellets that they can eat on demand all day.

Pellets are a blend of RB California Blend, RB Maintenance, RB Rice, and these organic pellets I get from the Womacks at feedyourflockdotcom.

The 3 conures all seem to be very hearty eaters and her poop has gone from being a blob of yellow pudding with no separation of urates, etc to what you see above and this next one which came longer than 2 hours and 20 minutes later. Note a piece of undgiested papaya in there too. I fed her that while she was waiting for me to fix the rest of the breakfast.

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She has what I've seen termed in this forum as "egg bum".

The doctor told me to keep her in moist heat with a heating pad at one end (not under), a damp cloth inside the cage to create the moisture and keep her calm with a towel on the cage but keep one end open for the heat to escape. I did this except for the moist cloth. Instead I used a vaporizer on one end and the heating pad on the other. I covered it with a towel and then left a "window" for some of the hot air to escape and not cook the birdie.

This morning, she looks healthy and strong and I have observed her eating quite a bit of fresh this morning. Haven't seen her touch her pellets or the Nutri-an cakes yet but at this point I want her eating SOMETHING to plump up that keel bone area.

I was wondering if that poop would qualify as "egg poop", those big bombs that usually happen first thing in the morning or soon before an egg is laid.

Any other info and advice on this matter would be appreciated and I'll post any updates here.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Hulabird

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They also get cooked grains like quinoa or oats, multi-grain cereal, or scrambled eggs and the like every day as well. That will come later this afternoon or evening with more fresh in between. It will likely include more veggies and fruit.

There is NO junk food except sun flower seed, only during training and no more than 5-10 a day. These birds aren't in training and do not get any.

Yaayy, she's merrily chomping away on the verterinary prescription diet cakes right now!
 

Ann333

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Jan 8, 2015
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New Mexico
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--PUMPKIN - male YS GCC. Hatched Halloween Day 2014. Came home Jan. 4, 2015. Started talking in July '15!

-BUTTERNUT- female TYS GCC Hatched in late Jan. 2016 and came home March 14, 2016
I am no expert, but i would definitely prefer to take my bird to the vet rather than risk her health.
 
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Hulabird

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Did you happen to read my post? I did take her to the vet and most of my post was about the visit.

You are the 2nd person here who recommended I take her to the vet. What gives?

This is the latest poop picture. It's looking more normal now. This isn't all there has been since the ones that looked like the food she ate. That little round white piece looks like RB Rice pellet.

20150802_150840.jpg
 
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Kyoto

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Mar 18, 2015
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Kyoto (AKA Kyo)-Green Cheek Conure
Charlie - Canary
Tommy - Budgie
Sunny - budgie
Did you happen to read my post? I did take her to the vet and most of my post was about the visit.

You are the 2nd person here who recommended I take her to the vet. What gives?

This is the latest poop picture. It's looking more normal now. This isn't all there has been since the ones that looked like the food she ate. That little round white piece looks like RB Rice pellet.

20150802_150840.jpg

I think that Ann was just trying to suggest that in her opinion letting the vet assist the bird passing the egg may be the best option. No hostility intended.

I second her on that one too… I lost a budgie to egg binding trying to help her with a vet on the phone (I had no vehicle and it was 2am). Please do what is best for her if she doesn't pass that egg soon.
 
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Hulabird

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It was at the vet's suggestion that I do this option 3 first. He told me to call him on Monday to let him know how she is and if it hasn't passed by Wednesday or if her health deteriorates, he wants her back in for option 2.

Far from her health deteriorating, she looks 100% better with the fluids and vitamins he injected her with, the supportive care the vet recommended which has been being done since I got home from the vet. She's perching instead of clinging to the side of the cage. And she's receiving moist heat from a heating pad on one end of the cage and a vaporizer with plain water at the other end. I've tented the cage and left a window so she doesn't get too hot. Also as the VET told me to do.

She's eating and it seems like quite a lot. She preferred the fresh fruit/veg, quinoa,flax,chia mixture over the vet's prescription diet but did eat quite a bit of that too. I don't know if she's eaten any of the pellets yet.

She is in a smaller 'hospital' cage with a perch and a thick layer of soft towel covered in paper towels so I can monitor any changes in the poop and easily see if the egg comes out. I have it sitting right in front of where I usually sit so I can keep a close eye on her.

I'm not asking if I should take her to the vet or not. My question is has anybody seen poop like this in a bird carrying an egg? Does the last one look pretty normal to you? And has anybody tried any of the various ways to help the egg come out that I've read such as:

Letting the bird sit and 'soak' in a small amount of warm 'bath' water. Won't work for me. This is not a tame bird and because the doctor said to keep her quiet, I'm afraid it will upset her and get her all excited.

I also read about people serving lots of eggs with egg shells scrambled in to help harden the egg shell.

Another thing was to rub coconut or mineral oil around the vent to help the egg slide out easier.

I haven't tried any of these home remedies, just wondering about anybody else's experience. She isn't necessarily egg "bound". She may have an egg based on the shape of what he saw on the u/s. As I said in the first post, fecal and blood test results are pending. How long does the egg usually remain in the hen (on a conure) before she lays it?
 

Ann333

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Jan 8, 2015
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New Mexico
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--PUMPKIN - male YS GCC. Hatched Halloween Day 2014. Came home Jan. 4, 2015. Started talking in July '15!

-BUTTERNUT- female TYS GCC Hatched in late Jan. 2016 and came home March 14, 2016
Thank you kyoto that is what i meant...
 

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