Eggbound - how dangerous is it?

A work colleague has a pacific parrolet, Blu, and mentioned to me a while ago that -
- she spends all her time sitting in her food bowl
- her poop smells
- her abdomen is swollen.

Based on what I've learned here, I suspected that little Blu wanted to lay an egg and was probably eggbound since nothing changed as days went by. I begged her for days to take Blu to the AV and yesterday, out of desperation, I told her that her bird will die if she didn't take action.

She took Blu to the vet and he confirmed that she is infact eggbound and kept her at the hospital to see if he could help.

My question is this - I don't have female birds and I only know from reading here that being eggbound can be a problem but I'm not all that sure. Can someone give me some more info on the condition and how dangerous it is? I'm sure my friend will ask me at work this morning and I want to have more to say to her than 'I told you so'. I'm so cross with her - she could have had this attended to a week ago!

To answer your questions- Potentially lethal. You definitely did the right thing in telling your friend to take her bird to the vet immediately.

Being egg bound is extremely dangerous and considered an emergency.

it's a certain death, unless you have a very skilled A.vet that knows what they are doing.

even then it's not a guarantee, you did the right thing Michelle.

btw, I posted an article today about the importance of calcium and vitamin D3, it's a good read. feel free to share it to your friend.
coincidentally NiRD also gave some excellent suggestions as well on UVB lighting.

Oh no! I hoped my fears were exaggerated! Poor little Blu! I hope she makes it!

I will share your article, Beth, but I've been trying since I got Percy to get this colleague to put her birds (she also has a TAG) on a healthier diet but she insists that 'when she tries to feed them veg they don't eat it, they just want their seeds and I'm not going to buy pellets if they won't eat them either" People can be so stupid!

my biggest waking fear each morning with munch.

you can recognize egg laying signs and know what to look for. they start getting an "egg" bum a few days before laying an egg. if they are not able to poop or strain a lot, it could be a sign of egg binding.

complications of eggbinding:

if the egg breaks inside of her, the yolk can cause infection and cause peritonitis--another near-fatal (if left untreated, it IS fatal) complication.

eggs can keep being produced but not able to be passed, which can impact together into one solid mass.

prolapse

calcium deficiency.





some signs to tell if you might be seeing eggs soon:






some egg laying can cause some bloody droppings, theyre very common with the first egg, but as long as the bleeding doesnt continue, or as long as it is not severe, a tiny bit of blood (bright red) for the first couple of droppings after the egg is fairly normal. but if the blood is black, there's a problem, or if there is a large amount of blood, or if the bleeding continues for a long time.

to tell what blood looks like in the droppings:

Casey, that was really interesting. This potential is why I'd hesitate to get female birds, though I tend to really like the general personality of female animals.

I have lost a total of 3 females to egg binding in the last 17 years. It is absolutely heart breaking. Some times I am there to catch it before it happens but sometimes I'm not around when it happens. One of the girls died in my hands while I was trying to save her. I've saved countless ones before but sometimes they just get too weak and give up. Or if they have a prolapse, it is highly likely for them to have egg binding again, the second round they may not make it. I love my girls the best more then the boys.

Mikey, I'm sorry that you lost any at all because of this reason. Can I ask what kind of birds these 3 girls were that you lost? Would you be able to give me a general idea about how common this is in larger birds (larger meaning bigger than cockatiel size)? I usually hear of these unfortunate events in SMALL species. Should it not really be an issue of worry for a larger species non-breeding pet hen on a good diet? I really NEVER hear of egg problems happening to larger species (that are not breeders)... Leads me to believe it's pretty rare. Is that accurate to say?

They were two Cockatiels and a Kakariki. And yes it does happen in large species as a friend of mine lost her U2 not too long ago due to egg binding. Lilly was a spoiled rotten U2 that's being fed good diet, she was not a breeder and was the only parrot in the home. So far my LSC2 haven't tried to lay eggs for the past 9 years that we've had her. She's trying the mating thing but we ignore her when she does it.

Sadly, after six days at the vets and an op to remove the egg last week, little Blu passed away this morning

Please, everyone, take special care of your girls.

Sorry to hear!!!! It's a tough thing to go through, the main reason why so many shy away from girls. RIP Blu!!!

Tea Time

I am so sorry to hear about Blue.

This is a great article about herbs and teas with beneficial properties for our parrots. The red raspberry leaf has been used and shown effective with egg bound girls. Worth a read, we found it interesting about red clover for pluckers. Just a thought that was shared with us so passing along!,