Lynch Homestead: Chicken Woes: Broken Egg Inside Chicken

It has been a traumatic couple of weeks as a chicken mama. After losing a chicken to the neighbor's dog we woke the following morning to follow a trail of feathers into another neighbor's yard where another dog had gotten one. The first attack left one bird traumatized, as I found her pacing the yard and spinning circles right after it happened. I was afraid she had been the initial target and maybe had just been lucky enough to get away but after looking her over a couple of times I found no wounds on her. I brought her back into the yard and gave her space as she hid under the back porch. I went out that night to make sure she had returned to the coop with the others for the night and when she had I thought that she would be fine and that she was just shaken up.
The next morning I went out to find that she had assumed her position under the porch again and I lured her out with a grape to look her over again. Again I found nothing and I thought that maybe she needs a little longer to settle down. Shortly after looking her over I realized another chicken (the second one) was gone and i was distracted from her as I went in search of the other. Again that night I went to check on her and she had gone to the coop. The following morning I found her again under the porch and I noticed her comb was a bit droopy. I expressed my concern to the husband who responded by saying that he would be hiding under the porch too if everyone was getting eaten.
I tried to lure her out that day with no luck but later that evening she was out in the back yard with the other chickens. I literally jumped up and down, clapping with excitement because my chicken was okay! She was still moving slow, but she was out with the others and I was relieved. The next morning she was under the porch, but as the sun got higher in the sky she was out with the others. She was moving slowly and standing strangely and I started to wonder if she was egg bound. I wasn't sure who had and hadn't laid, as there are many chickens and they were all a bit shook with the dog incident. I text the husband to tell him I was going to bring the chicken in for a soak, just in case she was egg bound. He insisted I wait a day because 1) I'm not expert and I literally was just searching for a reason she was acting strangely and 2) he is not a fan of bringing chickens inside. I agreed I would wait and when I went back outside I found one of the girls holding her. I reminded them that the chicken was not feeling well and we needed to give her space. She sat the chicken down and when she did a bit of egg was pooped out. I shooed the girls out of the coop and thought that maybe the problem was solving itself. Maybe the stress had caused her to not fully develop the egg and it was going to be one of those messy soft-shelled eggs.

It turned out I was very wrong.

As I entered the coop the next morning I found the chicken laying sprawled out in a nesting box with her head hanging low and her eyes blinking slowly. I gently picked her up to bring her in and I realized I could feel her bones very pronounced under the feathers. I brought her into the kitchen and put her in the sink to soak and began googling her symptoms and that is when I first read about eggs breaking inside the hen. After forcing her to drink some water I wrapped her in a towel and laid her to rest in a box while I did more research. When I went in to check on her she had pooped and passed more egg but there was no trace of a shell. I knew then that it was a broken egg I was dealing with and did what the researching told me to and I reached inside her with a lubed up, gloved finger to feel for shell. I felt nothing. I continued to give her water and offer her food but I knew things weren't going to end well for chicken. She was too weak to hold her head up. I was surprised when I woke the next morning to find her sitting a little more up right but after passing more egg I again tried to search for shell pieces with no luck. We left the house to run an errand and when we returned she had passed. The girls were very sad to say goodbye to another chicken and I was sad that I wasn't able to help her. There is a lot to learn with our first flock and I hope that the hard lessons are over! Next time I will recognize the symptoms and hopefully be able to help before it progresses as it did with this hen.

After researching I think that what happened with this chicken was the stress from the dog attack led to her not eating or drinking. The not drinking led to dehydration which in turn led to the egg being unable to pass as normal. When the egg became uncomfortable I think she ate and drank less putting her into an even more weakened state. When she was picked up by the girls I think the egg was crushed and was then cutting into her. I believe the egg was still high inside her and that is why I couldn't feel shell and why she was still able to poop.

As a result of this we have started a collection of things to have on hand to help our chickens should we find ourselves in this situation again. The list includes; rubber gloves, baby aspirin, petroleum jelly, and Epsom salt.