This is Completely Gross
This is completely gross.
You have been warned.
Seriously, you should stop reading now and go look at kittens or rainbows if you don’t want to see the grossest thing ever.
It will make you lose your breakfast, and you will never want to eat eggs again.
This is your last warning.
Okay here we go with the grossness.
I warned you.
Seriously.
I’m not joking.
Okay here we go…
As you know, Olly Astro had a big operation today. It turned out to be very, very serious, and she still has a few days before we’ll really know if she’ll be okay. She is in a lot of pain tonight.
Olly Astro had an operation today to clean out the stuck yolks in her oviduct. It turns out that she had a whole TON of stuck, partially-formed eggs inside her.
Look how gross! All of those are egg yolks and some egg whites and some partially formed egg shells. The surgeon thinks that the very last egg Olly laid last season, which was probably in October, was mal-formed. This can happen at the beginning or end of any egg-laying cycle for chickens. As they start laying eggs or taper off, their eggs can be oddly formed. So Olly’s last egg of last season got stuck in her oviduct and never came out. Then she was okay all winter because she wasn’t laying eggs anyway (chickens lay less eggs in winter than they do in summer). But in the past few weeks, as she started to lay eggs again, they couldn’t get out!
All of her eggs got stuck behind that last season mal-formed egg, and built up inside her. There were at least TWENTY YOLKS, so this has been going on for at least three weeks.
Poor Olly Astro!
As her belly grew, I knew she should be laying eggs soon, and then when she didn’t, I knew something was wrong. But I had NO IDEA it was anything like this! She must have been so uncomfortable. Plus she just had a respiratory infection, too!
And she is STILL uncomfortable, but hopefully she is on the mend. Her weight before the operation was 2.12kg or 4.67lbs, and after surgery, she now weighs 1.48kg or 3.26lbs. One-fourth of her total weight was STUCK EGG YOLKS!
Yuck.
She is inside for about five days, especially since the weather is so cold. She did have a drink of water and pooped in her carrier on the way home. But other than that, she is very quiet and I’m sure she is really sore. She’s not speaking to me. At all. Hopefully tomorrow she will start feeling a little better. I am sure she is BREATHING better without all those stuck eggs pushing on her air sacs.
Now… we don’t eat eggs anymore around here, because they gross us out. We’re vegan. But you… you just try and enjoy that next Denver omelet or egg scramble.
Mmmmm. Bon appetit!
Oh! In other news, Lester did really well at the vet and will do one more round of antibiotics to make sure his bone infection is gone. They were impressed that he is able to stand up and get around, and he is very happy to be back home with his buddy Flapper.
Please send good thoughts for Olly Astro. She really needs them as she recovers from such a serious surgery.
21 Comments
Damn. I’m glad I gave up the hen fruit a LONG time ago.
Poor Olly! Glad they got all that yuck out of her. Hope she gets to feeling better soon!
That is awesome that you caught it in time. Does the vet think she will be able to lay normally once she heals?
Olly was spayed so she never has to worry about egg issues again.
Poor sweet girl. How’s Janet doing without her buddy? Would a visit from Janet cheer her up?
Janet is buddies with Olivia. Olly Astro just needs rest and quiet tonight, no visitors.
Hope you feel better soon, Olly.
Best wishes, little Olly. She’s a brave little girl and I hope she has good pain meds, poor thing.
Aww. Feel better, cutie. I’m crossing my fingers for you.
Oh my *goodness*!!! Sweet, sweet Olly girl, I’m sending prayers and healing vibes and all sorts of good wishes for your comfort and healing. What a brave thing you are! xo
I am sending bucket loads of prayers & best wishes for Olly Astro ♥ ♥ ♥
Love Jamee xxxx
It’s not a pretty sight but I’ve seen worse. I’m just happy the yolks got out and hope Olly will be on top of ot all again soon. This must have been so uncomfortable for her, a relieve that you descovered it before it was too late. Too bad we don’t have x-ray vision, but you know your critters so being observent is the only thing to do.
I always worry at the beginning and the end of the laying season of our ducks ever since we lost Sadie, and our white domestic goose Grietjes lays a lot of eggs too.
Good to hear that Lester is on the mend, I hope he will walk again.
DANG… She will have to feel much better after she gets over being sore!
Wow. I always thought that if an egg didn’t make it out it was reabsorbed by the bird. Guess NOT. I hope she feels better real soon and so glad to hear she won’t have to worry about eggs again!
Oh Olly, How sad and what a wonderful mama to take you to the bet. Hope you start talking to her soon. It’ll brighten her day! Glad you are on the mend.
Woh, I could swear I commented here earlier. Anyhow, I hope the young lady is doing well. As I said before, I hope you saved those yolks, they are great for cooking. We always save the yolks from our culled hens to make custards and ice cream! Go urban chickens!
You might have glossed over the part where we mention we’re vegan, Aaron. I deleted your comment, because the thought of eating 21 infected egg yolks makes me want to vomit. And we don’t “cull” (murder/slaughter) or eat our rescued friends either. We rescue hens from backyard farmers who get in over their head. We’re not here for the farmers. We’re here for the chickens. Viva la chickens! But I appreciate your well wishes for her and I will pass them along.
I applaud the rescuing of animals that are not properly cared for, but disagree with deleting comments with which you do not agree. I assumed that you would share your eggs with non-vegans, but perhaps not given you are not open to some opinions/ways of life. My best friend is a ‘vegan’, but he doesn’t use the term vegan or condemn others, he simply doesn’t consider animals or their products to be food. All this said, I really do appreciate you helping these animals. Thank you.
Aaron, I don’t preach on the farm coop group because I’m there to offer tips to help the chickens. It’s not the appropriate place. With the same respect, I don’t think it’s too much to ask non-vegans to refrain from talking about eating infected surgery leftovers, or slaughtering hens and digging through their entrails to get the last yolk out of their oviduct. It’s all about context.
That is amazing she had all those yolks in there. She must feel so much better with all that out of there.
Poor girl.
This is amazing that she is still here. I had always thought that “egg binding” kills the hen if the egg is not removed rather quickly.
Last “Father’s Day” I found out that my African Grey Parrot, Alex, is a girl, as she presented me with an egg on Father’s Day….and kept laying and laying. Now I worry like mad about egg binding. For 17 years, I’d thought Alex was a male…although never sexed.
You’re such a good Mother to your entire family….feathery and furry alike. I just can’t believe she managed to have all of that inside of her. WOW.