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Petey has been plucking chest feathers? (Photo included)

Amber2018

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Petey has been going through egg binding issues :( I’ve never had this problem before and am still dealing with it. She’s making soft eggs and can’t push them out. I’m hoping the vet and I will be able to fix the problem so that Petey will be okay.
Maybe it’s hormonal, but it looks like she’s been picking out her chest and lower abdominal muscles. She’s also been picking at her feet, as you can see in the photo. Does this look familiar to anyone? What can I do to help her?
 

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Lady Jane

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Did the vet test her calcium level?
 

JLcribber

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Petey has been going through egg binding issues :( I’ve never had this problem before and am still dealing with it. She’s making soft eggs and can’t push them out. I’m hoping the vet and I will be able to fix the problem so that Petey will be okay.
Maybe it’s hormonal, but it looks like she’s been picking out her chest and lower abdominal muscles. She’s also been picking at her feet, as you can see in the photo. Does this look familiar to anyone? What can I do to help her?
It is fairly normal for a sitting hen to pluck their chests and inside of their legs somewhat. They do this to get better contact with their eggs and the feathers line the nest. And that is hormonal.

Egg binding/soft shells almost always boil down to diet and fitness level. These are things that need investigating/re-evaluating. If she lays a lot of eggs then her world is too comfortable which makes her conducive to laying them.

If she is egg bound now she probably needs a calcium injection ASAP. She needs the vet (now).

Here's some good reading.
Hormonal Behavior in Pet Birds - Introduction — For The Birds DVM — Avian Vet
 

Amber2018

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Thank you for the link. She is on a mostly pellet diet as of recently, and I put a vitamin supplement (I think it’s called nekton) in her fresh water, daily. Previously, I’ve just mixed in pellets with her seeds but she probably ate more of the seeds. I’ve also been scraping cuttlebone in her food so it’s like a powder, and today I crushed some boiled egg shells and put it in her food. At this point, especially with her making eggs, I guess the improved diet and calcium isn’t making a huge difference...she comes out of her cage every day for exercise. She’s been in another room away from my cockatiel, and it immediately stops her nesting behaviour aside from the excessive preening. I will be taking her to the vet, but he’s not available until Thursday.

her vent is enlarged and I noticed white stuff on the floor of the cage...I’m assuming it’s part of an improperly formed egg :( I was really really hoping she would have a normal egg this time...or at least be able to push it out on her own. But I don’t know if that’s likely. I hope it’s possible for her to recover completely from this soft egg problem. Last time the vet pushed it out and it wasn’t formed at all, there was just slimy egg white that came out along with a bit of other stuff.
 

JLcribber

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If the diet was only recently improved then it would not have the desired effect yet.

At this point she needs to stop laying eggs because these soft shelled eggs will be the death of her. The "cycle" needs to be broken. Moving her away was good. Some intense light therapy might might be suggested. New/different/totally rearranged cage. Etc. How many eggs has she laid?

Her fitness is not up to snuff either.
 

Amber2018

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Oh no :( earlier this year, I think she layed a maximum of 2 eggs before becoming egg bound the first time...I can’t remember, it may have only been 1. I hope she makes it to the vet :( she went on Lupron for 2 months but as soon as it stopped, the problem started again.

When she’s out of her cage, she flies around and walks around a bit. Not sure how to give her better excercise.
 
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