270 Diseases of Poultry 



puncture the egg shell, evacuate the contents of the egg 

 with an egg-spoon, and afterwards with a pair of tweezers 

 break down and take out the shell piece by piece until as- 

 sured by passing the finger into the vent, that the cloaca is 

 empty. Special care must be taken to avoid injuring the 

 bird with the point of the awl ; and one's assistant must 

 maintain a steady and firm hold on the fowl. A third method 

 of relieving an egg bound hen was recommended by a 

 correspondent in our issue of June 10, 1898, and has since 

 been frequently tried by several poultry keepers, and found 

 very efficacious. ' When a hen is in that state I hold her over 

 some hot water, bathing the vent at the same time. After 

 this I use a small penknife (blunt) in the following manner : 

 Placing the edge of the blade along the first finger so that 

 the end is level with the finger end, I push the finger with 

 the knife into the vent until they touch the egg; then I 

 begin to scrape until I hear that I have scraped the rind or 

 skin away from the egg (I mean outside the egg). The hen 

 is then placed on the nest, and I will guarantee she will lay 

 in 20 minutes, or in most cases even less than that. I got 

 this advice from a man who has kept poultry on a small 

 scale for 50 years. I have tried it several times, and have 

 never known a hen to be egg bound a second time. This 

 method, it would appear, saves the egg. The great thing 

 throughout is to keep the bird quiet, and in future to avoid 

 extra fat forming food.'" 



Prognosis. — Good in cases of simple obstruction if taken 

 in hand early ; bad in all cases of complicated obstruction. 



Rupture of the Oviduct 



In some cases of complicated obstruction, and in cases of 

 severe inflammation the walls of the oviduct may break 

 and allow the contents to escape into the abdominal cavity. 



