KOLLAM: What began as a worried visit to the district veterinary hospital turned into an ‘egg’citing weekend for a Perinad native, after the doctors suggested a ‘cesarean’ as the solution to his hen’s egg-laying problem.
An unsuspecting Reghunathan Nair had approached the hospital on Friday with a complaint that his hen had been struggling to lay eggs for the past two days. The doctors immediately took an X-ray of the hen, only to find that the bird was undergoing a rare condition called ‘Egg Bound Syndrome’.
“The condition is primarily seen in young birds. One of her eggs was lodged in her cloaca (a reproductive opening), which was causing the difficulty,” said Dr D Shine Kumar, a veterinary doctor at the district hospital. There are three reasons for this syndrome -- default anatomy, calcium deficiency and malposition of the egg. “In this case, the uneasiness was caused due to the malposition of the second egg,” the doctor said.
The doctors were able to remove the first egg by inserting a hand into the bird’s posterior, after giving her an anaesthesia. However, they were unsuccessful in removing the second one this way. Thus came the decision to opt for a C-section.
“When we first suggested this to Reghunathan, he was very hesitant. A cesarean on a hen was obviously a new concept for him,” Dr Shine said. “But once we successfully removed the second egg after a 15-minute long surgery, he left the hospital a happy man.”
The doctor clarified that this was not an isolated incident. “They are rare. But such surgeries have happened before,” he said.