Cockatiel health advice needed please

[Rooster2312]

My cockatiel hen Parsley (~11yrs) started laying eggs from around the age of 8 and has a history of chronic egg-laying. A couple of years ago she was producing well over the average number of eggs she should have been having so was taken some distance to an avian vet for a health check. She was given a clean bill of health and has not had to see a vet since. The usual suggestions offered to deter her from laying didn't make a difference, so I took the simple step of changing her cage lining from newspaper to those environmentally friendly absorbant wood pellets that are designed for cat litter use. They use this to line the aviary floors at my local Pets at Home store. It not only looks more presentable but has been advantageous in Parsley's case as it is not suitable or comfy for nesting. She hadn't laid any eggs for over a year apart from one rogue egg that I found on top of the cage a few months ago. I use this litter to line my budgies cage and have had no problems health wise. I read on another forum that this litter shouldn't be used as it is a harbour for bacteria which I agree with but as I change this on a weekly basis I haven't considered this to be detrimental.

About a month ago, I was having recurring airway irritation and as I only really have one room which I share with 4 birds, I was fearful that the bird dust was the culprit. In order to eliminate some of the dust, I changed the cage litter and replaced it again with newspaper. Bad idea! Parsley became broody again and as I feared, it wasn't long before there was an egg on the bottom of the cage. I think it was about 4 or 5 days before the second egg was laid and as this time delay was out of the ordinary, I hoped that she would have just the one to sit. Another 3 have since followed in normal succession.

I am well used to hens laying patterns and the elimination patterns that accompany this. I expect these large daily voluminous poops, but Parsley gave me cause for concern today as there was no evidence of any poop for about 48 hours. Thursday past, there was green diarrhoea all over the cage and the wall at the rear of the cage. This is normal for her during this time so I wasn't alarmed. I had to strip the cage down, toys and everything. I noticed yesterday that the newspapers was clean, but when it was still spotless this morning, it worried me. I decided to let her out of the cage hoping that flight might make her 'go'. I knew that my flat was going to get a splattering but I was more concerned about her retaining. She flew up onto the door and as I saw her make the motions, I tried to hold a container underneath her. Well!! It projected out of her vent with some force, missing the container...it was everywhere ! It was also expectedly very odourous. A few minutes later she passed some semi solid matter which I strongly suspect was a broken up malformed soft egg.

She is showing no signs of illness or weakness, but I think she should be eating a bit more than she does. She is sitting on her eggs most of the day and roosts higher up at night. When she was out, she was flying around and has no leg weakness. She has access to a calcium block and cuttlefish and has been seen nibbling away at these. I have now scraped some of the calcium block onto the top of her seeds. I'm worried that she will aquire an infection as a result of retaining her poop. I'm going to call my sister who is a veterinary nurse, but would welcome any advice that any member here has to offer.

Sorry for the length of this post.

Many thanks, Lindi