Weird egg? Weird clump = "LASH" (GRAPHIC Pics)

Background: Rose is a Golden Comet. I've had her for little under a year and she was about 1-2 years old when I got her. A great layer. On the 18th of March, she stopped laying. 2 days later, she started showing signs of feeling badly (not eating/drinking as much and lying down a lot.) I watched her closely and became convinced she was eggbound. I researched "eggbound" and followed all the suggestions I could. I gave her 2 warm sitz baths in an evening, kept her in a clean carrier wrapped with a heating pad, watched her carefully. After being in the house overnight, she had pooped once and acted like she was feeling much better so I let her back into the coop in hopes that an egg was forthcoming. No eggs, but no acting sickly either. After another 2 days, I chided myself for mistaking a broody hen for being eggbound. But she seemed well and got a spa treatment out of the deal so I was happy enough.

Happening: Then, tonight (Mar. 28), I go out to close their coop door and checked on the girls. There, in the coop floor was a weird looking clump, a puddle I thought was albumen (egg white), and an egg that looked like it was shelless at first glance but had a hardness to it that shelless eggs I've gotten before did not have and an obvious tail of chalaza. (Forgive me, I am looking up terms as I type. Y'know, it's that thick connection that looks like egg white that connects it to the inner part of the shell. Yeah, that thingy.)

Rose was on the roost above the mess and seemed fine, even curious about the egg and pecked at it once or twice. I didn't want her to eat it so I scooped the stuff up with my litter scoop. I was just so excited that maybe Rose is beginning to lay again!



My first thought was, "what the heck is this clump?" I brought it all into the house, washed the sand off it, and became worried. The clump smelt slightly, kinda like organ meat will smell, not pleasant but not rotten either. It and the egg was covered not with a thin membrane, but a thick, meaty covering. What I had thought was a puddle of egg white was actually a membrane (inner or outer, idk.) It was intact except for a hole in one end about the size of a dime and perfectly formed.

I cut open the meaty clump and found it to be a mass of grainy, gristly, meaty clumps packed together. That is the best I can describe it but it doesn't quite do it justice. I cut open the egg and it was normal-looking on the inside and had no bad smell at all.





Question: So, peeps, is this a normal thing? What could this clump be? What is the meaty membrane covering the egg and clump? Is something wrong with Rose or is this just some weird but nothing-to-be-worried-about occurence?

THANKS for your input!!!
~ t.

This gets posted occasionally, truly weird. Seems to happen rarely. In the UK I believe it is called a "Lash"

Here's a discussion about them:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/images/gyo_welcome_message_v1.jpg

Imp

ETA- I don't think it's dangerous, just odd

Thanks!!!!
Knowing what it is called (lash) enabled me to start doing searches on it. I usually make a point to never start a new topic for help unless I've looked through the archives, but this was hard to search without knowing it had a name. You've nailed it!!! I'll be reading up on it now...
Again, thank you.

Glad I helped.

If you find any good info on them, please let me know. I could not find much when I was looking for it.

Grab a link if you can and post it here, or send it to me via PM or Email

Thanks

A very curious imp

Glad your chicken is OK

Weird eggs give me the heebie jeebies. I have nothing to add, no help, no aid. I hope you find a remedy. There's got to be a fix, right? Cuz if one of mine does this I'm just gonna pass out right there in the chicken run.

There's hardly any information on the internet about "lash" except some speculation on various forums. Nothing "official" that I can find.
Experience of hard-core chicken keepers (official experts enough, imho) seem to suggest it is a sloughing off of the reproductive system, usually thought to be lining. It is discussed on forums in hens of all ages but evidently going though either a hormonal change at the beginning or end of their laying production period overall. Sometimes lash is connected to a stressful incident that caused them to stop laying for awhile or a change from broodiness to laying again. Hormonal changes seem key in producing lash. What "lash" material actually is, is debated. Photos show various textures and sizes which make it extra hard to pin down. I suspect "lash" is a broad term used to describe anything that comes out of the hen's reproductive tract (usually coated with a rubbery layer of material in pink to yellow hues) that is not easily identified. It is obviously flesh material, though, and not egg.

In the case of my hen, Rose, she has obviously been experiencing either a short illness or broodiness that caused her to stop laying altogether. This would lump her into the group of hormonally-disturbed hens. I will keep you updated on Rose's condition, if she begins to lay again or if this is the end of her productive years. The appearance of lash, although hearlded by some as the beginning of the end, is obviously not so for several hens that I've read about that laid lash then went on to lay normal eggs again.

Hormonally-disturbed hens may lay lash. Hormonally-disturbed. I just love that term. Makes me want to compare them to hormonally-disturbed women who "lash out." Not that I do or anything.


But seriously, it's time for me to stop researching this newest thing in my girls and get some sleep before I say something else silly. I look forward to hearing from others who encounter lash in their hens and what happened afterwards - egg production ceasing or continuing, etc.

I still wonder what the coating on the "lash" and the egg in my photos could be. I did find a link to photos of eggs laid covered by a "bag" that was similiar but those eggs also had their hard shells.

Quote:
Here are two links to similiar incidents that freaked out others:
WARNING: graphic photos

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/WeirdEggs/WeirdEggs.html

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/ChristmasAlienEgg/ChristmasAlienEgg.html

I thought it was an ovary when I saw it.

Quote:
x2

How common are "weird eggs" like the ones on this thread and on the links that a previous poster included? Oh my gosh, to be honest, I'm really thin-skinned and weak-stomached about things like this. I'm very excited to get chickens but I need to be realistic if these "weird eggs" happen very often. Those pics on that link got the old gag reflex going for me.

Thanks,
CJ