Broken eggs

[rkapfen]

Please help!! I have an almost 2 year old EE that’s never had egg issues before that just started laying again after taking her winter break and her 3 eggs have had no shell on them and seem to break inside of her! Right now she’s out back trying to lay and liquid is coming out. A couple days ago this happened and I saw the balled out membrane sticking out of her vent and had to help her pass it and she did better but now it’s happening again and this time a clear fluid is coming out and I can’t see a membrane. They’re on an omega egg laying feed. We live in the Bay Area so it can get chilly but we usually have some sun. They get oyster sell free choice and I sprinkle some on top of their feed. When they happened a couple days ago I also have her some nutri drench straight and some pain meds I had got from the vet before. Please any ideas what’s going on and how I can help her??

 

[azygous]

She needs calcium supplement above and beyond vitamins and oyster shell. Use Tums or calcium tablets people take.

Give her one whole tablet each day, and I also highly recommend an antibiotic since there's evidence the egg has broken inside her. There may be material still inside and the steady dribble of fluid from her vent is indication of this. Bacteria can easily take hold in the broken yolk and irritated membranes. If you have penicillin or amoxicillin, give 250mg once a day or divide the dose on half and give twice a day.

Keep her warm and quiet, give plenty of water and soft boiled egg or tofu. The calcium tablet will strengthen her contractions and help her to pass the broken egg material and also will help reset her laying cycle back to normal.

 

[dawg53]

Also consider giving her vitamin D in her food which helps with calcium absorption.

 

[rkapfen]

Thanks for the advice everyone. We were able to get her into the vet and she was able to lay an egg with no shell. They looked inside her vent and no foreign bodies were found, just inflammation. We’re gonna try anti-inflammatories and antibiotics twice a day for a week and see how she does. Hopefully it’s her just adjusting to laying again and not an infection that the vet was talking about since they said it was incurable even with antibiotics. She seems to be doing much better right now! How would you suggest I give her vitamin D in her food? Any recommendations?

 

[dawg53]

You can get tablets, crush them into powder and sprinkle it on her feed. Try it for about one week then stop.

 

[azygous]

Last year I had a hen with this problem. She was laying two eggs in a 25 hour cycle. The problem is that a hen rarely has enough calcium for two egg at a time. Soft eggs have the risk of either rupturing or getting stuck.

So she got one calcium tablet with vitamin D3 in it each day until she was laying normally again. This year, she appears to be laying fine, but she's one that I need to watch.

I suggest a calcium tablet with vitamin D3 in it. Open her beak and put the tablet right into her mouth and she will swallow it. No need to try to crush, mix, disguise, or any other extreme tactic, and that way you know she's getting the full dose.

It took my hen about five weeks to get back to a normal one egg per cycle, and then I stopped giving her the calcium tablet.