Chicken may be sick, new layer

[MrsKroo]

Please help.
My almost 6-month-old Orpington started laying about two weeks ago.
She laid 4 beautiful eggs but then she laid a soft shell egg.
Now she has laid 4 soft shells eggs, and one hard shell egg in between.
She seems normal as she is foraging a little and eating but in comparison to what she used to be, she’s definitely different.
I have a photo of her this afternoon. To me

she looks sad. Her tail is not up and it looks like she’s swollen because of all the fluff.
Should I worried? I have been feeding them every thing right, I’ve made sure they have enough calcium, what is going on?
Thank you for your help.

 

[rosemarythyme]

She definitely isn't feeling well. She may have a soft egg stuck inside her (as they're hard to push out) - if she will let you handle her, can you look at her vent and see if she seems to be straining to push?

Have you actually seen her eating the calcium? Some chickens refuse to, and may need to be supplemented. In this case calcium citrate pills might be needed to give her a quick high level dose of calcium to help her through this, and you'll need to keep a bit of an eye on her calcium intake going forward.

 

[aart]

I have been feeding them every thing right

What exactly does this mean?

When I have a bird that is acting 'off' I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor their intake of food and water, crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed), and their poops. Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling. Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.

Best to put crate right in coop or run so bird is still 'with' the flock.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in. If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.

 

[MrsKroo]

She definitely isn't feeling well. She may have a soft egg stuck inside her (as they're hard to push out) - if she will let you handle her, can you look at her vent and see if she seems to be straining to push?

Have you actually seen her eating the calcium? Some chickens refuse to, and may need to be supplemented. In this case calcium citrate pills might be needed to give her a quick high level dose of calcium to help her through this, and you'll need to keep a bit of an eye on her calcium intake going forward.

Thank you for the help. She laid a normal egg today and it’s doing very well. She’s active and eating / drinking as normal.