why did my hen lay this egg?

[danivonlehe]

Hello. I have a 1 year old hen who has been acting sick, lethargic, and has been continually pumping the tail/vent area. Two days ago I was able to extract a kind of membrane looking liquid from her vent. I thought she might be egg bound so I bathed her for 20 minutes and separated her from the flock in a peaceful area. I placed some other hen eggs in her enclosure to inspire her to lay, and she just laid a shell-less, yellow rubbery egg with what I think may be a misformed shell? (Image attached.) Has anyone seen anything like this before? What might be the cause/treatment of this? We did just undergo a two day heat wave, but this seems extreme to me. She has always been a great layer.

 

[Kwimmer78]

I would try to feed her some more calcium. My chickens have always liked cottage cheese.

 

[sawilliams]

Is the brown shell like part hard shell like, rubbery or, dry skin like?

Based on your description she's had an egg break inside, which was the runny stuff from the other day. The shell thing might have been part of that membrane that was stuck. And the shell-less egg was well shell-less possibly due to the peice of membrane being so close to passing the egg didn't have time to get shell.

Another question did you open the shell-less? Make sure the is no other debri in that egg. I would expect some. What you dont want to find is rubbery chunks that look like pressed cottage cheese. That would be a lash egg and indicates an infection of the ovi-tract

 

[chickengeorgeto]

There are several serious and basically incurable diseases that hens get that may permanently damage a hens' ability to lay eggs.

 

[aart]

Hello. I have a 1 year old hen who has been acting sick, lethargic, and has been continually pumping the tail/vent area. Two days ago I was able to extract a kind of membrane looking liquid from her vent. I thought she might be egg bound so I bathed her for 20 minutes and separated her from the flock in a peaceful area. I placed some other hen eggs in her enclosure to inspire her to lay, and she just laid a shell-less, yellow rubbery egg with what I think may be a misformed shell? (Image attached.) Has anyone seen anything like this before? What might be the cause/treatment of this? We did just undergo a two day heat wave, but this seems extreme to me. She has always been a great layer.

Welcome to BYC @danivonlehe ...sorry you're having troubles.

@sawilliams had posted some great suggestions and questions.

Sick and lethargic could be many things, including extreme heat.
Is she acting better now?
When I have a bird acting 'off' I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so you 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.

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.


How hot was it?

Where in this world are you located?
Climate is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, then it's always there!

 

[Bettyboop7499]

Wow! What was in the egg? And is she better now? Thanks!