2 year old Easter Egger laying thin shelled eggs, not direct calcium deficiency

[Juliebanning]

I have a 2 year old Easter egger laying thin shelled eggs since April, we have supplemented her with Calcium which resulted in no improvement. I have taken her to an avian vet and ran bloodwork and taken x-rays... no problems there except the Dr thought maybe she may have a vitamin d deficiency so we started to supplement that. That initially seemed to do the trick and she was back to normal for awhile but now we have thin eggs again even with the supplements. She seems to be in otherwise good health. She does on occasion have watery stools and drinks more than my other chickens. Has anyone else had a similar problem? If so what was the result? Thanks

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

How are you supplementing the calcium and Vitamin D? Making it available does not necessarily mean she is consuming it or consuming it at a sufficient rate to support good shell production.

 

[TwoCrows]

I usually give human Caltrate a try. It has all the necessary minerals that work with Calcium so the hen can absorb and use it in the body. 1/2 of a Caltrate pill once a day. I break a pill in half, and then break this half into small pieces and stuff them into raisins. The bird doesn't know they are being medicated. This Calcium should start to take effect within a couple of days. Continue using it until you start to see a LOT of calcium bumps on the egg shell, you can back down to a couple of times a week. Sometimes if you remedy the situation of why she is laying thin shelled eggs, you can do away with it completely. Without the necessary minerals added to Calcium, it becomes very hard to absorb and use in the body.

If the Caltrate doesn't work, there are other reasons a bird lays thin shelled eggs....she is being bullied away from the feeders or waterers and is not getting enough to eat or drink.... she is being bullied while laying or is worried about being bullied in the nest box...over heating in the summer will cause thin shelled eggs...predators lurking at night causes enough stress they can't put a shell on...she has a defective shell gland...she is internally laying or has some sort of Reproductive Cancer...she has some other sort of illness that is causing her to be unable to put a shell on, and it is possible an over load of worms will do this too.

Try the Caltrate and see if it doesn't make a difference.

 

[Juliebanning]

How are you supplementing the calcium and Vitamin D?  Making it available does not necessarily mean she is consuming it or consuming it at a sufficient rate to support good shell production.

I have been giving the vitamin d by hand every other day so I know she gets that and she has oyster shell available all times. I ran bloodwork on her in April and her calcium level was normal as was her phosphorus. We also supplemented with tums prior to any other treatments or test with no improvement

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are a couple of interesting articles about all sorts of egg quality issues:
https://www.alltech.com/sites/default/files/alltech-egg-shell-quality-poster.pdf
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/common-egg-quality-problems

 

[Juliebanning]

I usually give human Caltrate a try. It has all the necessary minerals that work with Calcium so the hen can absorb and use it in the body. 1/2 of a Caltrate pill once a day. I break a pill in half, and then break this half into small pieces and stuff them into raisins. The bird doesn't know they are being medicated. This Calcium should start to take effect within a couple of days. Continue using it until you start to see a LOT of calcium bumps on the egg shell, you can back down to a couple of times a week. Sometimes if you remedy the situation of why she is laying thin shelled eggs, you can do away with it completely. Without the necessary minerals added to Calcium, it becomes very hard to absorb and use in the body. 

If the Caltrate doesn't work, there are other reasons a bird lays thin shelled eggs....she is being bullied away from the feeders or waterers and is not getting enough to eat or drink.... she is being bullied while laying or is worried about being bullied in the nest box...over heating in the summer will cause thin shelled eggs...predators lurking at night causes enough stress they can't put a shell on...she has a defective shell gland...she is internally laying or has some sort of Reproductive Cancer...she has some other sort of illness that is causing her to be unable to put a shell on, and it is possible an over load of worms will do this too.

Try the Caltrate and see if it doesn't make a difference. 

Thanks for the information I can for sure eliminate some of the causes. I have their stools checked for parasites regularly and I know its not that. She is towards the low end on the totem pole so she could get picked in but it seemed to happen suddenly like her eggs were normal and then the next they were not and it has been going on since the start of April which makes me think that she has a problem, it's just the finding out what it is that is challenging