- Jan 15, 2011
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I've searched to the end of the Internet (I think), and have found nothing like what we are experiencing with one of our girls (a gold sx link).
Here's the background: Ginger has always been at the bottom of the pecking order, so has always been a bit harried. In late November, she had a rather traumatic day (puppy got a bit fresh with her, and later that afternoon, a hawk stopped by; she didn't seem to have been injured, though one of our girls was killed, and they were all freaked out, hiding hither and yon in piles of leaves), and starting from that day, would NOT go into the coop with the other girls at night. I would have to put her up every night. After a week or 10 days, she started getting into the coop on her own, and I thought that was that. As the weather has gotten colder, though, she's been increasingly pitiful, and earlier this week, I went out in the morning, and she had spent the night out again. It was COLD that night, and I thought she must be half-frozen. I picked her up to put her in the coop (nobody was out of bed yet), and noticed one of her feet looked quite swollen; I thought maybe some cold injury? We brought her inside to see what we could do with her, and I searched about on the Internet (including multiple posts here), and thought perhaps bumblefoot was the answer, except no sign of the signature scab. We've done several days of saline soaks, and the swelling has gone down all but completely--so I think perhaps NOT bumblefoot, maybe back to my original thought of some sort of frost-nip.
Meanwhile, since she's been inside, in a crate, she has started to produce the most peculiar eggs(??). (Or, better to say: I've been able to observe these oddities; she may have been producing them previously, and, I hesitate to suggest, she or the other girls may have been eating them.) I don't know what they could be but abnormal eggs, but they are SO abnormal. Roughly egg-shaped, but varying in size, and SOLID through and through. As if made of flesh. Similar in appearance and consistency to cooked chicken flesh. When I've dissected these peculiarities, they do seem to have an outer layer, analogous to a shell, but soft. Just a slightly different color than the rest of the flesh egg.
(Oh, note: Our girls have produced soft-shelled/shell-less eggs, so I know what these look like, and what Ginger is manufacturing is NOT the same).
Has anyone ever seen such a thing as this flesh egg???? Or any other ideas what this might be????
Thanks for any help!
Backyard Flock Novice
Here's the background: Ginger has always been at the bottom of the pecking order, so has always been a bit harried. In late November, she had a rather traumatic day (puppy got a bit fresh with her, and later that afternoon, a hawk stopped by; she didn't seem to have been injured, though one of our girls was killed, and they were all freaked out, hiding hither and yon in piles of leaves), and starting from that day, would NOT go into the coop with the other girls at night. I would have to put her up every night. After a week or 10 days, she started getting into the coop on her own, and I thought that was that. As the weather has gotten colder, though, she's been increasingly pitiful, and earlier this week, I went out in the morning, and she had spent the night out again. It was COLD that night, and I thought she must be half-frozen. I picked her up to put her in the coop (nobody was out of bed yet), and noticed one of her feet looked quite swollen; I thought maybe some cold injury? We brought her inside to see what we could do with her, and I searched about on the Internet (including multiple posts here), and thought perhaps bumblefoot was the answer, except no sign of the signature scab. We've done several days of saline soaks, and the swelling has gone down all but completely--so I think perhaps NOT bumblefoot, maybe back to my original thought of some sort of frost-nip.
Meanwhile, since she's been inside, in a crate, she has started to produce the most peculiar eggs(??). (Or, better to say: I've been able to observe these oddities; she may have been producing them previously, and, I hesitate to suggest, she or the other girls may have been eating them.) I don't know what they could be but abnormal eggs, but they are SO abnormal. Roughly egg-shaped, but varying in size, and SOLID through and through. As if made of flesh. Similar in appearance and consistency to cooked chicken flesh. When I've dissected these peculiarities, they do seem to have an outer layer, analogous to a shell, but soft. Just a slightly different color than the rest of the flesh egg.
(Oh, note: Our girls have produced soft-shelled/shell-less eggs, so I know what these look like, and what Ginger is manufacturing is NOT the same).
Has anyone ever seen such a thing as this flesh egg???? Or any other ideas what this might be????
Thanks for any help!
Backyard Flock Novice
