Am I crazy??? Egg Yolk Peritonitis

[vbell259]

About a month ago, I found my first soft, shelled egg in one of the nesting boxes. I have a total of six chickens that are currently laying. Of the six, I could tell the soft shell egg had been laid by one of my three 1.5 year old Rhode Island reds. The problem was, I couldn’t figure out which one. I saw a couple more soft, shelled eggs over the next week or two, so after doing some research, I want ahead and gave all three Rhode Island reds some calcium supplementation in pill form (for the record, they have access to free choice oyster shell at all times). I thought it was weird that one of them would all of a sudden have a calcium deficiency, but wanted to go ahead and get on top of it if it was.

I haven’t seen any soft shell eggs in probably 10 days, so I thought the problem resolved. But last night, I discovered one of the hens had laid just a yolk in the nesting box and found two more spots in the coop where I think she may have done it previously while roosting, but it was hidden by pine shavings. At this point, I figured I was probably dealing with egg yolk peritonitis so I hung around the coop a ton today to figure out who it was.

I noticed my hen, Dumplin, was staying a lot more still then normal. Still got excited about treats but not walking around as much. She spent a large portion of the morning in the coop/nesting box (they’re free range. I live in middle TN and it’s colder than it has been but still sunny and in the 30-40’s) but never laid anything. I saw her poop once today and it contained a large amount of clear mucus mixed with a small bit of yellow that almost looked like tiny scrambled eggs.

At this point, I decided to take her into the vet. They did an X-ray and physical exam and told me she was perfectly healthy. Said the change in temperature/inadequate calcium was the culprit. I had to convince them to send me home with antibiotics as a precaution. Am I insane to think this is egg yolk peritonitis???

 

[aart]

She's probably ramping down production and getting ready to molt.
You can get some funky eggs during that time.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

But last night, I discovered one of the hens had laid just a yolk in the nesting box and found two more spots in the coop where I think she may have done it previously while roosting, but it was hidden by pine shavings. At this point, I figured I was probably dealing with egg yolk peritonitis

I saw her poop once today and it contained a large amount of clear mucus mixed with a small bit of yellow that almost looked like tiny scrambled eggs.

Am I insane to think this is egg yolk peritonitis???

Please post photos of her and the poop. Thanks!

What do you feed, including treats?

I'd give her 600mg Calcium Citrate with D3 for 5 days and see that helps.
She may be coming out of lay due to molt or she may have a reproductive disorder - hard to know with laying hens at times.


Does she have Egg Yolk Peritonitis? Likely it would show up on an xray or something would. If you lose her, necropsy would reveal if it's Peritonitis or not, you would find the evidence in the abdominal cavity.
""Egg peritonitis is characterized by fibrin or albumen-like material with a cooked appearance among the abdominal viscera. ""https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...ropsy,fowl cholera ) or Salmonella infection .

 

[vbell259]

Please post photos of her and the poop. Thanks!

What do you feed, including treats?

I'd give her 600mg Calcium Citrate with D3 for 5 days and see that helps.
She may be coming out of lay due to molt or she may have a reproductive disorder - hard to know with laying hens at times.


Does she have Egg Yolk Peritonitis? Likely it would show up on an xray or something would. If you lose her, necropsy would reveal if it's Peritonitis or not, you would find the evidence in the abdominal cavity.
""Egg peritonitis is characterized by fibrin or albumen-like material with a cooked appearance among the abdominal viscera. ""https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/disorders-of-the-reproductive-system/egg-peritonitis-in-poultry#:~:text=It is diagnosed at necropsy,fowl cholera ) or Salmonella infection .

Thanks for the ideas - glad to know it may just be changing of season/molting issues.

I’m kicking myself, but I didn’t get a picture of the poop I didn’t have my phone with me when she passed it. I’m working the next two days, so I don’t see the hens a whole lot because it gets dark so early, but I’ll try to grab pics this weekend!

I have 2 chickens that were born late in the year and haven’t started laying, so the whole flock (8 total) gets grower feed with free choice oyster shell always available. They also free range all day. For treats, my go to is mealworms but they also get fruit or veggies sometimes depending on the season (watermelon during summer, pumpkin this fall, etc.). The past week they’ve been getting a bit of cracked corn before bed since it’s been cold.

So I did a run of the 600 mg calcium/vit d3 a couple weeks ago when I was seeing the soft shell eggs (I just gave it to all three of my RIR’s since I wasn’t sure who was laying them at the time). I only did 4 days. Is it ok to go ahead and do a second run?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

For the hen that is having problems, I would give her Calcium Citrate for 5 days to see if that helps.

I'd give her 600mg Calcium Citrate with D3 for 5 days and see that helps.
She may be coming out of lay due to molt or she may have a reproductive disorder - hard to know with laying hens at times.

 

[vbell259]

For the hen that is having problems, I would give her Calcium Citrate for 5 days to see if that helps.

Started her on cal citrate last night!

When I went down to check on her this morning before work, she’d passed this egg yolky mucus at some point over night. She did poop while I was down there, it didn’t look like what I saw a couple days ago, but it was more mucousy than normal so I’ll attach a pic of that as well.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Is she acting o.k.?
I'd see if the calcium helps with shell quality.
She may be expelling it as a soft shelled egg and the other hens are eating the membrane, they will gobble that right up.

I agree, she's got some reproductive problems going on, whether it's a shell gland issue or something else, hard to know.

 

[vbell259]

She’s still hanging moving around well and getting excited about treats. I’m off work tomorrow so I’ll be able to see more of how she’s doing.

The vet called me today and said she sent out the X-rays from a couple days ago just to be sure she wasn’t missing something. The avian vet that read them confirmed that it is egg yolk peritonitis - it sounds like it’s mild or on the early side so there hadn’t been a whole lot of buildup from internal eggs. So now we’ll work on keeping Dumplin happy and comfy.

Thanks for the help and suggestions! They’ve been very appreciated.