Amoxicillin and chickens

[coach723]

Did you take any pictures of what she laid? Sometimes a malformed shell can look like lash material, seeing it would be helpful. Or if you cut that open and see what it looks like inside.
If it's lash material that would indicate salpingitis, which is infection/inflammation of the oviduct. But usually they cease laying when that happens. The two eggs with no shells, might be something else. First thing I would do is get her on some calcium. Calcium citrate +D (Citracal or generic equivalent) is best absorbed. Aim for 600-800 mg once a day. Just put it in her beak, push it back, she will swallow it. No worries if it looks 'big', they can swallow a frog or lizard. If she's deficient that will help get levels up, and it will help with contractions to help her expel anything still in the pipeline. Soft shelled eggs or no shell eggs can be very hard for them to pass and can make them feel pretty awful. If one was slowed down, then more than one can get in the pipeline at the same time, probably why she laid two so close together. I would continue the calcium for a couple of weeks, or until you see her lay normally. Hopefully it's just a glitch, which can happen. If it persists then she could have a reproductive problem brewing, not uncommon in hens over 2 years old.

 

[lavenderhengal]

Did you take any pictures of what she laid? Sometimes a malformed shell can look like lash material, seeing it would be helpful. Or if you cut that open and see what it looks like inside.
If it's lash material that would indicate salpingitis, which is infection/inflammation of the oviduct. But usually they cease laying when that happens. The two eggs with no shells, might be something else. First thing I would do is get her on some calcium. Calcium citrate +D (Citracal or generic equivalent) is best absorbed. Aim for 600-800 mg once a day. Just put it in her beak, push it back, she will swallow it. No worries if it looks 'big', they can swallow a frog or lizard. If she's deficient that will help get levels up, and it will help with contractions to help her expel anything still in the pipeline. Soft shelled eggs or no shell eggs can be very hard for them to pass and can make them feel pretty awful. If one was slowed down, then more than one can get in the pipeline at the same time, probably why she laid two so close together. I would continue the calcium for a couple of weeks, or until you see her lay normally. Hopefully it's just a glitch, which can happen. If it persists then she could have a reproductive problem brewing, not uncommon in hens over 2 years old.

Thank you for replying!
So what you are suggesting is that because of a lack of calcium (though they always have the little calcium stones available to them) she may have had several shell-less eggs lining up inside and getting bogged down, so to speak. This, in turn, made her feel ill and gave her what looks like an impacted crop because she just feels so lousy from the shell-less eggs backing up in her system?

This is the kind of info I appreciate learning because it is all rather amorphous, isn't it. What malady came before the other and has led to another?

Will her overall sick demeanor improve now she has rid her body of those three eggs? Will her crop stop being impacted?

I purchased calcium citrate +D3 "Petites" and will give her that and hopefully see some improvement. Will this lead to her wanting to eat again? What is the process of improvement that I should hope to witness once she has gotten the calcium?

 

[lavenderhengal]

Did you take any pictures of what she laid? Sometimes a malformed shell can look like lash material, seeing it would be helpful. Or if you cut that open and see what it looks like inside.
If it's lash material that would indicate salpingitis, which is infection/inflammation of the oviduct. But usually they cease laying when that happens. The two eggs with no shells, might be something else. First thing I would do is get her on some calcium. Calcium citrate +D (Citracal or generic equivalent) is best absorbed. Aim for 600-800 mg once a day. Just put it in her beak, push it back, she will swallow it. No worries if it looks 'big', they can swallow a frog or lizard. If she's deficient that will help get levels up, and it will help with contractions to help her expel anything still in the pipeline. Soft shelled eggs or no shell eggs can be very hard for them to pass and can make them feel pretty awful. If one was slowed down, then more than one can get in the pipeline at the same time, probably why she laid two so close together. I would continue the calcium for a couple of weeks, or until you see her lay normally. Hopefully it's just a glitch, which can happen. If it persists then she could have a reproductive problem brewing, not uncommon in hens over 2 years old.

Hello. Yes, I just dug through the garbage to find the evidence and here it is in in several informative yet disgusting photos.

So, the photo named "A" is how I saw the situation this morning and thought I was seeing two shell-less eggs plus a lash egg.

Now I see it is a very different story and I really APPRECIATE your asking for a photo because it forced me to go out and look again.
If I was to guess what happened here, the shrivelled, pleated egg was stuck and blocked all the juicier eggs behind it.

So what is actually there are multiple shell-less eggs, 6 in all. And a lot of associated fluids that came out as well. All of this came out after three days of massaging her crop and giving her coconut oil and water. Thank goodness it came out and hopefully that is all of it.

Today she is brighter and not so sad. She ate her coconut oil herself this morning and has been drinking a lot of the ACV water inside the house and outside now with her girlfriends. But she has been just sleeping outside and not eating, not moving around.

Now we have a better picture, literally, of the situation, is your suggested strategy the same or is there more going on that I need to address? All my girls lay eggs about every other day. Chippy is the one who tries to hide her eggs in various places, always has, so I never worried if I didn't see one of hers. I let them rest and not lay eggs in the winter. They are not under any pressure to produce eggs. But I want everyone healthy!

 

[coach723]

Those look like malformed shells, and maybe some thin shells or membranes. Were all laid at the same time, that's quite a bit? So maybe she's been having issues for a while. I know that often when birds lay eggs like this they are eaten by the bird who did it, or others in the flock, so it can go unnoticed. Having one or more stalled or slowed in the system can cause issues. It's also possible that more is going on that is causing a malfunction. With reproductive/laying problems, it can be hard to know the exact cause, especially since we can't see inside. Slowed or stopped digestion with reproductive problems is a very common symptom, resulting in crop issues. Calcium is the first thing to try. Deficiencies can happen, sometimes a particular bird may not absorb it as well, diet and genetics can play a role also, some other things they may eat (certain greens for instance) can inhibit calcium absorption. If it's a calcium deficiency, then once levels come up to normal they can often sustain it normally from then on. It's also possible that they can have a shell gland malfunction, though that is less common. I've had two birds with apparently faulty shell glands that chronically laid shell less eggs. When they lay shell less eggs it increases the chance of them breaking inside them and the egg matter can leave them at risk of infection from that matter. If she hasn't perked up in say 24 hours, you might consider an antibiotic. Reproductive infections can be stubborn to treat. Amoxicillin is usually well tolerated and can be gotten as a fish antibiotic without prescription (Aqua Mox) and dosing would be 57 mg per pound of body weight once or twice a day for 5 days. At this point that is probably what I would try if she's not improving.
Enrofloxacin (Baytri) is also used for some reproductive infections. You can get the oral form here: https://jedds.com/products/enrofloxacin-10?_pos=1&_sid=d760c049c&_ss=r
The inject able has to be gotten from a vet. Some vets advise a lifetime egg withdrawl with enrofloxacin and it's banned for use in chickens, but some vets will prescribe it for a 'pet'. Many have used it, including myself, just making sure you are informed.
In my experience, the birds with reproductive problems for which nothing else has helped, and I used enrofloxacin, it was also not successful. Those types of illnesses and infections can be notoriously hard to treat.