Busted egg inside hen

[CrazyCrttr75]

Hi all. I have a Calico Princess that I got from TSC. She's 1 1/2 yrs old or so, not quite 2 yrs yet and she is going through a molt at the moment. Being a hybrid that is know for good egg laying, she had still been laying eggs during it. Yesterday or the day before she laid a very thin shelled/soft egg. One peck at it and she broke through it and tried eating it. I happened to be out with them at that time and saw it and got it away from her right away. Today she has been laying down and moving slower than normal. This evening, I noticed a discharge coming from her back side (it looked like the clear "white" part of an egg) and my first thought was, "oh no she had an egg bust inside of her." So my husband and I was able to catch her and brought her in for a warm soak. We are out of epson salt at the moment so it was just a warm bath. Washed her off a bit and felt inside her and found the egg shell. It was completely deflated but was kind of stuck in there. We were able to pull it out. No sign of anything else so I am hoping that she passed the yolk and stuff. We made her a scrambled egg so she could have a boost of protein. She gobbled it up! I think the molt is doing a number on her system. I was thinking that I would scramble up her an egg every day and crush up a tums and put it over it. That way she could get a bump of calcium as well. Do I need to do anything else for her or does the egg plus tums sound good enough?

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hi all. I have a Calico Princess that I got from TSC. She's 1 1/2 yrs old or so, not quite 2 yrs yet and she is going through a molt at the moment. Being a hybrid that is know for good egg laying, she had still been laying eggs during it. Yesterday or the day before she laid a very thin shelled/soft egg. One peck at it and she broke through it and tried eating it. I happened to be out with them at that time and saw it and got it away from her right away. Today she has been laying down and moving slower than normal. This evening, I noticed a discharge coming from her back side (it looked like the clear "white" part of an egg) and my first thought was, "oh no she had an egg bust inside of her." So my husband and I was able to catch her and brought her in for a warm soak. We are out of epson salt at the moment so it was just a warm bath. Washed her off a bit and felt inside her and found the egg shell. It was completely deflated but was kind of stuck in there. We were able to pull it out. No sign of anything else so I am hoping that she passed the yolk and stuff. We made her a scrambled egg so she could have a boost of protein. She gobbled it up! I think the molt is doing a number on her system. I was thinking that I would scramble up her an egg every day and crush up a tums and put it over it. That way she could get a bump of calcium as well. Do I need to do anything else for her or does the egg plus tums sound good enough?

I think it is easier to give them tums just by breaking it up and putting it in their beak. That way you can give them more. If your hen starts acting weird and sits there with a hump on her back, she might need some antibiotics. It sounds like you are doing the right thing for now.

 

[CluckerCarrolls]

I've never heard of tums as calcium sources. That's really cool! I would feed her some crushed eggshells too and give her some electrolytes in case she hasn't been drinking. Keep an eye on her and if it happens again, take her to the vet because an eggshell stuck inside can really hurt hurt.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I've never heard of tums as calcium sources. That's really cool! I would feed her some crushed eggshells too and give her some electrolytes in case she hasn't been drinking. Keep an eye on her and if it happens again, take her to the vet because an eggshell stuck inside can really hurt hurt.

Yes, Tums works wonders! I even keep a bottle of the thousand mg tablets in the chicken coop. Any time any of my chickens starts to have laying issues, I just give them a Tums, corrects it almost immediately and I just continue for a day or two to make sure.

 

[bayareapilot]

I've never heard of tums as calcium sources. That's really cool! I would feed her some crushed eggshells too and give her some electrolytes in case she hasn't been drinking. Keep an eye on her and if it happens again, take her to the vet because an eggshell stuck inside can really hurt hurt.

Only asking because I don't know.... but could feeding them eggshells lead to them eating eggs?

 

[KatAnn]

Only asking because I don't know.... but could feeding them eggshells lead to them eating eggs?

No you just need to crush it up before giving it to them.

 

[aart]

she is going through a molt at the moment

Odd that she'd be molting this time of the year.
Are you seeing pin feathers growing in?

Only asking because I don't know.... but could feeding them eggshells lead to them eating eggs?

No....especially if you crush them.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

Odd that she'd be molting this time of the year.
Are you seeing pin feathers growing in?

No....especially if you crush them.

Why do you say that it is odd? All of the older chickens have finished their molt already. They all are deciding to go through one this year. My buff orp (same age as hen in question) has already gone through hers. And my boys have gone through theirs (again, same age as her). She is the last one. Most chickens stop laying while going through it but the only thing I can reason is that because she is a hybrid she didn’t. And it has depleted her. So that is why I am going to bump up her protein and calcium. Is all I can think of to do so that is why I asked if that would be enough. So many people seem to have figured out tricks or special ways of dealing with various problems so I thought I would ask. Everything else about her, other than her feathers, look fine. Her feathers are looking a bit rough. But my buff orp’s and one of my male’s feathers looked frizzed like that and then they shed them and new ones grew back and now they are fine. I went out and took a few pictures of her. This is Amber:

 

[aart]

Why do you say that it is odd?

Time of year.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

My chickens aren't listening to these rules
They are like, We do what we want....