Bokbok3570
Hatching
- Oct 7, 2025
- 1
- 0
- 4
I have scoured the forums on this website, consulted an online vet, exchanged countless messages with other local backyard chicken keepers, tried so many treatments and I have yet to cure my Rhode Island Red hen “Princess Laya” from whatever is making her unwell and resulting in her laying shell-less eggs.
I’ve had her since May 2025 (for the past 5 months), brought her home with 2 other hens. Being a beginner backyard hen keeper, I made the mistake of not asking the seller how old she was, just whether she was laying yet, which he assured me she was. She is the most confident/ social chicken of my small flock, and her behaviour in terms of her energy level and eating/drinking has never indicated sickness or illness. She eats and drinks just as must as the other birds. Other than laying shell-less eggs at an irregular frequency, having what looks like diarrhea or runny poo sticking to the feathers around her vent, and exhibiting a bit of a wheezing /sneezing sound once in a while.
None of my other birds are exhibiting these symptoms. My Cochin that I bought at the same time as the RIR has been laying almost daily, and they are eating the exact same thing and are in the same environment.
When I consulted the online vet, they suspected internal parasites so I treated the flock with Panacur which the vet prescribed. This didn’t change anything.
After messaging with other local chicken keepers, I learned that it might be vent gleet. I put Princess Laya in quarantine for a week in my basement and treated her daily with Epsom salt baths and applying Monistat 7 externally around the vent, and orally either mixed with yogurt or mashed in bread. Her vent was never bloody and didn’t look inflamed in any way — just caked on poo on her feathers that would come off in the bath. Her poo quality seemed to improve during her quarantine period, and I noticed she layes 2 shell-less eggs during that time. Her shell-less eggs often have little to no membrane, so is just a puddle of white and yolk which she madly attempts to eat. I returned her to the flock, and the running poo started again shortly and the shell-less egg laying (maybe only 1 per week or every 1 weeks).
I think in the past 5 months I’ve only ever gotten 1 intact egg from Princess Laya, with a shell intact. It was a big beautiful brown egg. It happened once that I found an egg with the membrane intact (no shell). Otherwise it’s always just been a very thin membrane and a pool of egg white and yolk (see photos below).
I know that calcium deficiency can be a thing that can impact quality of shell, but the flock has free access to crushed oyster shells and crushed egg shells at all times, so I don’t suspect that’s what is affecting Princess Laya.
I feed them layer feed enriched with the “breakfast of champion layers” recipe by Lisa Steele in her book Fresh Eggs Daily.
They roost in the Eglu coop and have a run with hemp bedding.
I’d like to treat her myself if possible. Her comb has been looking faded in colour these past few days, so she may be starting to molt as 1 of my other hens has started doing so.
She is still the most peppy and social and sassy bird of my small flock (yes, I’ll admit she is my favourite!), and I’d love to be able to nurse her to health so she can lay intact eggs like the other birds in my small flock. Any tips or advice you can share would be much appreciated, as I’m starting to feel at a loss of what else I can do. Thanks in advance.
I’ve had her since May 2025 (for the past 5 months), brought her home with 2 other hens. Being a beginner backyard hen keeper, I made the mistake of not asking the seller how old she was, just whether she was laying yet, which he assured me she was. She is the most confident/ social chicken of my small flock, and her behaviour in terms of her energy level and eating/drinking has never indicated sickness or illness. She eats and drinks just as must as the other birds. Other than laying shell-less eggs at an irregular frequency, having what looks like diarrhea or runny poo sticking to the feathers around her vent, and exhibiting a bit of a wheezing /sneezing sound once in a while.
None of my other birds are exhibiting these symptoms. My Cochin that I bought at the same time as the RIR has been laying almost daily, and they are eating the exact same thing and are in the same environment.
When I consulted the online vet, they suspected internal parasites so I treated the flock with Panacur which the vet prescribed. This didn’t change anything.
After messaging with other local chicken keepers, I learned that it might be vent gleet. I put Princess Laya in quarantine for a week in my basement and treated her daily with Epsom salt baths and applying Monistat 7 externally around the vent, and orally either mixed with yogurt or mashed in bread. Her vent was never bloody and didn’t look inflamed in any way — just caked on poo on her feathers that would come off in the bath. Her poo quality seemed to improve during her quarantine period, and I noticed she layes 2 shell-less eggs during that time. Her shell-less eggs often have little to no membrane, so is just a puddle of white and yolk which she madly attempts to eat. I returned her to the flock, and the running poo started again shortly and the shell-less egg laying (maybe only 1 per week or every 1 weeks).
I think in the past 5 months I’ve only ever gotten 1 intact egg from Princess Laya, with a shell intact. It was a big beautiful brown egg. It happened once that I found an egg with the membrane intact (no shell). Otherwise it’s always just been a very thin membrane and a pool of egg white and yolk (see photos below).
I know that calcium deficiency can be a thing that can impact quality of shell, but the flock has free access to crushed oyster shells and crushed egg shells at all times, so I don’t suspect that’s what is affecting Princess Laya.
I feed them layer feed enriched with the “breakfast of champion layers” recipe by Lisa Steele in her book Fresh Eggs Daily.
They roost in the Eglu coop and have a run with hemp bedding.
I’d like to treat her myself if possible. Her comb has been looking faded in colour these past few days, so she may be starting to molt as 1 of my other hens has started doing so.
She is still the most peppy and social and sassy bird of my small flock (yes, I’ll admit she is my favourite!), and I’d love to be able to nurse her to health so she can lay intact eggs like the other birds in my small flock. Any tips or advice you can share would be much appreciated, as I’m starting to feel at a loss of what else I can do. Thanks in advance.
