chicken not walking, pooping egg yolk and white, help!

[FrauHuhn]

I am having a similar problem with one of my ameraucanas. I can't really do any of the recommended treatments because even as lethargic as she is, I cannot catch her. She seems to be pooping egg white and poop at the same time. Sometimes there is a lot of greenish stuff that looks like the material of which her eggs used to be made. She was always a sort of weird layer - often very porous shells, and about 3 weeks ago laid a rubber egg. Am I correct to assume this will not just resolve itself? Well, resolve itself with her still being alive?

 

[Finnie]

Interesting that you bumped this old thread recently. I too have a hen with similar symptoms, and searching is bringing up no results. But an earlier poster said to google eggshell peritonitis, so I will follow that lead.

 

[FrauHuhn]

I took her to the vet, and she examined her then did an X-ray. She really thinks that is what it is, so no real cure. We weren't ready to say goodbye yet, so we took her home. She seems to be doing pretty well and is acting normally except for not laying. Her other symptoms cleared up, so we are just going to take care of her the best we can til she begins to appear to suffer, then we will cross that bridge.

 

[FrauHuhn]

I wanted to follow up on my sick chicken. We were thinking she was a goner, but she started laying shell-less eggs, and then one day she just started laying normal eggs again. We were so amazed and excited about it. Glad we didn't do anything drastic! Didn't appear to be quite the death-sentence the vet thought it was.

 

[Finnie]

That's great!

My chicken didn't show any signs of illness, so I think the peritonitis angle wasn't the problem in her case. But it's interesting, because she did a couple of times have a sort of yolk-poop, like you described. I didn't really do anything other than make sure the free-choice calcium didn't run out, and then I did try isolating her for about a week. Then I started noticing some soft shell eggs, like you did, and now for the last four days she has been laying regular she'll eggs again!

The only thing is, she must have some sort of egg duct problem, because now there are always those meat spots and blood spots in her eggs. So I don't know if she's going to continue healing, and eventually lay useable eggs, or whether this will be as good as it gets for her.

Anyway, I'm glad your chicken got better. Definitely a good thing you waited!