The other day we noticed what appeared to be the result of one of our hens shedding their intestinal lining. It consisted of a white foam with red blobs mixed in.
From what we have read this could be normal, or a sign of Coccidiosis, so we kept a closer eye on the flock throughout the day.
Later that night we noticed one of our Easter Eggers showing signs of distress. She was drooping her wings and tail, laying down a lot and stopped eating.
While she seemed to be showing signs of being eggbound, we weren’t sure what was going on after seeing the shed intestinal lining, or whatever it was, earlier in the day. It was getting late and the hen was resting in the coop, so we decided to reassess things in the morning.
The next morning the hen was a little more active, but not eating or drinking. Still thinking she might be eggbound, the plan was to give her a warm bath.
As we were preparing the bath in a small small plastic container, the hen jumped in the nesting box to our surprise. We took a peek, seeing that an egg was protruding from the vent, but the hen could not fully pass it. We immediately pulled her out of the nesting box and put her in the bath water and applied some mineral oil in an attempt to move things along.
Upon inspecting the protruding egg further, we found that it was extremely large. There was no way the hen was going to pass an egg of that size and she was definitely starting to decline.
Our only thought at this point was to puncture the egg, see if we could drain the contents and then break the egg, being careful not to leave anything inside the hen.
Using a nut pick we punched a small hole in the end of the large egg and oddly nothing came out. So we gently chipped away a larger hole in the end of the egg and found there was another egg inside.
Shocked at what we were seeing, we pulled a full sized egg out of the much larger egg, then broke up the large egg so that it could be fully removed from the hen.
After this traumatic event, our poor hen ended up with a prolapsed vent, could not walk and was extremely weak.
Over the past three days, we have been nursing her back to health and treating the prolapsed vent. She has made amazing progress and the prolapse vent is finally starting to withdrawal, however we continue to be cautiously optimistic.
This particular hen has always laid inconsistent and unique eggs. She would often lay large oblong eggs, with strange pigment changes, blotches, specks and/or calcium bumps.
Recently she laid an egg off the roosting bar that had a weird twisting extension at the top.
From what we have read this could be normal, or a sign of Coccidiosis, so we kept a closer eye on the flock throughout the day.
Later that night we noticed one of our Easter Eggers showing signs of distress. She was drooping her wings and tail, laying down a lot and stopped eating.
While she seemed to be showing signs of being eggbound, we weren’t sure what was going on after seeing the shed intestinal lining, or whatever it was, earlier in the day. It was getting late and the hen was resting in the coop, so we decided to reassess things in the morning.
The next morning the hen was a little more active, but not eating or drinking. Still thinking she might be eggbound, the plan was to give her a warm bath.
As we were preparing the bath in a small small plastic container, the hen jumped in the nesting box to our surprise. We took a peek, seeing that an egg was protruding from the vent, but the hen could not fully pass it. We immediately pulled her out of the nesting box and put her in the bath water and applied some mineral oil in an attempt to move things along.
Upon inspecting the protruding egg further, we found that it was extremely large. There was no way the hen was going to pass an egg of that size and she was definitely starting to decline.
Our only thought at this point was to puncture the egg, see if we could drain the contents and then break the egg, being careful not to leave anything inside the hen.
Using a nut pick we punched a small hole in the end of the large egg and oddly nothing came out. So we gently chipped away a larger hole in the end of the egg and found there was another egg inside.
Shocked at what we were seeing, we pulled a full sized egg out of the much larger egg, then broke up the large egg so that it could be fully removed from the hen.
After this traumatic event, our poor hen ended up with a prolapsed vent, could not walk and was extremely weak.
Over the past three days, we have been nursing her back to health and treating the prolapsed vent. She has made amazing progress and the prolapse vent is finally starting to withdrawal, however we continue to be cautiously optimistic.
This particular hen has always laid inconsistent and unique eggs. She would often lay large oblong eggs, with strange pigment changes, blotches, specks and/or calcium bumps.
Recently she laid an egg off the roosting bar that had a weird twisting extension at the top.
