Cream Legbar lethargic and sleepy

[Krhartman5]

Ok Guru’s! Help needed! This is our first year with chickens. We have a wide mix of 8 girls, 32 weeks old. My favorite, our 1 and only Cream Legbar was very sleepy and lethargic today, not her normal self at all. We’re in the mountains of Colorado at 8000 ft and we just had a cold snap with temps in the teens at night, and not much above 20 during the day. They typically free range in the yard for a few hours every day. Yesterday my boys forgot to let them out, and the heated waterer came unplugged & froze, so they had no water in the coop until 3pm. I let them out when I got home, luckily checked the water and gave them some immediately. They drank and drank and drank. Then today, Shakira was just super lazy, laid in the sun in the yard for a while, then went to the nesting box and continued to sleep for a few more hours, then came out just before dusk and drank a bunch of water in the run. She went back in at dusk and when my daughter went to close the coop she said Shakira popped clear water. She’s only laid 2 eggs so far, and in the last week. Her latest egg looked normal when cracked, but had what seemed to be a second sack in it that was small and clear. I’ll attach a photo. Their coop is clean, we have poop bags that hang from roosts and clean then out regularly as well as fresh shavings down. I’m not sure if she ate at all today, from what I saw she just slept. What do y’all think???

 

[Eggcessive]

I would watch her. It does resemble an egg membrane. Are they getting layer feed or do you have crushed oyster shell for them for free taking? Since she is a new layer, it may be a glitch, but she could have some problem with her shell gland or something called impacted oviduct where they can lay parts of egg components. If you have some human calcium or Caltrate, I would give her 1/2 tablet orally for a few days. Tums would do as well.

 

[Krhartman5]

Aha, ok. They are getting layer pellets and have oyster shell grit in a separate feeder in the coop. I’ll try the calcium, I have that on hand. Thank you!!

 

[HungryPenguin]

Hi there, sorry your baby wasn't doing well. How is Shakira doing now? I hope she's doing better!

 

[Krhartman5]

Hi there, sorry your baby wasn't doing well. How is Shakira doing now? I hope she's doing better!

Thank you for asking! She seems to be fine now, even after a long weekend with single digit temps. She hasn’t laid an egg though that we know of in over a week now. She’s only laid 2 that we know of so far. I did give her some calcium, and we started using oyster shell in stead of regular grit. I’ve also added some herbs to the nesting boxes, so we’ll see!!

 

[HungryPenguin]

That's great, you didn't even need to administer any medications! Yes, oyster grit is a Must! Well I'm glad she got through it!
Happy Chicken Tending!