dose for calcium carbonate in egg binding

[khind]

Are you feeding a balanced diet of crumbles or pellets? Many people find that using peck and feed type rations allow chickens to pick out their favorite parts and may be deficient in some nutrients. Also having crushed oyster shell available can help with calcium. Shell gland problems can cause shell-less or thin shell eggs even though the chicken is getting calcium and vitamin D3.

As for feed, I was alternating between layer feed and all flock because I also have a rooster. Or sometimes mixing them 50/50. Oyster shell on the side. This pullet started laying 6 -7 months ago (same time, approximately, as the others). Since this started happening I've switched to only layer feed out of fear that she might not have been getting enough calcium in the feed (I don't know how avid an oyster-shell eater she is).
Because it's very difficult to access the one vet who will treat chickens, I want to try what I can do in the meantime and really hope it solves the problem. But my first assumption was that it was something that I - and I'm guessing even a vet - can't fix (like a gland issue, for example).

Nice news, though: this afternoon she laid an egg with a much more substantive shell than I've seen in a while. I can't find any cracks and it holds up perfectly when I tap hard with my fingernail. Whether this will continue remains to be seen. Its shape is still different though, yet less abnormal-looking than in a while.
(I should post pics. I didn't initially because I feel like I've kind of hijacked this thread. But maybe I should since it's already gone this far.)

 

[khind]

Omg. Tonight I saw evidence for the possibility that my pullet is laying 2 eggs many days - one with shell, and one soft shell (and maybe some days, each with a thin shell); one of them in the daytime (& in the nest), and one while sleeping on the roost.
So, two problems... I mean, I'm aware that laying 2 eggs can happen with a pullet, but apparently my pullet's body can't get or use enough ca to support that tendency.

 

[Eggcessive]

She may have something going on with her shell gland or some inflammation of her oviduct. Can you continue giving her some calcium daily for awhile longer? Have any of your chickens or this pullet ever had any sneezing or signs of infectious bronchitis? Is there a lot of stress in the flock or young cockerel bothering her. The risk is her having an egg break inside which may require her to have some antibiotics to treat infection.

 

[khind]

She may have something going on with her shell gland or some inflammation of her oviduct. Can you continue giving her some calcium daily for awhile longer? Have any of your chickens or this pullet ever had any sneezing or signs of infectious bronchitis? Is there a lot of stress in the flock or young cockerel bothering her. The risk is her having an egg break inside which may require her to have some antibiotics to treat infection.

Yes, that's my fear - an egg breaking inside her.
Neither she nor anyone else has ever shown signs of IB or anything respiratory. Yes I can do that
Thank you

 

[khind]

Sadly - very sadly - the last few eggs she's laid have all been soft-shelled. This despite getting Ca Citrate every night.
Still no other signs of anything respiratory from her or any of the others.
However - and I possibly should have included this information? - I have Marek's in my (closed) flock. (I don't know if that could cause something like this?) Last summer I had to put down a hen with ocular Marek's. And just a couple weeks ago I realized that hen's "sister" had gone blind. I just sent her from this world just yesterday...

This girl is 11 mos old. Looks & acts healthy in every other way I can see.
But if she has a defective shell gland, then as I understand it, that would be irreparable. So, unless there's an infection of some kind that can be treated and eradicated/cured, the kindest thing I could do for her is to put her down, now or at some point before an egg possibly breaks inside her - which can be helped with antibiotics, but that would just delay the inevitable, right?

 

[khind]

Maybe I should clarify that I raised this girl (the 11 month old) with 5 other chicks, all from a feed store (TSC). She's supposedly an RIR (& she looks like one). I raised them all in my house, in a playpen, and at about 9 weeks... I took them to begin the process of integration. I believe it was a couple weeks later that I discovered my 1-yr-old hen had gone blind. That's when I decided to keep a closed flock.

 

[khind]

And one other thing: I observed her today and another day just lay an egg (soft-shelled) while awake and just standing there. No egg song, no attempt at going up to the nest. Of course, I imagine that's how it is on the roost too. One day, maybe about a week ago, she did start to look restless (similar to how the others look) and then headed to the nest. She ended up laying an egg in the nest that day with a shell. So I suspect once a shell is able to form, that makes the process less comfortable and maybe even somewhat painful (for any hen, I'd think), hence the vocalizing about it.
At any rate, quickly pushing out an egg in any old place presents a Very problematic situation. As you can imagine, as soon as another hen witnessed something exiting this girl's body, the rush to grab it out was on. In fact, that's how I knew something was happening; I was in the run in the a.m. cleaning at the time.

 

[khind]

Omg!!! - After expelling a soft-shelled egg in the run soon after being put back in with the others around 8 a.m., when I went to check on everyone going to roost for the night, she dropped another one from the roost bar within 20 minutes of settling in! - at about 8:30 pm! Yolk on droppings board, albumin and shell hanging from her bottom!
The poor girl is an egg-laying machine! This is horrible!
The vet can't see her til May.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If the egg was not expelled intact and she's leaking yolk and albumin, then I'd start an oral antibiotic to help prevent infection.
I'm sorry that she's having so many issues, it sounds like there's a reproductive problem or she's not able to regulate her cycles.
You aren't providing supplemental lighting are you?

 

[khind]

If the egg was not expelled intact and she's leaking yolk and albumin, then I'd start an oral antibiotic to help prevent infection.
I'm sorry that she's having so many issues, it sounds like there's a reproductive problem or she's not able to regulate her cycles.
You aren't providing supplemental lighting are you?

Thank you for your input!
No I'm not.
Do you know if there might be a suitable antibiotic sold at feed stores that I could try? And any idea of dosage?