Duck lays soft shelled egg with hard egg inside

[Momma hen quack]

My duck, Lil Quack,

didn't lay normally on Sunday or Monday, but was acting normal so I thought she was taking a break. However, when she made a nest Tuesday morning and didn't lay ... I started to worry and actually made her an appointment at the vet. Then, Tuesday night she stopped being herself and wasn't eating or quacking. I decided she may be egg bound as I felt something like an egg in her abdomen. I gave her a warm bath and still nothing except she started to breath heavy. I took her out and tried to feel up her with a glove. To my surprise, there was an egg. She complained, but I continued to help her push the egg out. To my horror, there was not only a normal egg but around it was a huge soft shelled egg that I had ruptured. I put her back in the tube to help her get out more of the white and thankfully she expelled the yoke of the outer egg intact. Then, I tried to get all the white out of her. I put her in her own And gave her special electrolyte/probiotic water and let her rest. In a few hours, she was back to herself eating, drinking, and purring, but her poop was not normal and green making me concerned about infection. I plan to call the vet in the morning to let them know what happened and see if I can get her in sooner than Friday just to make sure there are no more eggs up in her by having an x-ray and to get some antibiotics to treat any possible infection. Anyone else experienced something like this with an egg inside another egg?

 

[Momma hen quack]

Here's a picture of both eggs.

 

[aart]

Shelled egg backed up out of shell gland and got another egg formed around it.
It happens, I wouldn't panic unless it happens again or she is acting ill.
It's how an egg inside and egg is formed.


Called counter peristalsis:
"This egg-inside-egg phenomenon is called a counter-peristalsis contraction. Basically, it's when an egg that has already passed through the hen's oviduct gets sucked back up before it can finish developing, allowing another egg to develop around it. "

 

[Momma hen quack]

So, I had Little Quack seen at the Vet on Wednesday. She seemed back to normal after the egg within the egg, but still wanted an x-ray to make sure no other eggs were inside. The X-ray looked good. Little Quack did not lay an egg until Friday morning and it was normal. The problem is that she laid a shelless egg today (Saturday). So, now I'm concerned as this seems to be a pattern now with good egg and shelless egg. Before this week, she laid normally every day. Any suggestions? She lives in the basement and I'm concerned that she may not be getting enough sun light.

 

[aart]

She lives in the basement and I'm concerned that she may not be getting enough sun light.

Bingo! Well, wait......not enough light triggers a yolk being released at all,
but could affect calcium processing too(Vit D)
Why is she in the basement?
What all and how exactly are you feeding?

 

[Momma hen quack]

She is a pet duck and lives inside next to her male duck friend. I feed her Purina layena with Omegas along with vitamins to supplement laying birds in her water daily at night and she gets a crumble with vitamins such as brewers yeast on top of her feed once daily.

 

[Momma hen quack]

The only thing is that she was laying normal eggs daily for the past 2 months and this is the first week when she laid the normal egg inside a soft shelled egg earlier this week and became egg bound that she began problems. Yesterday morning her egg after being egg bound was completely normal and today again a soft shelled egg. Just worried about her and what else I can do to help her. I lost my favorite 5 year old duck in the fall likely due to kindney failure, and I don't want to loose another pet duck

 

[Jmcintosh23]

Here's a picture of both eggs. View attachment 2018896

Yes I did just recently thought maybe she was okay bc there were eggs in the nesting box..