Egg broke inside hen -- UPDATE good news

[Shezadandy]

Hi all,

Our 1 1/2yr old Black Australorp hen had an egg break inside her last night or today. She has yet to molt though has slowed down laying. The fluid coming out her vent was odorless and still bright yellow. She's doing the classic penguin squat.

*** Edited to add *** -- Hen is on Layer feed and has free choice oyster shell available the whole time she's been laying eggs.


I felt around to see if she's eggbound, but didn't find one.

Just now did the vinegar flush using 1 Tablespoon of White Vinegar in 1 Quart of Water, and managed to extract most of the membrane of the egg that broke. There were no shell pieces to be felt or seen- at least so far.

What else should we do for her?
I'm not against using antibiotics on her if need be- what would be most effective?

Thanks!

Here's a picture of the membrane. It was much more 'egg shaped' than it appears here. Not sure this is the whole thing.

 

[Eggcessive]

This can be fairly common. Thinner shells or shell-less eggs can be an occasional blip, but if it keeps up, it might be a setup for some infection or later internal laying or egg yolk peritonitis. The problem with the right antibiotics being given, is that you really shouldn't eat the eggs afterward. Baytril is commonly used, but banned in chickens. It can be purchased online, but you may want to wait and see if this continues.

 

[Shezadandy]

This can be fairly common. Thinner shells or shell-less eggs can be an occasional blip, but if it keeps up, it might be a setup for some infection or later internal laying or egg yolk peritonitis. The problem with the right antibiotics being given, is that you really shouldn't eat the eggs afterward. Baytril is commonly used, but banned in chickens. It can be purchased online, but you may want to wait and see if this continues.

Thanks! I will keep it in mind and hope we don't have to go that direction. She can be a pet if need be.

For now I've got her separated and inside where we can watch her closely for now. Since the vinegar flush earlier, she does seem more comfortable and is now sleeping soundly.

 

[Shezadandy]

Update! Good news. The vinegar solution worked well. Despite a shell-less egg that broke internally, today our hen laid a perfectly normal egg.


We did not have to resort to antibiotics of any kind. We did separate her in a crate for a couple days. A couple hours after the vinegar flush yielded the membrane, she started to look more comfortable.

She's been in with our February chicks and away from the normal hub-bub of the main coop so we could keep an eye on her.

I'm so glad to have run across the 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar in 1 Quart of water flush. Having a 60ml syringe was handy too (no needle) -- the kind that has the tapered tip for giving larger animals oral doses of medications.

Thanks so much for the help!