Egg laying and severe calcium deficiency

[Carterborchers]

Hi,

So at one point, I only had one egg laying hen, and she dutifully laid an egg every day. I would collect them when I cleaned the bedding (every other day) and store them for potential hatching or would crack them open and give her the shell to play with/eat. She was never broody, even when I piled the eggs in there for a day.

Anyway, she must have laid every day at the same time for almost two months. And then one day, she laid very late at night. The next day, not at all and I started panicking about her being bound. I did the salt baths, extra calcium and mineral oil on her vent, and nothing. She wasn’t acting normally, just sitting in the corner facing the wall, so I took her to the vet.

There was an egg in there with no shell, and even worse, her bones were so depleted of calcium that they were dark on the X-ray, and the vet said if she flew and crash landed (as she would), she’d break bones.

I put in a handful of eggs with her when she came home, and she hasn’t laid since. I replace them with eggs from my younger layers since they look the same.

Is she seeing all of the eggs and thinking “I have a good clutch— I don’t need to lay more.” Or is her body just not producing eggs regardless because she’s healing? She’s on a high nutrition food “emeraid” and Ca supplements. Her tummy feels flat so far.

 

[007Sean]

Hi,

So at one point, I only had one egg laying hen, and she dutifully laid an egg every day. I would collect them when I cleaned the bedding (every other day) and store them for potential hatching or would crack them open and give her the shell to play with/eat. She was never broody, even when I piled the eggs in there for a day.

Anyway, she must have laid every day at the same time for almost two months. And then one day, she laid very late at night. The next day, not at all and I started panicking about her being bound. I did the salt baths, extra calcium and mineral oil on her vent, and nothing. She wasn’t acting normally, just sitting in the corner facing the wall, so I took her to the vet.

There was an egg in there with no shell, and even worse, her bones were so depleted of calcium that they were dark on the X-ray, and the vet said if she flew and crash landed (as she would), she’d break bones.

I put in a handful of eggs with her when she came home, and she hasn’t laid since. I replace them with eggs from my younger layers since they look the same.

Is she seeing all of the eggs and thinking “I have a good clutch— I don’t need to lay more.” Or is her body just not producing eggs regardless because she’s healing? She’s on a high nutrition food “emeraid” and Ca supplements. Her tummy feels flat so far.

Could be a combination of both but I think it's mainly that's she's worn out and trying to heal herself.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Sounds like she's depleted and not producing. I would not give her eggs to sit on, she's not broody.

Hopefully with your Vet's recommendation of Emeraid and Calcium supplements, she will regain her health and resume laying.

The Vet found an egg with no shell - where? In the Oviduct, abdomen? Was that removed or did she expel it?

 

[Carterborchers]

Sounds like she's depleted and not producing. I would not give her eggs to sit on, she's not broody.

Hopefully with your Vet's recommendation of Emeraid and Calcium supplements, she will regain her health and resume laying.

The Vet found an egg with no shell - where? In the Oviduct, abdomen? Was that removed or did she expel it?

According to the vet, neither. She xrayed a couple of days later, and the egg was gone. I clean their bedding daily, and didn’t see any goop or egg of any kind. There was no membrane or shell left in her abdomen on the X-ray to indicate that it ruptured, but the vet flushed her out and put her on antibiotics. The vet told me her body absorbed it. She didn’t mention where the egg was, but it looked like a normal sized egg in her abdomen.

Now Speckles has something else going on as of tonight. She lets he handle her, so I hold her for a bit daily and pet her. When I picked her up, her vent and the feathers on her abdomen were matted with some kind of sticky substance. I thought perhaps she’d been bred, and picked up her mate and didn’t see any mess on him. I’ve never seen this on her. She last laid an egg on 12/26. I haven’t felt anything in there, but noticed her mate was making nests for her yesterday and she was sitting in them. No egg though. I put her in a little bowl of warm water and it turned very cloudy/milky almost instantly. Not much of a bad smell, but there was an odor to the water. I dried her off and put her under a heat plate. I washed my hands several times and it was difficult to get the stickiness off of me. She’s drying off now—will check her again in a bit to see if she’s still leaking. I haven’t seen her poop since this, but she did earlier, and it looked normal.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

According to the vet, neither. She xrayed a couple of days later, and the egg was gone. I clean their bedding daily, and didn’t see any goop or egg of any kind. There was no membrane or shell left in her abdomen on the X-ray to indicate that it ruptured, but the vet flushed her out and put her on antibiotics. The vet told me her body absorbed it. She didn’t mention where the egg was, but it looked like a normal sized egg in her abdomen.

Now Speckles has something else going on as of tonight. She lets he handle her, so I hold her for a bit daily and pet her. When I picked her up, her vent and the feathers on her abdomen were matted with some kind of sticky substance. I thought perhaps she’d been bred, and picked up her mate and didn’t see any mess on him. I’ve never seen this on her. She last laid an egg on 12/26. I haven’t felt anything in there, but noticed her mate was making nests for her yesterday and she was sitting in them. No egg though. I put her in a little bowl of warm water and it turned very cloudy/milky almost instantly. Not much of a bad smell, but there was an odor to the water. I dried her off and put her under a heat plate. I washed my hands several times and it was difficult to get the stickiness off of me. She’s drying off now—will check her again in a bit to see if she’s still leaking. I haven’t seen her poop since this, but she did earlier, and it looked normal.

The white sticky discharge may be urates, those can be hard to remove from skin/tissue, but hard to know.
If she continues to have a discharge, you may want to reconsult your vet to see if they have any suggestions.

Hopefully this is just part of the process and she'll recover quickly.