extremely odd egg, possible lash egg?

[flora_fauna]

I think her age had considerably more to do with it than her diet, and would be surprised if any of her other birds came down with it, unless they too are considerably old.

To me, the problem with just a commercial feed, is then they taste like grocery store eggs. I feed mine scraps all the time. Never had this happen, but I don't have 5 year old hens either.

Mrs K

I think her age had considerably more to do with it than her diet, and would be surprised if any of her other birds came down with it, unless they too are considerably old.

To me, the problem with just a commercial feed, is then they taste like grocery store eggs. I feed mine scraps all the time. Never had this happen, but I don't have 5 year old hens either.

Mrs K

i’ll be sure to pay extra close attention to my flock now as i have another 5 year old brown and a buff orp who is 3-4. looks like i got my young stock at just the right time as my older girls days are likely more numbered than i originally thought.

thank you for the reassurance about the treats.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

she’s laid a very strange egg after weeks of no laying.

5 years old; i got her when she was 3 from the woman who hatched her.
- has not laid in 2+ weeks.

Looks like a lot of membrane layers which are crusted over with calcium. Yolk and albumin inside.
Possibly been sitting in the shell gland for a good while.

I'd get her on extra calcium for 5 days. 1 Calcium Citrate a day.

I would try an antibiotic to help with any infection or to see if it helps with inflammation. At 5 years of age, the reproductive system can become a bit glitchy. (It can at any age really).

Amoxicillin would be a good choice. You can find Fish Antibiotics online or sometimes even TSC. Amoxicillin dose is 57mg per pound of weight given orally twice a day for 10-14 days.

Can't say for sure this is not a precursor to Salpingitis (Inflammation of the Oviduct), but it's not a solid caseous lash egg at this point. Hopefully you can get ahead of this and she'll be o.k. for a period of time.
You just never know.

 

[flora_fauna]

Looks like a lot of membrane layers which are crusted over with calcium. Yolk and albumin inside.
Possibly been sitting in the shell gland for a good while.

I'd get her on extra calcium for 5 days. 1 Calcium Citrate a day.

I would try an antibiotic to help with any infection or to see if it helps with inflammation. At 5 years of age, the reproductive system can become a bit glitchy. (It can at any age really).

Amoxicillin would be a good choice. You can find Fish Antibiotics online or sometimes even TSC. Amoxicillin dose is 57mg per pound of weight given orally twice a day for 10-14 days.

Can't say for sure this is not a precursor to Salpingitis (Inflammation of the Oviduct), but it's not a solid caseous lash egg at this point. Hopefully you can get ahead of this and she'll be o.k. for a period of time.
You just never know.

thank you for your input! i had intended to cull yesterday but she was so bright that i couldn’t bring myself to do it. glad i’m seeing this post before it was too late, i’ll absolutely try the antibiotics and extra calcium.

 

[DramaBrahmaMama]

Any update??? How's she doing??

 

[RoyalChick]

It looks like a lash egg but is not entirely typical of one. A lash egg indicates infection probably salpingitis but not necessarily.
I have a RIR who laid 2-3 lash eggs over the space of a week back in September 2020. The vet offered to euthanize her but she was doing fine so I said no. After the winter she started laying again normally.
She is currently just over 3 years old and lays only sporadically but has a good life and when she does lay they are perfect big brown eggs.
I am just relaying this to say that even though it looks bad, a lash egg is not necessarily a death sentence.

 

[mchickies]

It looks like a lash egg but is not entirely typical of one. A lash egg indicates infection probably salpingitis but not necessarily.
I have a RIR who laid 2-3 lash eggs over the space of a week back in September 2020. The vet offered to euthanize her but she was doing fine so I said no. After the winter she started laying again normally.
She is currently just over 3 years old and lays only sporadically but has a good life and when she does lay they are perfect big brown eggs.
I am just relaying this to say that even though it looks bad, a lash egg is not necessarily a death sentence.

This is absolutely true, especially when chickens start to age. I freaked out when our (then) 4-year-old ejected a few bits of "cooked egg," but she turned out to be just fine. In her case, she came down with coccidiosis (easily treatable with Corid), and the "cooked egg" was just her body ejecting what she couldn't make. She started laying eggs again within two weeks.

Just because the egg looks nasty doesn't necessarily mean she's near death. One of our 2-year-olds ejected a soft shelled egg with the SCARIEST mass of bloody tissue I've ever seen attached. She ended up having a little bit of an overload of worms, which we treated easily.

If your hen is acting perfectly normal and is not swollen, then I would just wait and see. With Salpingitis and Egg Yolk Peritonitis (which usually accompanies any kind of reproductive problem), the swelling and discomfort is usually very obvious. Also, she is 5-years-old! Sometimes, older hens have a little slip-up now and then...they're not 2 anymore .

I would definitely give the antibiotics and calcium a go! Just know that the antibiotics will cause an imbalance in her gut because it's killing off both the good and bad bacteria. Just letting you know in case you see some runny poos. I hope your hen is ok! God Bless!

 

[Sleigh]

Like a few of the previous posters, one of my girls laid a lash egg. This was in March 2021. She fell ill in early February. We took her to a vet and put her on medication. It was a very slow recovery process and we did discuss euthanasia with our vet.

Slowly our girl began to come around. On March 13th she laid a lash egg. Since that time she has been fine. She began laying eggs normally after that. The rest of our birds were unaffected.

A lash egg is definitely not something you want to find, but at least in a few cases that you can see here, it is not a death sentence.

All my best to your girls.

 

[flora_fauna]

Any update??? How's she doing??

thank you for asking and thank you to everyone for all the hopeful posts! i’m so glad i decided to give her a chance. i’ve been giving her extra calcium that i make into a slurry and dose orally followed by liquid penicillin (it’s what i had access to) and she’s been her normal happy self! she laid another odd egg, this one was shell-less. but other than that she’s been a okay. eating, drinking, pooping all normally. i’m hopeful she’ll fully recover. there was never any swelling or odd behavior. if she never lays an egg again that’s fine by me so long as she stays happy and comfortable. thanks again to everyone for the support, advice, shared stories, and concern!!

 

[flora_fauna]

Like a few of the previous posters, one of my girls laid a lash egg. This was in March 2021. She fell ill in early February. We took her to a vet and put her on medication. It was a very slow recovery process and we did discuss euthanasia with our vet.

Slowly our girl began to come around. On March 13th she laid a lash egg. Since that time she has been fine. She began laying eggs normally after that. The rest of our birds were unaffected.

A lash egg is definitely not something you want to find, but at least in a few cases that you can see here, it is not a death sentence.

All my best to your girls.

thank you so much for sharing your experience. i’m glad to hear your girl recovered and the rest of the flock was okay!

 

[flora_fauna]

This is absolutely true, especially when chickens start to age. I freaked out when our (then) 4-year-old ejected a few bits of "cooked egg," but she turned out to be just fine. In her case, she came down with coccidiosis (easily treatable with Corid), and the "cooked egg" was just her body ejecting what she couldn't make. She started laying eggs again within two weeks.

Just because the egg looks nasty doesn't necessarily mean she's near death. One of our 2-year-olds ejected a soft shelled egg with the SCARIEST mass of bloody tissue I've ever seen attached. She ended up having a little bit of an overload of worms, which we treated easily.

If your hen is acting perfectly normal and is not swollen, then I would just wait and see. With Salpingitis and Egg Yolk Peritonitis (which usually accompanies any kind of reproductive problem), the swelling and discomfort is usually very obvious. Also, she is 5-years-old! Sometimes, older hens have a little slip-up now and then...they're not 2 anymore .

I would definitely give the antibiotics and calcium a go! Just know that the antibiotics will cause an imbalance in her gut because it's killing off both the good and bad bacteria. Just letting you know in case you see some runny poos. I hope your hen is ok! God Bless!

thank you for sharing your story! and for the warning about the unusual poos. antibiotics and calcium have been started and she’s looking quite good!