Fishy-smelling eggs from white egg layer?

[poipollo]

Recently all of the eggs that my Polish lays smell like fish once I crack them open. I'm aware of the genetic mutation in brown egg layers, but I'm not finding much information on white egg layers regarding the stench. Further, she began laying about 5 months ago, but her eggs have only starting smelling fishy within the last two or so months. But it's every. single. egg. now and it's nasty! She seems perfectly healthy, and has had no dietary changes. All of the eggs from our other hens are fine, so I don't think it's a feed/storage issue. If she is affected by the mutation (if that's even possible), why would the eggs have only recently started to reek? I don't understand.

Stinky Chicken:

 

[Pele]

Hrm, interesting. It's definitely not a genetic mutation because of the changing nature of the eggs. (you get stuck with the genes you're born with, as anyone with wide hips can tell you). If it was genetic, she'd always lay smelly eggs, from beginning to end.

I would say that she either has an internal infection that hasn't crippled her heath yet, she's getting into something that you don't know about, or somehow you are getting ahold of old eggs.

I'd give her a week, and if they don't improve, systematically eliminate causes. For instance, isolate her in a crate for a few days, to ensure that she can only eat what you give her. Or give her a round of antibiotics to fight infection, or again isolate her so that she can't hide eggs on you.

Good luck!

 

[poipollo]

I actually did isolate her, and she's eating nothing but pellets and a few handfuls of grass, and I gather the eggs right after she lays them, so I know they're not old. It's so odd! Maybe I will try the antibiotics...

 

[poipollo]

OK, now it's worse. I just noticed that the feathers around her vent are all wet and when I picked her up to look more closely, I noticed the same fishy smell, only much stronger! Is she sick? She's still acting completely normal. What can I do?

 

[Pele]

That's what I suspected, she's probably laid internally, and an infection is happening. Put her in a dark crate with plenty of food and water. This is will discourage her egg production for the time being.

I would also put on some sterile gloves and manually probe to see if you can feel an egg in there (though most likely it's broken by now). If you can pull out the shell peices, or a stuck egg, that will help massively. If you don't find anything with a gentle probe, just leave her be.

Give her a round of antibiotics to fight infection, and give her some time in her darkened crate. Hopefully she'll heal up and get back on track since you caught it before her general health was affected.