Help! Our best layer is suddenly laying soft-shelled eggs.

[Nashville Hen Mom]

This week, our seemingly healthy White Leghorn started laying soft eggs and we don't want to lose her. She is acting otherwise healthy, but we know from experience, that this is a sign of bad things to come. We lost another bird a few weeks after she started doing this and don't want to let this one get out of hand.

What should we try before we take her to the vet who has agreed to see her tomorrow? A warm bath? She gets plenty of calcium, free-ranges and eats layer pellets, and has a few mealworms daily (a handful to the entire flock of 3 hens). She is eating and drinking, but her neck is dirty and she has a poopy butt. We have had chickens for several years without any issues, but over the past year, we have lost four of our girls and had a post-mortem Marek's diagnosis from the local extension service after they saw the last bird we lost back in November.

Any help you could offer would be appreciated.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your losses, and your Mareks diagnosis. Have you tried giving some vitamin D3 and some calcium? There may be something wrong with her shell gland in her oviduct. She could have an impacted oviduct or salpingitis, which could be due to infection, tumors, or other causes. Here is an article to read:
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/oviduct-impaction

 

[Nashville Hen Mom]

Sorry for your losses, and your Mareks diagnosis. Have you tried giving some vitamin D3 and some calcium? There may be something wrong with her shell gland in her oviduct. She could have an impacted oviduct or salpingitis, which could be due to infection, tumors, or other causes. Here is an article to read:
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/oviduct-impaction

Thank you for the information. She gets crushed oyster shell in her feed and also eats eggshells (though not always because we offer them, grr). We haven't tried administering vitamin D. Is that a supplement we could get at our local feed store? Could we use regular Vitamin D capsules in their water?

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes, any vitamin D is fine. Egg yolk has it as well.

 

[DogAndCat36]

This week, our seemingly healthy White Leghorn started laying soft eggs and we don't want to lose her. She is acting otherwise healthy, but we know from experience, that this is a sign of bad things to come. We lost another bird a few weeks after she started doing this and don't want to let this one get out of hand.

What should we try before we take her to the vet who has agreed to see her tomorrow? A warm bath? She gets plenty of calcium, free-ranges and eats layer pellets, and has a few mealworms daily (a handful to the entire flock of 3 hens). She is eating and drinking, but her neck is dirty and she has a poopy butt. We have had chickens for several years without any issues, but over the past year, we have lost four of our girls and had a post-mortem Marek's diagnosis from the local extension service after they saw the last bird we lost back in November.

Any help you could offer would be appreciated.

Have you chickens been nearby areas that have wild waterfowl or even nearby streams that are from bodies of water containing wild waterfowl? If so, then it might be egg drop syndrome.

 

[Nashville Hen Mom]

Have you chickens been nearby areas that have wild waterfowl or even nearby streams that are from bodies of water containing wild waterfowl? If so, then it might be egg drop syndrome.

We are in an established suburban area without any waterfowl. Lots of rain, but no streams nearby (yet).