Help, over 2 months of liquid eggs

[duskypassion]

I’ve been hoping that this issue would resolve itself but I am now at a loss. If it’s time to take her to a vet then I’m willing to do that but I need to know if this is something that I can beat without having to take her in somewhere.

I have a one-year-old Rhode Island Red hen who started laying liquid eggs a little over two months ago. She has only laid one solid egg in that amount of time. She will not eat oyster shells or her own shells when given to her. They have layer feed and the other two hens have no problems. It almost seems like she is now laying a liquid egg on purpose so that they can eat the yolk. She waddles around in the late afternoon, early evening, all puffed up and fat until she lays the liquid egg and then they all rush to eat the yolk. Sometimes she lays it in the coop itself overnight as well. Every once in a while there is a rubbery piece of eggshell that comes out with it that has not fully formed, sometimes bigger than others, sometimes not at all. I have been trying to get her to eat calcium through the oyster shells and their own eggshells but she doesn’t want them. I just recently bought some vitamin D powder to add to their water but that has not changed anything yet either. I’m at a loss.

I don’t know if she’s in pain when this happens or if she has somehow figured out how to do it on purpose so that they can eat it. When she gets close to laying the liquid egg, the other two hens follow her around with their beaks practically up her butt waiting for the yoke to come out and then they all pounce on it. Sometimes I’m there so they can’t eat it and other times I’m sure they’re eating it when we haven’t seen it come out. I don’t have a vet nearby that is experienced with this but she did say that they would be willing to check her out if needed. Has anyone had experience with a hen laying liquid eggs for this long and refusing to eat anything with calcium in it?

 

[nuthatched]

It could just be her, a genetic issue or something. You might want to consider putting her down if someone else can't solve the issue, if an egg broke in her or they got stuck and started to back up inside her, it will be hard to resolve it and she'll likely die a rather slow, awful death, I'm sorry.

 

[AraucanaMama]

I also had a problem recently with soft egg shells. If you are able to or dont already do so, I would recommend switching to a pellet feed with oyster shells imbedded into it for a bit.

As for the other 2 hens, they have probably just caught on to the fact that this hen lays liquid eggs, and use it as an easy treat opportunity.
Because of this I would also advise maybe isolating her if you have the ability to. Not only would it help break the other hens habit, but you could more easily insure that she is getting supplements she needs. (Maybe force feed it to her? You can ad powdered eggshell to water and give it to her in a syringe. maybe add egg yolk to it so she's more inclined to take it.)

Bacon fat with eggshell powder could make a nice treat and would encourage her to have calcium, but do so in moderation as too much fat can be harmful.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck with this hen!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Since you said you tried to get her to take in calcium and she won't, calcium pills would probably be the easiest way to ensure she's getting the calcium she probably needs, and to boost it immediately since she's been struggling for a while now : https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/soft-damaged-eggs.1452762/#post-24179334

 

[duskypassion]

Quick update: I ended up taking her to a vet. I have two things to try. We had started feeding our hens a lot of grains and things like that may be an issue for her. So we are going to remove all grains from her diet. We’ve only done that for two days now and today she actually went into a nesting box and laid a liquid egg but it had a more formed shell than usual which we are hoping is a good sign. We also got medication and I’m honestly not sure what it’s for but it’s for a bacteria or virus that could be creating this and we will try that next if needed.

 

[DesireeB]

Does she free range?

 

[Henhouse Harlot]

I'm curious what happened with the hen..?