Hi everyone, I really need some advice if any of you can give it...
I've been having some problems with my young bluebelle (commercial Marans-based laying hybrid) ever since she started laying back in February. She always had a clear white liquid running from her vent when I picked her up, and seemed to make a terrible mess with poop everywhere when laying. She went on to lay a mixture of soft shelled eggs and normal ones (but has never yet missed a single day since her first egg), and then about three weeks ago got one stuck, which burst inside her and that ended up taking us off to the vets. That day she laid three eggs in total - all soft shelled. We assumed that they had somehow got backed-up inside her and that it was a one off incident.
The vet put her on calcium supplements and diagnosed Infectious Bronchitis but since then she has been fine and her egg laying has been normal (even a couple of double yolkers).
Then, on Saturday evening she was looking very sorry for herself and had egg yolk coming out of her vent. She had laid a normal egg that morning. She strained and pushed and it seemed she got most of the broken egg out once we brought her indoors in the warm. She clearly still had another soft shell egg stuck though, as the next morning (Sunday) we checked on her, and she hadn't managed to do any poop overnight and a soft shelled egg was in the bottom of the coop, surrounded by lots of runny poop that had clearly been backed up behind it.
Anyway, Monday and Tuesday were fine, with another double yolker on Tuesday morning, until hubbie came home from work at 6pm and found another soft shelled egg in the run. So, together with the double yolker from the morning, that's essentially three eggs she laid yesterday. Then, an hour later, I find her hunched up, straining for all she is worth, her insides turned almost inside-out (not a very pleasant sight) and she lays yet another soft shelled egg on the grass. So that's FOUR eggs yesterday. And a very near prolapse to boot (luckily, after some odd convulsing and swallowing, it all went back inside her cleanly, about ten seconds after the egg came out).
We spoke to the on-call vet, and he is at a loss to explain how one hen can release four yolks from an ovary in one day. He suspects a cystic ovary or some other weird pathology but has no suggestions whatsoever for us, in terms of slowing down her egg production and thereby easing her suffering. Luckily, she has not laid an egg today (the final one last night must've been destined to be today's), and her vent is looking prettty much back to normal, so that's given her a short break, but I am dreading tomorrow...
Does anyone have a clue what's making her over-produce like this? It's only a matter of time before she prolapses or dies of heart failure on the nest, in my opinion. Similarly, if she's leeching all this calcium from her bones to make all those extra egg shells, she's going to be osteoporotic before long. It's heartbreaking to watch her suffer so much.
I've been having some problems with my young bluebelle (commercial Marans-based laying hybrid) ever since she started laying back in February. She always had a clear white liquid running from her vent when I picked her up, and seemed to make a terrible mess with poop everywhere when laying. She went on to lay a mixture of soft shelled eggs and normal ones (but has never yet missed a single day since her first egg), and then about three weeks ago got one stuck, which burst inside her and that ended up taking us off to the vets. That day she laid three eggs in total - all soft shelled. We assumed that they had somehow got backed-up inside her and that it was a one off incident.
The vet put her on calcium supplements and diagnosed Infectious Bronchitis but since then she has been fine and her egg laying has been normal (even a couple of double yolkers).
Then, on Saturday evening she was looking very sorry for herself and had egg yolk coming out of her vent. She had laid a normal egg that morning. She strained and pushed and it seemed she got most of the broken egg out once we brought her indoors in the warm. She clearly still had another soft shell egg stuck though, as the next morning (Sunday) we checked on her, and she hadn't managed to do any poop overnight and a soft shelled egg was in the bottom of the coop, surrounded by lots of runny poop that had clearly been backed up behind it.
Anyway, Monday and Tuesday were fine, with another double yolker on Tuesday morning, until hubbie came home from work at 6pm and found another soft shelled egg in the run. So, together with the double yolker from the morning, that's essentially three eggs she laid yesterday. Then, an hour later, I find her hunched up, straining for all she is worth, her insides turned almost inside-out (not a very pleasant sight) and she lays yet another soft shelled egg on the grass. So that's FOUR eggs yesterday. And a very near prolapse to boot (luckily, after some odd convulsing and swallowing, it all went back inside her cleanly, about ten seconds after the egg came out).
We spoke to the on-call vet, and he is at a loss to explain how one hen can release four yolks from an ovary in one day. He suspects a cystic ovary or some other weird pathology but has no suggestions whatsoever for us, in terms of slowing down her egg production and thereby easing her suffering. Luckily, she has not laid an egg today (the final one last night must've been destined to be today's), and her vent is looking prettty much back to normal, so that's given her a short break, but I am dreading tomorrow...
Does anyone have a clue what's making her over-produce like this? It's only a matter of time before she prolapses or dies of heart failure on the nest, in my opinion. Similarly, if she's leeching all this calcium from her bones to make all those extra egg shells, she's going to be osteoporotic before long. It's heartbreaking to watch her suffer so much.
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Let us know what you do next and how she is- we're hoping the best for both of you.
