Hen lethargic, yellow poop, laid soft shell egg

[Chicky10]

I have a Red Star hen that has been acting unusual this week. Two days ago she was not herself, just stood still there until she laid a strange-looking soft shell egg. I thought she is low on calcium, so added exrea oyster shell in thd feed. Since then she looked sick now and then, usually she is active all the time, eat and scratches in the yard. But this week there are times she just stayed still, looking lethargic. We added Corid in the water since yesterday, she is still not well. Yellow foamy poop, please see picture. Please advise, is Corid the right treatment and how soon do we expect to see improvement if it is coccidiosis. Is this related to the egg issue? Should we try antibiotics? Thanks very much,

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would get extra Calcium into her for 5 days. Oyster shell should be provided free choice and not added to the feed. It takes time for it to be processed and absorbed, you want something like Calcium Citrate that is absorbed more quickly.

You can find Calcium Citrate with D3 in the vitamin aisle of stores like Walmart, CVS, etc. Give 1 tablet daily, just pull down on her wattles, pop the tablet into the beak and let her swallow.

I would say that she's having some reproductive problems. Hopefully the calcium will help her expel any material that she's having a hard time passing.

Corid is a Coccidiostat, so it doesn't have any antibiotic properties. It won't hurt her to treat with the Corid, but it's likely not going to help much either.

 

[Chicky10]

Thank you so much for your reply. She went into the coop earlier than other girls last night, she used to play in the yard until it was really late. Patted her good night, she looked really tired on the roosting bar. I ran to open the coop door this morning hoping to see her run out like the usual busy her. She did not. Found her lying in the nesting box, still warm but gone.

Really sad about her, she was such a great little girl, naughty, flew over the fence to escape and busy in the backyard pulling worms out of the ground. Called out to me to ask to be let out of the run to play.

I think it is egg peritonitis considering the strange soft egg she laid last week and other symptoms recently. Wish I had done more to help her, it happened so fast in a few days.

Thank you so much for your kind help.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear this

Could have been EYP or some other reproductive condition.
If you want to find out more and still have the body, you can refrigerate it and send it to your State Lab or if you feel you can do your own informal investigation and take a look inside, sometimes you will be able to tell. If that's something you wish to do, take photos and we'll try to help you with what you see.