Hen taking days to lay egg

[Jgarza77]

I have kind of a confusing situation with my hen. Almost 3 year old brahma bantam. She's had egg issues before; occasional soft shell eggs, and one incident almost a year ago where a soft egg broke inside her and I had to manually help her get most of the contents out. She went 5 days before passing the rest of the soft shell on her own. By now I can tell when she's going to lay a soft shell because she'll walk in a slow gait with tail at "half mast" I call it. She began her soft egg walk Wed and as of today has not laid anything! She is eating, pooping, and behaving mostly normal, just a little slower. I began calcium tablets 2 days ago. Is there anything else I could or should be doing for her?

 

[Shadrach]

I have kind of a confusing situation with my hen. Almost 3 year old brahma bantam. She's had egg issues before; occasional soft shell eggs, and one incident almost a year ago where a soft egg broke inside her and I had to manually help her get most of the contents out. She went 5 days before passing the rest of the soft shell on her own. By now I can tell when she's going to lay a soft shell because she'll walk in a slow gait with tail at "half mast" I call it. She began her soft egg walk Wed and as of today has not laid anything! She is eating, pooping, and behaving mostly normal, just a little slower. I began calcium tablets 2 days ago. Is there anything else I could or should be doing for her?

Apart from checking she hasn't produced a shelled egg and is egg bound, not much I'm afraid.
Calcium Citrate may help but it's really for hens that are laying weak shelled eggs occasionally. Other forms of calcium such as carbonate or eggshells don't in general give a high enough percentage of calcium for problem laying.

Sometimes it can be a diet deficiency, lack of vitamin D3 which helps to metabolise calcium and phoshorus. It can be a lack of protein but that is less common when a hen is fed commercial feed.
Stress, particularly heat stress can play havoc with a hens reproductive cycle. They tend to eat less and drink more.

There is of course the possiblity she has a reproductive disorder/infection and a vet would be the best person to determin this.

 

[Jgarza77]

Thank you for your reply. The calcium tablets I've been giving her are in fact carbonate with d3; so I will try to get some calcium citrate. As far as heat, we're in s. Texas so heat has been over 100 daily for almost 2 months now. I suspect she may have some kind of reproductive issue since the soft shelled eggs have been occurring sporadically for the last year or so. What is puzzling is that she is still having normal solid poop, eating, grooming etc. I thought if a hen was egg bound they would deteriorate quickly? But I could be wrong and maybe she is slow due to heat stress and not an egg

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you for your reply. The calcium tablets I've been giving her are in fact carbonate with d3; so I will try to get some calcium citrate. As far as heat, we're in s. Texas so heat has been over 100 daily for almost 2 months now. I suspect she may have some kind of reproductive issue since the soft shelled eggs have been occurring sporadically for the last year or so. What is puzzling is that she is still having normal solid poop, eating, grooming etc. I thought if a hen was egg bound they would deteriorate quickly? But I could be wrong and maybe she is slow due to heat stress and not an egg

It depends on where the egg is stuck, but yes you are correct, long term egg binding is usually terminal.
Hens can and do carry on pretty much as normal for months post infection and/or reproductive disorders. If one watches carefully one can sometimes see a hen with reproductive problems in some discomfort as she attempts to pass a soft shelled egg, or a lash egg. Once the egg is out they may seem normal until the next egg goes wrong.
Hopefully it's heat stress given the temperatures you've had. I hope you get some relief from the heat soon.

 

[Mrs. K]

Sounds way more like heat stress than an egg issue to me. I would not worry about the egg, but more about water and shade.

 

[Jgarza77]

Sounds way more like heat stress than an egg issue to me. I would not worry about the egg, but more about water and

Apart from checking she hasn't produced a shelled egg and is egg bound, not much I'm afraid.
Calcium Citrate may help but it's really for hens that are laying weak shelled eggs occasionally. Other forms of calcium such as carbonate or eggshells don't in general give a high enough percentage of calcium for problem laying.

Sometimes it can be a diet deficiency, lack of vitamin D3 which helps to metabolise calcium and phoshorus. It can be a lack of protein but that is less common when a hen is fed commercial feed.
Stress, particularly heat stress can play havoc with a hens reproductive cycle. They tend to eat less and drink more.

There is of course the possiblity she has a reproductive disorder/infection and a vet would be the best person to determin this.

OK I definitely suspect she has a blockage somewhere. She stayed still and puffed up with her back arched for a couple hours before bed last night. She had several pure white liquid urate poops under her. This morning she started out a little more lively but now is back to a very slow waddle and just hanging out in the back of the coop. Is it possible for there to be a blockage higher up in the oviduct? Last time she looked this bad was when the egg broke in her and she retained a bit of soft shell. Is there anything other than the calcium I can give her to help her expel whatever could be in there?