Hen with back end raised, blood around vent, liquidy poop

[Barnette]

This afternoon I found my middle-aged hen Penny was sitting slightly hunched over beside the coop after free-ranging. As I watched she let out a wet greenish-white poop. I checked her vent and there was a bit of dried blood in the feathers. As far as I know, she's been laying an egg every day recently, tho when she was on the laying box this morning, she seemed to be having trouble. I'm not sure whether she laid the egg or not. I gave her a warm Epsom salt bath and some gentle massages and noticed her abdomen seemed a bit squishy. I let her out of the bath for a moment and she pooped out something odd (I'll attach a pic) that looks like it could be part of an eggshell. Now she's wrapped in a towel eating a boiled egg. Her crop was mostly empty, I'm not sure if she ate or drank anything today.

What should I do now? What could this condition be?

Thanks!

P.S the pictures I'm attaching aren't working, I'll try again in another post below this one

 

[Barnette]

Her vent after the bath:

Her poop:

The strange egg-shell-like thing (it's about the size of a nickel):

Penny in the bath:

 

[Barnette]

She's currently acting completely normal, she's back with the flock walking around and preening

 

[DonyaQuick]

The weird strand that came out does look plausible for being part of a popped soft shelled egg, but without being able to handle it to check the texture, I also wonder whether it could be lash material.

For the soft-shelled egg case, sometimes you never see the egg contents or even the rest of the shell if the other hens have gotten to it first. Other times it can continue to come out over time. If it's just a soft shelled egg that didn't go right then she probably needs more calcium but if in fact that weird thing is some lash material rather than a shell then it would indicate an infection.

When you say she's middle-aged, I assume that means her egg production has otherwise been slower than the egg-a-day rate she's doing now? If she just recently upped the production, she may simply have not eaten enough extra calcium to compensate if you have that separate from the feed.

 

[Barnette]

The weird strand that came out does look plausible for being part of a popped soft shelled egg, but without being able to handle it to check the texture, I also wonder whether it could be lash material.

For the soft-shelled egg case, sometimes you never see the egg contents or even the rest of the shell if the other hens have gotten to it first. Other times it can continue to come out over time. If it's just a soft shelled egg that didn't go right then she probably needs more calcium but if in fact that weird thing is some lash material rather than a shell then it would indicate an infection.

When you say she's middle-aged, I assume that means her egg production has otherwise been slower than the egg-a-day rate she's doing now? If she just recently upped the production, she may simply have not eaten enough extra calcium to compensate if you have that separate from the feed.

Should I give her a calcium supplement then? I use Dumor 16% layer pellets for their feed, if that's helpful.

By middle-aged I meant she's around five years old, but I'm not completely certain as she's a rescue. She's slowing down egg production a bit, she stopped completely over the winter but has started laying almost daily in the past week or two.

Thanks for your feedback by the way!!

 

[Barnette]

Also the strand's texture was slightly rubbery, if that helps.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Should I give her a calcium supplement then? I use Dumor 16% layer pellets for their feed, if that's helpful.

By middle-aged I meant she's around five years old, but I'm not completely certain as she's a rescue. She's slowing down egg production a bit, she stopped completely over the winter but has started laying almost daily in the past week or two.

Thanks for your feedback by the way!!

Worth trying a bit of extra calcium. If she only lived in an enclosure that would usually be enough, but you said she free-ranges. Depending on what other things she's finding to eat free-ranging, she may not be eating as much of the feed as she should be to do the increased egg production. It affects both shell quality and their ability to push the egg out. A couple of my hens had similar issues starting around 3 years old, where if they ate anything but 100% layer feed they were getting the odd soft shelled egg since they refused to eat oyster shell and also tried to max out on less-than-nutritious snacks whenever possible.

Calcium citrate is more readily taken up than calcium carbonate if you have it on hand in some form, but both work for a quick-ish supplement, and versions with some vitamin D should be ok. I often pair supplemeting the plain forms with using some vitamin mix in the water, since vitamin deficiencies can affect calcium uptake. I have never been able to get any of my hens to eat a tablet but have been able to mix powder/crushed bits into other things they like.

Also the strand's texture was slightly rubbery, if that helps.

Is it hollow? Like either a tube or curled up membrane? Whereas if it's more solid then it could be lash material.

 

[Barnette]

Worth trying a bit of extra calcium. If she only lived in an enclosure that would usually be enough, but you said she free-ranges. Depending on what other things she's finding to eat free-ranging, she may not be eating as much of the feed as she should be to do the increased egg production. It affects both shell quality and their ability to push the egg out. A couple of my hens had similar issues starting around 3 years old, where if they ate anything but 100% layer feed they were getting the odd soft shelled egg since they refused to eat oyster shell and also tried to max out on less-than-nutritious snacks whenever possible.

Okay, that's good to know! How should i solve that? I do have some oyster shell bits somewhere in the barn I can give them

Calcium citrate is more readily taken up than calcium carbonate if you have it on hand in some form, but both work for a quick-ish supplement, and versions with some vitamin D should be ok. I often pair supplemeting the plain forms with using some vitamin mix in the water, since vitamin deficiencies can affect calcium uptake. I have never been able to get any of my hens to eat a tablet but have been able to mix powder/crushed bits into other things they like.

Okay I have this, how much should I give her

Is it hollow? Like either a tube or curled up membrane? Whereas if it's more solid then it could be lash material.

I think it's hollow, like a small tube. I can pick at it with some tweezers to check, that would be fun

Thanks again!!

 

[Barnette]

There's 630 mg per calcium tablet. Should I give her half of it?

 

[Barnette]

Okay I have this, how much should I give herView attachment 4077242View attachment 4077243
View attachment 4077249

There's 630mg per tablet, should I give her half?