I think my chicken pooped this weird thing out...

[azygous]

If this is sudden, if this hen is acting droopy, if her vent is pulsating and leaking very watery fluid that is soaking her butt feathers a chalky white, if she's straining as if to try to poop, if she stands with her tail down, if she's fluffed up and her head is sunk into her shoulders, then Houston we have a problem.

I just went through this with an aging hen of mine. The first thing is to give her a good long soak in Epsom salt water with a dash of baby shampoo to clean and soften her butt tissue. Be sure to gently clean very well around the cloaca. This needs to be done each day until the issue is resolved so bacteria doesn walk back up the reproductive track from her dirty butt, aided by contractions.

At the same time, give immediately one tablet of a calcium supplement, preferably calcium citrate, minimum 400mg. It appears she may have been able to expel the remains of the egg, but isolate her to monitor her droppings for more egg. Give a calcium tablet each day until all signs of egg remains have passed.

You will know she's been able to clear out all the egg when she begins to perk up again, and the fluid stops leaking from her vent.

I also began my hen on 250mg oral penicillin right away for seven days to stop any bacteria from taking hold in any egg remains in the reproductive track. Infection is the biggest danger when an egg collapses inside. It took my hen six days to pass all her membrane. Once she did, she bounced right back, and she's made a full recovery.

 

[nickylou665]

If this is sudden, if this hen is acting droopy, if her vent is pulsating and leaking very watery fluid that is soaking her butt feathers a chalky white, if she's straining as if to try to poop, if she stands with her tail down, if she's fluffed up and her head is sunk into her shoulders, then Houston we have a problem.

I just went through this with an aging hen of mine. The first thing is to give her a good long soak in Epsom salt water with a dash of baby shampoo to clean and soften her butt tissue. Be sure to gently clean very well around the cloaca. This needs to be done each day until the issue is resolved so bacteria doesn walk back up the reproductive track from her dirty butt, aided by contractions.

At the same time, give immediately one tablet of a calcium supplement, preferably calcium citrate, minimum 400mg. It appears she may have been able to expel the remains of the egg, but isolate her to monitor her droppings for more egg. Give a calcium tablet each day until all signs of egg remains have passed.

You will know she's been able to clear out all the egg when she begins to perk up again, and the fluid stops leaking from her vent.

I also began my hen on 250mg oral penicillin right away for seven days to stop any bacteria from taking hold in any egg remains in the reproductive track. Infection is the biggest danger when an egg collapses inside. It took my hen six days to pass all her membrane. Once she did, she bounced right back, and she's made a full recovery.

Thank you for this wealth of information. This feels very sudden, I know birds hide feeling unwell, being prey animals, but I'm out with the flock daily and try to keep general tabs on if anyone is looking out of sorts. I did some research last night and I am very worried about egg remaining in her.

I'll pick up some calcium citrate supplement after work today.

I'm worried by her crop not emptying. It could be she is so unwell that her digestive system is shutting down. In your opinion, should I continue to withhold food and treat for sour crop?

This is been a terrible week for my flock, a mink/weasel got into one of my small coops on Monday and killed my 3 tween d'uccles and my silkie rooster (they were the only ones housed in that coop, this chicken was not involved), and now my Tender is acting out of sorts. It's got me reeling a fair bit.

Looking at where to buy penicillin, it looks as though I would have to have a prescription for that. I live in Illinois, is there an over the counter/farm & fleet option I can purchase?

 

[azygous]

Pick up some miconazole, too, when you grab the calcium citrate. Sour crop yeast is opportunistic when a chicken's immune system is tasked.

Boiled egg and yogurt are good foods for a hen in this circumstance. Make dry feed available, along with fresh water.

I urge you to try to get hold of an antibiotic. Ask family and friends if they have any people meds left over they no longer need. Or ask a vet to give you a round of a broad spectrum antibiotic. If infection takes hold, even if a hen recovers, she could be sterile afterward.

 

[aart]

I'm worried by her crop not emptying. It could be she is so unwell that her digestive system is shutting down.

Could be either way...crop issue affects digestive system or other issue slow digestive and affect crop function.

Ask family and friends if they have any people meds left over they no longer need.

This makes me <cringe>.
Sorry, am staunchly anti AB abuse/misuse. No one should have 'left over' AB's.
Plus how would you dose it for a chicken?

Or ask a vet to give you a round of a broad spectrum antibiotic.

Much better option!

 

[nickylou665]

Pick up some miconazole, too, when you grab the calcium citrate. Sour crop yeast is opportunistic when a chicken's immune system is tasked.

Boiled egg and yogurt are good foods for a hen in this circumstance. Make dry feed available, along with fresh water.

I urge you to try to get hold of an antibiotic. Ask family and friends if they have any people meds left over they no longer need. Or ask a vet to give you a round of a broad spectrum antibiotic. If infection takes hold, even if a hen recovers, she could be sterile afterward.

I've already got an antifungal in my chicken 1st aid, I was going to start deploying it last night until I found the thing and started to worry that there was more going on and I wasn't going to be treating the critical issue. It won't hurt to pick up something to replace it so thank you for the reminder.

Thanks for the tip about calling the vet. I'm going to give them a call and see if they can give an antibiotic, or if I have to bring her in to get evaluated. I don't really want to stress her out with a half hour car ride.

 

[ShannonR]

I wonder if she just ate something weird, that caused that to come out. I also wonder if it was a piece of shed reproductive tract, as mentioned above by someone else. I am actually leaning towards it not being egg material, myself. But, who knows for sure

 

[azygous]

You can find out by examining the texture. Egg membrane dries up and becomes crispy like paper that's been wet and then dried out.

Tissue is different. It's more like lunch meat in that you can slice into it and you can sense its fleshy texture. Sometimes intestinal lining is shed, and it's very slimy. Sometimes salpingitis produces cheesy chunks that resemble cheese curds in texture.

You will be monitoring her over the next few days for more of these deposits. Also her behavior will give you clues as to how serious you should consider this.

 

[aart]

You can find out by examining the texture. Egg membrane dries up and becomes crispy like paper that's been wet and then dried out.

Tissue is different. It's more like lunch meat in that you can slice into it and you can sense its fleshy texture. Sometimes intestinal lining is shed, and it's very slimy. Sometimes salpingitis produces cheesy chunks that resemble cheese curds in texture.

Great points...hopefully OP saved 'thing' and can tell as it dries.

 

[nickylou665]

I did save the thing, and took it and her to the university zoo-med vet yesterday. When I got home from work she was a bit perkier, but I had worries about infection, and with the shit week I’ve had, I felt a bit out of my wheelhouse and wanted the white jacket’s opinion.

Met a new vet there, but he gave me confidence that he is familiar with chickens. It’s an egg shell. He listened to the timeline I gave, gave an examination and then took a blood sample and gave her some fluids. He found no swollen abdomen, and a healthy cloaca. Good condition overall, but a bit low weight (he guessed right, she’s lower on the pecking order). She was a bit dehydrated, and testing showed Calcium was low, which was no surprise given that by now I knew it was a soft shell egg she laid. He was less concerned about the crop, it felt normal to him and he mentioned that a chicken that doesn’t feel well will have an affected digestive tract, but that’s part of what I will be observing for the next few days. I’m good to feed her and push the calcium.

I’d given her yogurt and calcium mixed with mealworm and fried egg since then, so while she had complaints about the lodging she has praise for hospitality.

Vet suggested that if she has a friend in the flock and if I have the space, to pick that one out and keep them both separate for a week or so for observation, so she can be reintroduced to the flock with a buddy instead of as a single chicken. Of course if she’s in need of an antibiotic the length of time and care methods will adjust appropriately.

I should be hearing full details about the blood work today, including a white blood cell count, and if that’s abnormal he will issue an antibiotic and we’ll go from there.

The biggest debate I have to ponder right now is whether it’s better to switch to a layer feed instead of an all flock. I switched over a year ago because of my roosters, and while this is the first issue I’ve seen, I don’t want a chicken to suffer if I could do better. Conversely I don’t want my roosters to get too much calcium, either. Vet and I debated for a bit about what the solution might be, he was clearly in camp layer feed but understood my hesitation. The roosters don’t favor a feeding station so having a rooster feeding station won’t work... so I might go half and half with lay mix and all flock to split the difference. It’ll improve calcium intake some while not blasting my roosters. I don’t know. Maybe I’m over reacting and the roosters won’t be as badly harmed by layer feed as I understand they would, so I’m going to have to dive back into that research. I’m mulling over if there’s a better way to get calcium to the laying ladies than my current method (oyster shell/ egg shell stations by the feed stations). I may just add a few more oyster shell stations if the pecking order is keeping the lower ladies away from the calcium as a start. I’m open to suggestions here.

Between that visit and the suggestions on this forum I at least feel more prepared to care for her. By no means do I feel like she’s out of the woods, but I at least feel like I’ve got a better handle on what I am trying to treat and what to look out for! So thank you everyone for your advice so far.

 

[coach723]

Sounds like it was a good vet visit! You are fortunate to have one that knows chickens.
I have been feeding all flock for years, no issues, I do have quite a few stations for oystershell/eggshell mixture, I find especially with the younger layers, that they won't get to them as much if the olders are around them, so I put quite a few out to prevent that, and spread them around. I put them away from the actual feeders, so they are less likely to get blocked by a piggy bird. I use empty milk jugs or vinegar jugs with a window cut in the side, so they are cheap and I can use as many as I need.