Impacted Crop - Part 2 - Paper compaction

[Eggcessive]

I had an ISA brown hen who was my best layer of huge eggs every day. Then she was injured by my good neighbor’s dog when they were walking by. She had escaped our yard and always liked to visit other field’s and lay eggs in our old corn crib.

She looked dead, but she did eventually recover later. She immediately went into a stress molt, and did not lay again for 3 months. She always laid a soft egg from then on, almost every day. But she never seemed to feel bad like your hen seems to when one is coming. My ISA went back to roaming all over to free range all day after laying. She died within 18 months of a reproductive disorder, probably due to the injury. Hopefully your hen will get better.

 

[vantain]

I'm glad that she was able to pass the egg.
LOL They do like to eat them too. She might enjoy a nice scrambled egg treat along with her food.

I know you've probably been through all this in your others threads, but what % protein is your feed? Is it a layer feed or all flock? You've been giving extra calcium right? Poultry vitamins?
How much "extras" does she get as far as "treats" go (scratch, seeds, etc.). Do they stay confined to coop/run or free range?

They get Purina Layena layer feed, which I believe is 16% protein. The other three have been doing just fine, and lay almost every day. As far as calcium is concerned, since this started, I have been giving this bird one crushed calcium tablet each day, which consists of 600mg of calcium and 800IU of D3, usually with some scrambled egg.

They are confined to a coop/run. 4 birds, in a 4x6 coop, and an 8x8 run, which I plan to expand another 6' this spring.

As far as treats are concerned, maybe once a week I give them all a little yogurt treat, and a very small amount of meal worms once or twice a week, so nothing too much. They mostly have just their layer feed.

A few weeks ago, and during the days/nights when temps here were regularly getting down into the low teens, and sub zero, I was giving them about a cup of scratch in the evening before roosting. That was almost daily, just to give them a little energy boost for the cold nights roosting. The lowest temp I saw in their coop was -25F, and that was when the outside temp was -35F, so they had to endure a lot of cold this year.

Other than that, I don't go crazy on the treats at all.

This issue for this hen started a couple of weeks ago. Up till that point, she was laying normally, and has been my best layer from day one. They are ISA Browns, from TSC, so I know they are probably from poor breeding stock.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

They get Purina Layena layer feed, which I believe is 16% protein. The other three have been doing just fine, and lay almost every day. As far as calcium is concerned, since this started, I have been giving this bird one crushed calcium tablet each day, which consists of 600mg of calcium and 800IU of D3, usually with some scrambled egg.

They are confined to a coop/run. 4 birds, in a 4x6 coop, and an 8x8 run, which I plan to expand another 6' this spring.

As far as treats are concerned, maybe once a week I give them all a little yogurt treat, and a very small amount of meal worms once or twice a week, so nothing too much. They mostly have just their layer feed.

A few weeks ago, and during the days/nights when temps here were regularly getting down into the low teens, and sub zero, I was giving them about a cup of scratch in the evening before roosting. That was almost daily, just to give them a little energy boost for the cold nights roosting. The lowest temp I saw in their coop was -25F, and that was when the outside temp was -35F, so they had to endure a lot of cold this year.

Other than that, I don't go crazy on the treats at all.

This issue for this hen started a couple of weeks ago. Up till that point, she was laying normally, and has been my best layer from day one. They are ISA Browns, from TSC, so I know they are probably from poor breeding stock.

Sounds like you are doing everything right. Production birds do seem to have problems. I'm sure that genetics play a part, but the prolific layers can sometimes burn out too.
I hope that she straightens out as the weather warms up.

 

[vantain]

I had an ISA brown hen who was my best layer of huge eggs every day. Then she was injured by my good neighbor’s dog when they were walking by. She had escaped our yard and always liked to visit other field’s and lay eggs in our old corn crib.

She looked dead, but she did eventually recover later. She immediately went into a stress molt, and did not lay again for 3 months. She always laid a soft egg from then on, almost every day. But she never seemed to feel bad like your hen seems to when one is coming. My ISA went back to roaming all over to free range all day after laying. She died within 18 months of a reproductive disorder, probably due to the injury. Hopefully your hen will get better.

I wish mine would go into a molt. Maybe it would help her with this problem. But I suspect, like many of you have mentioned, it's probably a genetic reproductive issue, and it's only a matter of time until she succumbs. Poor girl.

This is my first flock, so I'm still learning things. I figured these ISA Browns would at least make it two years, and was not necessarily prepared to expect issues at 11 months.

 

[vantain]

I sent her back out to the run. However, I now notice that when she walks, she is walking very slowly, and is hanging her wings at her side. Something is not quite right yet. Her tail is up, and she is foraging in the run though.

And the others seem to keep pecking at her butt feathers. That may be partially my fault, as I put some blue cote on her vent area a week ago, thinking she was getting a bit of a sore there from diarrhea she had. That stuff stains EVERYTHING. I even bathed her to get it off to no avail.

 

[vantain]

She's also struggling with balance...sigh....

 

[Eggcessive]

The other chickens sometimes have a 6th sense about a sick chicken. Drooping wings and balance issues which can be seen with dehydration, sometimes are a sign of Mareks disease. Don’t panic, but I just wanted to mention the possibility.

I have been treating a hen for 8 weeks who could not balance herself without ending up on her side. She kept her appetite, and kept her leg strength, always trying to stand. After a month she finally was able to get out and walk anywhere she wanted to go, but the flock still attacks her because they sense a problem. Imagine a 1 pound bantam hen jumping up and attacking a 7 pound speckled sussex, bloodying her comb until she falls down—not very nice.

Sorry for all of the stories about other chickens, but it sometimes helps to share stories. You can try to stop her from laying by keeping her in a dark cage for 16 hours out of 24 hours per day. It takes about 3 days to accomplish that. There are ways to force a molt, but could be a bit dangerous.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I sent her back out to the run. However, I now notice that when she walks, she is walking very slowly, and is hanging her wings at her side. Something is not quite right yet. Her tail is up, and she is foraging in the run though.

And the others seem to keep pecking at her butt feathers. That may be partially my fault, as I put some blue cote on her vent area a week ago, thinking she was getting a bit of a sore there from diarrhea she had. That stuff stains EVERYTHING. I even bathed her to get it off to no avail.

She's also struggling with balance...sigh....

I'm sorry she is struggling so much.
They may be pecking at the blukote. Did you happen to notice if she had any poop or even egg discharge coming from the vent?

 

[vantain]

I'm sorry she is struggling so much.
They may be pecking at the blukote. Did you happen to notice if she had any poop or even egg discharge coming from the vent?

I don't think they are pecking at her skin or vent itself, just the blue feathers there. I have a camera on them, and have been keeping an eye on them today. It doesn't look like they are being overly aggressive with her, just a few pecks here and there. No discharge there from what I can tell.

She does seem to be a little better now than earlier when I put her back outside. She's at the feeder now, so that is good. She has been spending a lot of time in the nesting boxes, which makes me feel like she is on her way to another soft shell egg tonight. Seems to be how this goes. Maybe the stress of last night just got to her, and that is why she was walking slow with wings down this morning. Sore from a long night of pushing that mess out.

 

[vantain]

Well, she must be feeling a little better this afternoon. She is one of the three in this picture, dust bathing. She's the one the far right in the attached photo.