Lash egg or something else?

[mmwsinatra]

Hello all!
I have a sweet little Swedish Flower Hen (about a year old) with an issue I would like to get some advise on if possible.

About a week ago I found one of her eggs broken in front of a nesting box. I assumed it was kicked out and accidentally broken rather than dropped from her perch during the night. Solid shell, didn't think much of it.

Three days ago I found a soft shelled dropped egg under a perch, which appeared to have some dried blood on it. It was NOT where my Swedish Flower Hen sleeps, rather under an older girl who has had some egg issues over the past 10 months. (Long story, lash egg, treated with Baytril, actually laying again to my great surprise.)

Over the past four days, my Swedish girl has been nesting for her normal amount of time but not actually laying anything. She has been acting normal otherwise, so I gave her a few days to figure it out. Yesterday evening she began acting a little off. She dropped a weird, not correctly formed egg blob in the middle of the yard. (Ignore the dark bits as those are pebbles.) It doesn't seem like lash to me, rather all of the shell materials clumped up and rubberized to one side. I'm not sure though.

I started her on Baytril last night. I might be jumping the gun...but in my experience if you wait for the lash that often comes after the internal laying issues, you are often too late. I am normally very hesitant to use antibiotics unless it's absolutely necessary. I have only every administered them to the one other bird. (My vet actually once prescribed $70 worth of Clavamox to one of my girls and I ended up thinking better of it and not giving it to her. She recovered well without it and it expired in the refrigerator.)

She seemed her normal self again this morning, charging into the house for her morning snuggles. Any thoughts? I'm thinking better safe than sorry on this one and do the five day Baytril treatment followed by some probiotics. But she's also my favorite, most lovey girl and my feelings toward her might be clouding my judgement a bit.

Thank you!

 

[Eggcessive]

That could be lash egg material plus a malformed egg or membrane, or just lash egg material. This article below shows what lash material looks like when the material is cut in half, and it also gives details about the causes. What type of Baytril are you using and what dose? If you are using the 10% liquid, the dosage is 0.05 ml per pound—0.25 ml for a 5 pound chicken—given orally twice daily for 5 days. Toss out any eggs for at least 2 weeks after treatment because of any residue. Baytril is banned for chickens in the US due to emerging antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, but some vets do still use it for treatment of reproductive infections.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard/

 

[mmwsinatra]

That could be lash egg material plus a malformed egg or membrane, or just lash egg material. This article below shows what lash material looks like when the material is cut in half, and it also gives details about the causes. What type of Baytril are you using and what dose? If you are using the 10% liquid, the dosage is 0.05 ml per pound—0.25 ml for a 5 pound chicken—given orally twice daily for 5 days. Toss out any eggs for at least 2 weeks after treatment because of any residue. Baytril is banned for chickens in the US due to emerging antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, but some vets do still use it for treatment of reproductive infections.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard/

Thank you for responding Eggcessive!

Yes, enrofloxacin 10% liquid at the dosage you described. I was planning to toss the eggs for a month, assuming she begins laying again. It really doesn't matter to me as she is a pet first and foremost.

Would you give her antibiotics? Is there a different one you would recommend? I have only given her the one dose so far and could possibly switch. I have not taken her to the vet yet because, in all honesty, he doesn't typically figure out anything other than what I'm already doing. She is acting normal now and an exam isn't going to come up with much. (There was also no hard evidence until last night and I haven't had a chance to call them yet. Typically they are booked for at least a week.)

I still have the Clavamox in the refrigerator, but I believe it expires within 10 days of being reconstituted and we are past that.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would use the enrofloxacin since you have it, and it treats the bacteria most associated with salpingitis. Yes, 30 days egg withdrawal is better. Here is a study that says that:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21392039/

 

[mmwsinatra]

I would use the enrofloxacin since you have it, and it treats the bacteria most associated with salpingitis. Yes, 30 days egg withdrawal is better. Here is a study that says that:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21392039/

Thank you! We'll see how she does. Never thought I would bond with a chicken like this and she is still so young. Fingers crossed!

 

[Eggcessive]

Chickens do make good pets, and when they are having problems, they sometimes seem to appreciate all of the good care that we give them. I hope that she gets better.

 

[mmwsinatra]

Hi again!

I wanted to provide an update. My girl seems to be doing well. I ended up taking her to the veterinarian so that he could look at the goopy stuff she dropped under a microscope. (They refused to look at it without seeing her, which is something I understand but am still quite frustrated with.) He didn't see anything that he thinks indicates an infection; rather the whites and squished up inner membrane of a miss-fired egg. She is still nesting each day with no results. The vet feels that she is going through the process of taking an egg laying break since she didn't take one over the winter and that her nesting process is just habitual and will likely stop at some point. We will see.

I gave her three days of antibiotics, which I had started before taking her in, and think that might be enough to halt any type of infection that could have started to develop from the goopy stuff she dropped.

Fingers crossed!