Lash egg?

[hollandhens24]

I treated my girl with antibiotics after and she did resume laying normal eggs again. She stopped laying during her molt and then an egg here or there during the winter but resumed regularly laying again this summer. However, she's now having an issue of laying soft-shell eggs quite frequently so I've been supplementing her calcium intake. I'm not sure if the soft eggs are related to the issue last year or not but she has otherwise been generally healthy and still is the top hen in the pecking order.

Thank you for the update! I am sorry to hear about the soft shelled eggs, but hopefully things get back to normal! My hen hasn't resumed laying since hatching her chick a few weeks ago, but I am hoping that this break will be good for her. I am glad to hear of a salpingitis recovery story, it makes me cautiously optimistic for her to have a long, healthy life moving forward!

 

[SunriseChickers]

I am curious to know what you mean by "normal life." I have a two year old hen who laid what I assume is lash material this spring (March). I didn't notice any physical symptoms other than the material and diarrhea. She also put herself to bed very early. This seemed to go on for about two weeks and I saw two lash eggs in this timespan. There are no vets in my area who would treat her or offer suggestions. I went back and forth on whether to dispatch her, but over the course of several days she seemed to improve. She has since resumed laying normal eggs and actually hatched a healthy chick from her own egg after this. The information that I have seen about lash eggs suggests that it is a death sentence and that hens typically don't resume laying after. To the OP @Jlwennerberg9 how has your hen faired since laying lash eggs? I am always interested to learn more.

Your hen laying and hatching is a super great sign! Some of my hens laid extremely similar eggs, so I was unable to determine if my hen who eventually died from it did or did not ever lay a regular egg after laying lash material, though I suspect she laid a few.
My hen who had it laid 3-4 lash eggs over the span of a couple of years. She looked happy and healthy, and I didn't know what was wrong until after a necropsy, so I had to put two and two together. She acted perfectly fine, eating and drinking, very active. The only noticeable difference was that she was quite a lot heavier than she should have been after a while, but not gaining any fat, and her abdomen was hard. In the end, she was slowly crushed from the inside out by more than one lash egg the size of my fist. If I had known, I would have put her to sleep. As it is, she slowly suffocated over the course of a few short days, and passed on her own in her sleep. She was 5 or 6 years old. Best I suspected was eggbinding or waterbelly before she actually died. Either way, up until the week or two before she died, she lived a normal chicken life.

 

[hollandhens24]

Your hen laying and hatching is a super great sign! Some of my hens laid extremely similar eggs, so I was unable to determine if my hen who eventually died from it did or did not ever lay a regular egg after laying lash material, though I suspect she laid a few.
My hen who had it laid 3-4 lash eggs over the span of a couple of years. She looked happy and healthy, and I didn't know what was wrong until after a necropsy, so I had to put two and two together. She acted perfectly fine, eating and drinking, very active. The only noticeable difference was that she was quite a lot heavier than she should have been after a while, but not gaining any fat, and her abdomen was hard. In the end, she was slowly crushed from the inside out by more than one lash egg the size of my fist. If I had known, I would have put her to sleep. As it is, she slowly suffocated over the course of a few short days, and passed on her own in her sleep. She was 5 or 6 years old. Best I suspected was eggbinding or waterbelly before she actually died. Either way, up until the week or two before she died, she lived a normal chicken life.

Livestock are fascinating because there are so many outliers and anomalies that defy our expectations! I wouldn't have ever thought that this came from a chicken if I hadn't seen her pass it in the driveway. She resumed laying very consistent eggs right before hatching her chick, so at this point I am willing to just see where things go. It sounds like your hen had a long, normal life so that's really all anyone can hope for