laying half soft shelled eggs?? UPDATE, not good.

[LindsayB]

Really starting to worry about her. She was in the nest box earlier this morning and is now up, walking around really slow and tail drooping. She not acting like herself at all. Won't even eat some bird seed treats...Can anyone help me?

 

[casportpony]

Really starting to worry about her. She was in the nest box earlier this morning and is now up, walking around really slow and tail drooping. She not acting like herself at all. Won't even eat some bird seed treats...Can anyone help me?

And you should be worried, at least that's been my experience... Get some gloves, KY Jelly and very gently do an exam. If no eggs, EYP or cancer are present, the only thing I have been able to feel is the gizzard.

If you can feel an egg, soft or hard, give her a human calcium pill, it will help her to pass it.

Let us know what you feel in there.

 

[LindsayB]

Okay, I didn't feel anything, everything is just soft...Guess I did it right.

Shes walking around more now but is still acting strange. Very quiet, which is definitely not her usual self and not wanting to eat treats. I did find a weird egg in the run which I'm guessing she let out a few minutes before I went out there. It was maybe the size of an egg yolk, shriveled up with nothing inside of it, and had a weird hard white meaty type thing on one end.

 

[LindsayB]

Here's what the egg looked like and the hard meaty thing next to it. Its dirty bc it was in the run and i poked it a little.

 

[LindsayB]

And this is what she looks like now....poor baby

 

[nova022]

At a year old I would think she would have her egg production down pat. I had one pullet who started out laying huge double yolkers, then the white and yolk in only the membrane without a shell at all and then fart eggs with just white and no yolk, but super hard shells. This went on for the first month or so that she laid. She finally got things straightened and I haven't had a surprise in a while. If she is a year old and still doing this, I would guess that it is her reproductive system that is the problem and not something external, especially if your other hens are eating the same things and have no problems..

 

[casportpony]

Looks like she's have egg laying problems of some sort, which will probably kill her if you do nothing. Do you have a bathroom that you can fill with steam from the shower? If so, turn your water heater to high, give her 500mg of calcium, wait about an hour, fill the bathroom with steam and put her in there and see if she passes more egg bits.

 

[LindsayB]

Our bathroom does not hold steam at all. Can I break up a tums and give her that??
If she does not improve I may end up putting her out of her misery. I think she is always going to have problems with egg laying.. : (

 

[casportpony]

Our bathroom does not hold steam at all. Can I break up a tums and give her that??
If she does not improve I may end up putting her out of her misery. I think she is always going to have problems with egg laying.. : (

If you have the time, you could hold her in a sink of warm water (I'm lazy, so I use the steam method). I would not use the Tums, get some calcium.

 

[casportpony]

Culling is always a viable option, but one that I can't seem to do, even when I know I should.