CoralHouseCoop
In the Brooder
- Jun 6, 2023
- 4
- 3
- 11
Hello, everyone,
My 20-month-old hen Harriet has been having egg issues since about June when one of her sisters died from what we suspect was also egg related. She had been sporadically laying "rubber eggs" in addition to laying hard shell eggs.
I took her to the vet in late Sept. when she first laid just a yolk with no membrane/"rubber" portion. They ran a fecal test and found nothing. They ran a blood test and saw that her calcium was somewhat low and were concerned she had reproductive disease.
The vet put her on an anti-inflammatory medicine (Meloxidyl) and we began trying to shorten her daylight hours with the hopes that not laying would give her body a chance to reset. (We're in Florida, so we had 11 hours of daylight into late fall.) I also started increasing her calcium supplements with daily Omega Egg Layer and calcium in a separate water. At the time she was eating DuMar layer feed and had access to oyster shells (now oyster flakes because she and her sister didn't seem to like the shells). (We plan to switch her to Purina in the future based on conversations with the vet and other chicken keepers.)
This intervention seems to have been successful. She had one rubber egg and one just yolk (what the vet calls uterine discharge) in early Oct., but other than that (in part probably because of her molt), she wasn't laying.
We are integrating two 11-week pullets that we got as day-old chicks into the flock, so starting in early Nov. everyone switched to Purina Start and Grow. The integration was stressful for Harriet, so much so that she would stop eating and sleep during the day. I put a divider up and had the vet examine her (said she looked and acted healthy) and these strategies seem to have helped.
The weather dipped into the 40s earlier this week (in Florida that's pretty cold for our flock) and three nights this week (Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday), Harriet laid the uterine discharge and it appears the membrane separately (see the attached pictures for the most recent - note that the one in the nesting box includes our fake eggs - and a link to a video of what the membrane looks like). During the day she is fine - she doesn't seem to have lost weight, she's interested in food, she's active, her stool is normal.
The vet wants to do X-rays to see if we can get more information, but I would like to proceed with the least invasive methods as she's already been through so much in the past six months.
Have you had any experience with this? Any suggestions for treatment?
Thank you in advance!
My 20-month-old hen Harriet has been having egg issues since about June when one of her sisters died from what we suspect was also egg related. She had been sporadically laying "rubber eggs" in addition to laying hard shell eggs.
I took her to the vet in late Sept. when she first laid just a yolk with no membrane/"rubber" portion. They ran a fecal test and found nothing. They ran a blood test and saw that her calcium was somewhat low and were concerned she had reproductive disease.
The vet put her on an anti-inflammatory medicine (Meloxidyl) and we began trying to shorten her daylight hours with the hopes that not laying would give her body a chance to reset. (We're in Florida, so we had 11 hours of daylight into late fall.) I also started increasing her calcium supplements with daily Omega Egg Layer and calcium in a separate water. At the time she was eating DuMar layer feed and had access to oyster shells (now oyster flakes because she and her sister didn't seem to like the shells). (We plan to switch her to Purina in the future based on conversations with the vet and other chicken keepers.)
This intervention seems to have been successful. She had one rubber egg and one just yolk (what the vet calls uterine discharge) in early Oct., but other than that (in part probably because of her molt), she wasn't laying.
We are integrating two 11-week pullets that we got as day-old chicks into the flock, so starting in early Nov. everyone switched to Purina Start and Grow. The integration was stressful for Harriet, so much so that she would stop eating and sleep during the day. I put a divider up and had the vet examine her (said she looked and acted healthy) and these strategies seem to have helped.
The weather dipped into the 40s earlier this week (in Florida that's pretty cold for our flock) and three nights this week (Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday), Harriet laid the uterine discharge and it appears the membrane separately (see the attached pictures for the most recent - note that the one in the nesting box includes our fake eggs - and a link to a video of what the membrane looks like). During the day she is fine - she doesn't seem to have lost weight, she's interested in food, she's active, her stool is normal.
The vet wants to do X-rays to see if we can get more information, but I would like to proceed with the least invasive methods as she's already been through so much in the past six months.
Have you had any experience with this? Any suggestions for treatment?
Thank you in advance!
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