Leghorn died today... Broken egg suspect

[mmccoy]

Hi everyone,

We lost our first hen today. She laid a perfect egg day before yesterday. It's not unusual for her to skip a day or two. I let them all out to free range around 10. At noon I noticed her sitting under a tree by herself and figured she was just dust bathing. At 2 I brought out some left overs and that's when I noticed she was laying on her side. I went to pick her up and she did not struggle which is unusual for her since she's pretty flighty. I knew something was wrong. Brought her in, bathed her, gave her antibiotics and b12 vitamins. Lubed her up and she had nothing inside her. She had laid an egg that looked like a wrung out rag. About an hour later she passed in my arms. My question is could our rooster mating her first thing in the morning have caused this?

 

[mmccoy]

Here is the egg. I'm just at a loss as to what happened. She was perfectly healthy. Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

[Teila]

Howdy mmccoy

I am so sorry to read of your loss

I have no experience with roosters but I have nearly lost a chicken who laid a soft shelled egg.

She laid a soft shelled egg in the evening while on the roost [out of character for her]. It was only because I was checking that everyone had got off to bed OK that I noticed it. I cleaned up the mess and gave her vent a clean as it was a bit messy.

The next morning she was obviously very uncomfortable and in a bad way. I gave her a bath in Epsom Salts and could not feel anything in her vent. She was going down hill fast.

In the afternoon, at the recommendation of a fellow BYC member, I gave her some sardines in oil and that evening, just on bed time, she passed the remainder of the soft shell.

The next morning she was fine.

That egg was the last one she laid prior to a moult and she is now back to laying normal eggs every day or two (bantam).

So, while I am not sure about the rooster, I do know that they can deteriorate very quickly if they have an egg break on them and also that infection sets in quickly.

The “wrung out rag” egg could have been a soft shell that she did not manage to lay and not related to your rooster.