liver disfunction causing yellow poop and softshelled eggs?

[xanthin1]

I have 8 almost 6 month old hens. 5 of them are laying (though I'm not entirely sure which ones). About the time the first started laying about a month ago, I noticed one of my hens had bright yellow (sulphur colored) spots in her otherwise normal grey-ish white-ish poop. I watched them for a few days, noone looked sick. But it kept happening, so I finally took a sample into my vet who tested it for parasites etc. Good news no parasites or bacteria, bad news was probably a sign of liver failure. I could bring the effected hen in for bloodwork to determine exactly what was wrong, but unfortunately that was too expensive. We are pretty sure we know which hen is pooping yellow (a golden laced wyandotte). She has always been on the angular and skinny looking side, but I can't be sure. I have 3 kids under 6, so I don't have time to watch the chickens long enough to determine which one is pooping yellow, but I'm pretty sure it is only one, as the piles under their roost in the morning are all normal except one, and it's usually the one on the end (pecking order?) and usually it's my wyandotte on the end.

Ok, so then this afternoon, we go to collect then eggs and one of them is softshelled. Bright yellow/orange in color. I've never had a soft shelled egg before (we had 5 RI reds a couple of yeard ago, no problems). Our chickens free range about 4 days a week and get layer ration with oyster shell in it, as well as tons of table scraps (3 kids under 6). And I'm wondering if it could be from my liver-impaired hen? Has anybody expierenced ANYTHING similar to this?

 

[J-Sanders]

Probably so. It sounds like your hen has histomoniasis which is usually a turkey disease but can affect chickens and chickens are known carriers. She may have had a cecal worm infestation from early on and that may have done the liver damage.

Jim