Lots of symptoms. What is the consensus of what we are dealing with?

[MysteryChicken]

I'm not an expert, but I feel like someone posted about treats that can inhibit calcium absorption. I wonder if scaling back to just their regular feed, oyster shell, and fresh water might be a good idea (plus the suggestion above of a calcium supplement).

That was me, possibly someone else. Yes, excess treats can reduce calcium absorption.

 

[lavenderhengal]

Disclaimer: not a diagnosis. Only a vet can do that.

Your hen, from my own experience with such symptoms, probably has low blood calcium and is not forming shells on her eggs. Shell-less eggs are very hard to pass and often become stuck, causing the next egg to crowd behind it, compounding the issue since she would only have calcium for one of the eggs.

The obstruction of these eggs will cause the crop to slow and often will cause crop issues that also need to be treated. This is where you are.

The solution is to give her calcium citrate daily for several days to a week to bring up her blood calcium. Pop the entire giant tablet into her beak. Get this at the store where you find human vitamins. View attachment 4146684

Question: how will the impacted crop let the giant calcium pill down into her system? As an experiment, I am soaking one of the giant calcium pills in water to see how soluble it is, so I could determine how it may be affected by her impacted crop. The big pill is sitting in water and it is still as big and hard as a rock. What are your thoughts on giving her this with her already impacted crop situation? I also suspect that the little grittiness I detect in massaging her crop is the calcium oyster shells I saw her eating right before she got so uncomfortable. Would I be adding to the impacted crop problem with the giant calcium pill now?

 

[lavenderhengal]

OP, look up how to pill a chicken on YouTube. If you use a proper technique, it's exactly how Lovelee said. My husband and I had to treat a new layer that was struggling with soft shell eggs. The calcium pills are huge, but if you have a large fowl chicken, they can definitely handle it with the proper placement.

Thank you! I found this video for those of us without anyone to help us give a pill to our chicken:

This fellow seems very good.

 

[lavenderhengal]

Thank you! I found this video for those of us without anyone to help us give a pill to our chicken:

This fellow seems very good.

I did it! My hen had momentary aggravation, but in the giant pill went. No one helping me. I just did what that video said to do! Easy as pie. Thank you, everyone! I have learned so much today from all of you. You are lovely patient people. I hope others find this thread and learn from it as well, just as I have learned from so many others over the last five years.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Treats will not cause decreased calcium absorption rather eating too many treats will reduce intake of calcium rich feed, etc thus produce a relative calcium deficiency, they should not make up more than 10 percent of the diet. Gut stasis is a common side effect of significant illness in most species, the impacted crop is a symptom of her repro disease and or low blood calcium (muscles need calcium to contract) rather than a primary cause rather it is a related illness. Can you crush the pills or dissolve them in water for easier administration or find a liquid calcium supplement (you can administer the iv calcium designed for milk fever in dairy cattle or a human oral supplement)? I’d also treat this as a potential egg bound bird or egg peritonitis, just in case something broke inside. Salpingitis (inflammation of repro tract) might also be an issue so antibiotics might be a good idea as well (as well as for egg peritonitis). Other causes besides calcium deficiency could be a tumor or hormonal imbalance but are less common. If you nurse her along and she continues to lay weird eggs after a couple weeks of treatment , that would be a sign of something more significant than a transitory bout of low blood calcium and you may want to consider long term prognosis and quality of life if she will lay weird eggs from here on out.

 

[lavenderhengal]

Treats will not cause decreased calcium absorption rather eating too many treats will reduce intake of calcium rich feed, etc thus produce a relative calcium deficiency, they should not make up more than 10 percent of the diet. Gut stasis is a common side effect of significant illness in most species, the impacted crop is a symptom of her repro disease and or low blood calcium (muscles need calcium to contract) rather than a primary cause rather it is a related illness. Can you crush the pills or dissolve them in water for easier administration or find a liquid calcium supplement (you can administer the iv calcium designed for milk fever in dairy cattle or a human oral supplement)? I’d also treat this as a potential egg bound bird or egg peritonitis, just in case something broke inside. Salpingitis (inflammation of repro tract) might also be an issue so antibiotics might be a good idea as well (as well as for egg peritonitis). Other causes besides calcium deficiency could be a tumor or hormonal imbalance but are less common. If you nurse her along and she continues to lay weird eggs after a couple weeks of treatment , that would be a sign of something more significant than a transitory bout of low blood calcium and you may want to consider long term prognosis and quality of life if she will lay weird eggs from here on out.

Thank you! I will tone down the meal worms which are a huge bedtime treat.

I found an excellent you tube video where a veterinarian squatted over the hen to hold her within a towel and gave her a pill by himself. I tried it just now and it worked perfectly. So I will not hesitate to give her the substantial calcium pills every day for two weeks. I am thrilled to have learned this pill-giving skill today.

Her crop feels better this afternoon, looser and less full. She spent most of the day outside with her friends. I just brought her in for the night for observation. I gave her the calcium pill and she is resting.

It is so exciting to actually feel useful and more informed for my hens. I felt very bleak yesterday, as did she. It is a bit of a miracle that she got rid of those six shell-less eggs last night. I feel we were lucky for that. Onward and upward. Thank you! I am always open to new information.

 

[azygous]

I'm all for experimenting. I love science experiments. But if you plan on creating a simulation to test something, you need to recreate all the conditions. That would include adding hydrochloric acid to the water you're soaking the calcium pill in. Hydrochloric acid is a component in digestion.

 

[lavenderhengal]

I'm all for experimenting. I love science experiments. But if you plan on creating a simulation to test something, you need to recreate all the conditions. That would include adding hydrochloric acid to the water you're soaking the calcium pill in. Hydrochloric acid is a component in digestion.

You are so right. That's why I went ahead and learned how to give the big pill to the chicken.

 

[lavenderhengal]

You are so right. That's why I went ahead and learned how to give the big pill to the chicken.

While I have you on here, what high calcium chicken feed do people recommend?

 

[Anon112]

While I have you on here, what high calcium chicken feed do people recommend?

When I only had hens, I used the Kalmbach layer feed. (I switched to whole flock with supplemental oyster shell once I got a rooster). My girls did really well (and continue to do really well) with that system.

I don't know if they need their feed to be high calcium, per se. Just that they have oyster shell as a supplement and you follow best treat practices (like giving treats at the end of the day, not letting non-feed foods be more than 10% of their diet, etc).

It sounds like your girls have been doing pretty great health-wise, so I don't think you need much of an overhaul.