1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) Mocha is a Black Australorp, hatched May 5, 2021
2) What is the behavior, exactly. She seems to be acting normally, for her. She has always been the bottom of the pecking order in a flock of 5 for the first year and 4 for the second year. I don't think she has ever challenged to change that. The odd eggs are described below.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? see below
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? not that I can tell
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. no
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. I don't know.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. see below
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. normal
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? just watched
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I would treat her myself
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. see below
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. She is in a 8' section of a 10' wide shed with three other hens unless out to roam the property (usually several hours at a time several times a week but not every day). Bedding is mostly maple leaves, some pine shavings, some sawdust, a little pdz on the poop board.
I found the first wonky egg 3 or 4 months ago, I think. It was under the roost, pale tan, the "shell" was ripped and there were remnants of egg contents with the shell but not a full egg's worth. I don't know if that is what is laid or if they ate some of it. Shell is in quotes because it was more like a flexible membrane than a shell.
I've found another once in a while but not often - maybe three weeks between them to begin with and gradually more often. I don't know if normal eggs were laid between the wonky ones. I don't know if there were wonky eggs that were completely eaten. Besides the "eggs", there has been some residue under the roost that looked a bit wrong for a poop but the poops were not nearly as uniform as they had been. I thought it was because I started letting them out to range in yard. And the wonky "eggs" were glitches.
Egg production was down from last year but only moderately down and they are starting their third year of laying.
This week, I found this (first picture) and kept in a glass of water in the refrigerator while I looked more seriously for what could be the problem.
I just cut it open (second picture) and it looks almost like egg white.
I have to post this to be able to edit it to add the pictures. I will continue after.
The two globs separated like that by themselves; I didn't maneuver them. In the picture, one looks a bit like a colorless yoke but in in real life they look both look like egg white.
Before I cut it open, the membrane looked white. Not tan at all. Now it looks like what I found before. It does not smell bad.
This is about the amount of residue I found before so it seems they were not eating much of the previous eggs.
They are eating chick feed from a local mill that mixes their own. This is because the chick feed is higher in protein. 17%, if I remember right. I can look in the morning.
They also regularly empty the calcium dish - it usually has eggs shells and oyster shells in it but sometimes has just oyster shells. All the normal eggs I've gathered in this time frame have had normal shells.
They also roam the property which has lawn, compost pile, fringe (with tall grass, raspberries, and weeds), and a bit of woods with many, many, many flowers planted by someone who lived here before us. I can try to figure out what kinds if that might be important - I know there are snowdrops and daffodils, ... I can't think of others right now and don't know what some of them are.
I looked through other posts and it seems a problem with the shell gland seems to me the most likely problem.
Do you think so? and what else might it be?
2) What is the behavior, exactly. She seems to be acting normally, for her. She has always been the bottom of the pecking order in a flock of 5 for the first year and 4 for the second year. I don't think she has ever challenged to change that. The odd eggs are described below.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? see below
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? not that I can tell
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. no
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. I don't know.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. see below
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. normal
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? just watched
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I would treat her myself
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. see below
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. She is in a 8' section of a 10' wide shed with three other hens unless out to roam the property (usually several hours at a time several times a week but not every day). Bedding is mostly maple leaves, some pine shavings, some sawdust, a little pdz on the poop board.
I found the first wonky egg 3 or 4 months ago, I think. It was under the roost, pale tan, the "shell" was ripped and there were remnants of egg contents with the shell but not a full egg's worth. I don't know if that is what is laid or if they ate some of it. Shell is in quotes because it was more like a flexible membrane than a shell.
I've found another once in a while but not often - maybe three weeks between them to begin with and gradually more often. I don't know if normal eggs were laid between the wonky ones. I don't know if there were wonky eggs that were completely eaten. Besides the "eggs", there has been some residue under the roost that looked a bit wrong for a poop but the poops were not nearly as uniform as they had been. I thought it was because I started letting them out to range in yard. And the wonky "eggs" were glitches.
Egg production was down from last year but only moderately down and they are starting their third year of laying.
This week, I found this (first picture) and kept in a glass of water in the refrigerator while I looked more seriously for what could be the problem.
I just cut it open (second picture) and it looks almost like egg white.
I have to post this to be able to edit it to add the pictures. I will continue after.
The two globs separated like that by themselves; I didn't maneuver them. In the picture, one looks a bit like a colorless yoke but in in real life they look both look like egg white.
Before I cut it open, the membrane looked white. Not tan at all. Now it looks like what I found before. It does not smell bad.
This is about the amount of residue I found before so it seems they were not eating much of the previous eggs.
They are eating chick feed from a local mill that mixes their own. This is because the chick feed is higher in protein. 17%, if I remember right. I can look in the morning.
They also regularly empty the calcium dish - it usually has eggs shells and oyster shells in it but sometimes has just oyster shells. All the normal eggs I've gathered in this time frame have had normal shells.
They also roam the property which has lawn, compost pile, fringe (with tall grass, raspberries, and weeds), and a bit of woods with many, many, many flowers planted by someone who lived here before us. I can try to figure out what kinds if that might be important - I know there are snowdrops and daffodils, ... I can't think of others right now and don't know what some of them are.
I looked through other posts and it seems a problem with the shell gland seems to me the most likely problem.
Do you think so? and what else might it be?
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