Hello-
I am currently repopulating my flock, so I only have two 4 YOs who are laying right now. One is an Americauna and the other is a Buff Orpington. I am feeding everyone grower feed right now with calcium on the side for my layers. My Americauna seems to have gone through a short molt and didn't lay for about a month (prior to that she was a very reliable layer). She started laying a few days ago. She has a history of laying eggs with shells that are rough and soft on one end. She also had a case of what I'll call vent gleet for several months (coinciding with the rough and soft ends of the eggs). After months of treating her with probiotics and ACV as well as yeast infection medication, I finally tried treating her for a bacterial infection. Well, that did the trick, but it was right after that when she went into the molt. I also decided to worm my two girls before I introduced the pullets into their mix and they completed that course on Tuesday.
In the past week, my Americauna's laid a few eggs. The first was perfect. The second was nearly perfect with just a hint of a rough end. Yesterday she laid a perfect one but kept going back into the nesting box (unusual for her, but otherwise she was acting perfectly normal) and then this morning I came out to find the soft eggs in the picture. Both of these eggs seem to be from her, although the one is not blue and since they sleep together, it's possible it could come from the Buff. However, my Buff had a perfect egg in the nesting box this morning too.
I've read that psyllium can help with the absorption of calcium, so I gave both girls a little bit mixed with some applesauce and threw in a few oyster shells for good measure.
I'm thinking that this is definitely a calcium deficiency. I've always had oyster shells offered on the side of their feed, but Americauna never seems to have been interested until we switched to the grower feed. And then I've seen her pecking at it more as well as have noticed white flakes that I assume are undigested oyster shell in her droppings.
But I thought I'd ask the opinion here on these forums. What do you think and what should I do about it?
I am currently repopulating my flock, so I only have two 4 YOs who are laying right now. One is an Americauna and the other is a Buff Orpington. I am feeding everyone grower feed right now with calcium on the side for my layers. My Americauna seems to have gone through a short molt and didn't lay for about a month (prior to that she was a very reliable layer). She started laying a few days ago. She has a history of laying eggs with shells that are rough and soft on one end. She also had a case of what I'll call vent gleet for several months (coinciding with the rough and soft ends of the eggs). After months of treating her with probiotics and ACV as well as yeast infection medication, I finally tried treating her for a bacterial infection. Well, that did the trick, but it was right after that when she went into the molt. I also decided to worm my two girls before I introduced the pullets into their mix and they completed that course on Tuesday.
In the past week, my Americauna's laid a few eggs. The first was perfect. The second was nearly perfect with just a hint of a rough end. Yesterday she laid a perfect one but kept going back into the nesting box (unusual for her, but otherwise she was acting perfectly normal) and then this morning I came out to find the soft eggs in the picture. Both of these eggs seem to be from her, although the one is not blue and since they sleep together, it's possible it could come from the Buff. However, my Buff had a perfect egg in the nesting box this morning too.
I've read that psyllium can help with the absorption of calcium, so I gave both girls a little bit mixed with some applesauce and threw in a few oyster shells for good measure.
I'm thinking that this is definitely a calcium deficiency. I've always had oyster shells offered on the side of their feed, but Americauna never seems to have been interested until we switched to the grower feed. And then I've seen her pecking at it more as well as have noticed white flakes that I assume are undigested oyster shell in her droppings.
But I thought I'd ask the opinion here on these forums. What do you think and what should I do about it?
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