my first "lash egg" experience

[calvincoop]

I'm not sure if I'm posting this to the correct forum category but here it goes.
This morning when I went to let the gang out of the coop, I found this on the floor of the coop




Needless to say I was horrified. I totally thought that one of my chickens internal organs had come out of her. I immediately rushed it over to my vet's office and he said he didn't know what is was but he said it was definitely was not internal organs because I would have a dead chicken if that were the case. I thought to myself "he has to be kidding, he has no idea what this thing is? really?" He said that his best guess was that it was a deformed egg. I did some research on my lunch break and was able to come to the conclusion that this was a "lash egg". I've never heard of this before. I have 10 chicken books and none of them mentions anything about a lash egg. Has anybody else ever seen this before?

 

[Roosterlover5]

My hen has layed two of these

Its not that common for your hen to lay them.
I still cant figure out weather it is dangerous or not.But after she layed them she bounced back to normal.

 

[Chickiee]

That's pretty disgusting. Thank goodness your hen is ok. What is it? Ok, lash egg, but what actually IS it? Is it soft or does it have a shell? Why is it not "egg-looking"? Honestly I really hope I never have to pick one of those up. Yuk!

 

[calvincoop]

I think it's lining of the reproductive tract. It's not serious. there's not very much info on the internet about it. I did read that it's more common in hybrid chickens. I wasn't sure who had laid it but my first guess would be Emma. she an ISA Brown and she has had a lot of egg laying problems ever since she started laying. she lays balloon eggs often. She's on layer feed and I also give her calcium supplements. she recently had a full blood work up at the vet's and they were abnormal. the vet said he can't pinpoint exactly what the problem is but she definitely has some underlying disease or illness. I am relieved that this is nothing serious, I really thought I was going to lose her today. I plan on dissecting it tomorrow to see what's inside.

 

[BeccaSmith]

I have an ill hen that has been indoors since Jan 20th. She passes latch sometimes a couple times a week, sometimes every other week. They smell horrible! I forgot to mention it to my vet when I took her in, but he thinks she is laying internally and that she will never recover, she has a severely distended abdomen and has lost a lot of weight, all her weight is in her abdomen. She tested positive for worms and treated her, then tried two weeks on Baytril. She still passed the latch while on Baytril, but while on Baytril her poops seemed to become normal and not runny or bright green and didn't smell as bad. Now that she is no longer on the Baytril her poops have gone back to how they were before. Just thought I would share my experience with the latch....in my experience it isn't a good sign, I can tell early in the day if she is going to pass latch by how she stands, she just doesn't look like she is comfortable, but afterwards she seems to feel better. Not sure what to do with my poor sweet hen! Hope yours gets better!

 

[calvincoop]

I dissected it. It didn't really smell bad but that may be because I refrigerated it overnight.

 

[Desirai]

that's really gross, but at the same time pretty amazing. Hope your chicken gets better! And it's great that you are taking her to the vet. Not everyone vets their chickens.

 

[BeccaSmith]

I dissected it. It didn't really smell bad but that may be because I refrigerated it overnight.

I didn't see the pictures, just read the reply via email...that is pretty much what the latch I see looks like....your lucky it didn't smell, next time pull it apart when it is fresh and see if it does. I'll try and take a sample into the vet one of these days and see what he has to say about it. How is your hen doing now?

 

[calvincoop]

She's been good. I recently stopped giving her calcium and iron supplements (the directions were to give them to her twice a day till its gone) she needed the iron because she was anemic. she's been acting fine, eating well and foraging with the rest of the group. I worry about her though. my vet says she's underweight but she eats a lot. last year she had an impacted crop and the vet had to aspirate it. My poor little Emma she's had so many problems. she's also Floyd's (my roo) favorite hen. she's such a sweetie.hopefully the lash means she's done laying so maybe her health will get better so her body doesn't have to work so hard to make eggs. she's the smallest hen I have yet she lays the biggest eggs and I'm sure that has something to do with her calcium deficiencies .

 

[Chickiee]

How old is Emma and how long has she been laying eggs? She's sounds like such a honey!