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?

 

[3chickchicks]

 

[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]

update: hmmm where do I start. I lost Emma last April, almost a year ago. It's a late update I know. I still miss her very much she was such a sweet soul. So after she laid this "lash" she continued to have chronic problems and I always kept a close eye on her and if she was showing any signs of sickness or being uncomfortable, I would take her back to the vet. Eventually the vet had decided that the symptoms (distended abdomen, walking like a penguin, lethargic and not keeping up with the rest of the flock, also a fever) were that of egg yolk peritonitis and he drained some of the ascites from her abdomen and began treating her with antibiotics. I checked her temperature every day and it never came down. We continued with the antibiotics for almost a whole month and though the cost wasn't a issue it was expensive. The vet office I had been taking her to was designed more for cats and dogs, not chickens or birds, and although they did have one vet that treated chickens, his resources were very limited. I decided to take her to an avian vet and as soon as she saw her she knew what the problem was immediately and the only chance at recovery would be a complete hysterectomy. She also said that birds do not get fevers and I pretty much had been wasting my time and money treating her with antibiotics (she said it in a nicer way than I just did). I showed her a picture of the "lash"on my phone and she said it was due to egg binding which means her oviduct gets clogged and sometimes twisted over itself making it impossible for the yolk to pass through. It keeps getting backed up and by the time the bird starts showing symptoms it is usually pretty severe. She said it was basically old yolk that had been sitting for a while and basically started to cook while still inside of her. She also said she had never heard of it being called a "lash" before. I wanted to give Emma the best chance possible to recover so I agreed that she should have the surgery. The vet said that during surgery they try to get in and out in under 20 minutes because birds do not do well under anesthesia and anything over 20 minutes would be "borrowed time". Unfortunately when she opened her up the problem was more extensive than she could have ever imagined and there was a lot of tissue that required removal which ended up taking longer than she hoped it would. Emma was struggling to come out of anesthesia and she died just a few hours after surgery. The vet said she looked some of the tissue under a microscope and saw some very aggressive malignant cells that was likely was due to Mareks disease. We can't know for sure because we adopted her as a young pullet and did not know for sure if she had been vaccinated. I felt guilty that I hadn't taken her to the avian vet sooner but I am not mad and the first vet or anything, he was always very kind and loved seeing Emma every time I brought her in. I know now that I will always take my chickens to the avian vet though, and I have. I really hope this update can be of help to someone who may be going through the same issues.

My beautiful Emma:

 

[Wol1]

This is going to be long, but I've been through the ringer with this and have learned a lot that I'd like to share.
AnneInTheBurbs hope your girl is doing ok.

I've had four with oviduct problems, 3 Golden Comets and 1 Rhode Island Red. I know the Golden Comets are production hens, and my conscience is somewhat helped by the fact that our neighbor asked us to adopt them at 4 months as they didn't want them anymore. Not sure of RIR. I took the first 2 GCs and the RIR to an avian vet, The GCs had egg peritonitis, meaning they had a blocked and inflamed oviduct and eggs had backed up, gotten infected, and were spilling into their abdomens causing inflammation. He put them an antibiotic that also reduces inflammation of the oviduct. The first died anyway of liver failure from the toxic environment in her body, on the 2nd GC, I opted for surgery. He removed the uterus and as much of the oviduct as he could and sewed the oviduct closed around the "mummified" eggs that were adhered that he couldn't remove. Removing the uterus stops the signal to the brain to ovulate. She survived the surgery and was doing excellent. I took her back for a one week check-up and the vet was amazed and happy at her recovery. They took her in the back to give her another shot, and she died mid-lift by the vet tech. I can only guess an embolism from the surgery? He was as shocked as I was. It was horrible. Had to drive an hour home.. on the interstate, sobbing. She was such a sweetie she was named Sweetpea.
The 3rd GC is still alive. She has been laying soft-shelled eggs. Fortunately she is actually laying them rather than having them get stuck. I kept giving her Calcium Gluconate 23% solution (I bought it on the internet as it wasn't available locally), and she gradually started laying hard shell eggs, but I had to constantly give it to her. Seems she just had a chronic calcium deficiency. About two weeks ago I had the brain wave to force oyster shell down her. Held, lifted neck up, head beak up, pried her mouth open and popped them one at a time toward the back of her mouth. Took a long time, but I'm not giving her the calcium gluconate anymore and she is laying hard shell eggs. They are misshapen, though. I think they are taking too long to move through the oviduct. Apparently they need calcium for the contractions to move the egg along and lay it. I've forced oyster shell into her three times now. I'm hoping her calcium levels will build back up. I'm thinking of forcing her to molt so she stops laying for awhile while I build her calcium reserves up. I think part of why these production birds have this problem is that the constant laying depletes their calcium reserves to the point they can't lay properly. So far, I haven't had this problem with my Ameracaunas or Black Australorps that molt every year. Some of them just hit 3 years old.

The RIR is the first of the 12 RIRs to have problems. I think she is 2 yo. She started with an impacted crop. I took her to the vet who gave me a tube to put down her throat to fill her crop with water in the hopes that it would clear. I was told to massage the crop. Unfortunately only the liquid passed through. Finally had to have the vet empty the crop, as I just couldn't manage to do it. Then the crop started functioning again, but then she stopped eating. She almost starved to death, so I was carrying her with me around the farm in a pet carrier so she wouldn't die alone. I offered her the cabbage worms I was picking off the Brussel sprouts one day, and she gobbled them up and that was the turning point. I also put a GC in with her which encouraged her to eat. She continued to have very wet droppings, though. Then it was a matter of giving her a chance to eat her fill alone several times a day to build her strength up. I wormed her. However, last week I felt an egg in her tiny, skinny body. When she didn't lay it by the next day, I gave her calcium gluconate and oyster shell to no avail. Late last week her abdomen began to swell, to me, anyway. Took her to the avian vet. He didn't think it was inflammation and that things were limited to a few "mummified" eggs, what we are calling "lash" eggs. She isn't currently in laying mode (small dry vent, pale comb), but if she enters laying mode, she will get peritonitis as they will be forced up and out of her oviduct. I knew I had seen a medication listed in a formulary that stopped ovulation. There is also an implant called Superlorin (spelling?) that stops it for 6 months. I was considering those as options.

The maybe good news is that the vet let slip the antibiotic that he gives that also reduces swelling of the oviduct: doxycycline. I was reading about it and found that it was also the one that stops ovulation. Hallelujah! I ordered some last night from campingsurvival.com (competitive price and free shipping). I will now have it on hand to give at the first sign in the hope of reducing inflammation enough to move the egg material out before it becomes adhered to the oviduct. I also know now to get aggressive in giving calcium immediately and to put them in the dark to stop ovulation and force a molt. I will also stick to non-production breeds from now on. Got Red Sex Links last time to avoid any more roos, but I fear they may have this problem.

 

[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.

 

[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.