Poorly chicken and 'rubber' eggs

[bellatrix18]

I adopted some lovely chickens 2 weeks ago (my first flock!) and am having a few issues with one. We (affectionately) named her Baldy because the others had pecked the feathers off her head, poor thing, which I'm guessing is because they could tell she was a bit weaker than the others. She is very underweight and also has bumble-foot in both feet.

We have her in a dog crate separate from the others, cleaned out her bumble foot and am now fattening her up with cat food, mashed up layers and a bit of mixed corn... but she has been laying these awful rubbery eggs every day. They feel like water balloons and have no real shell whatsoever. I cut back on the extras she was getting and fed her mainly layers pellets and some calcium supplement but 2/3 days on she is still laying these eggs.

My main concern is that is might be some underlying issue. I don't mind too much if it doesn't cause her any health issues but I'm a bit worried that it might lead to something more sinister. In herself she is bright and eating well.

Does anyone have any experience of this in one particular chicken and any advice on how to fix it?

Thanks a lot!

Just an afterthought... She is also on baytril for her feet. Could that affect the eggs??

 

[aart]

How old are the birds?

You may have bought a lemon.....or it could just be the stress of a new place.
I'd just give it time...like another few weeks...and good nutrition.

Layer food can be bare minimum for protein content.

I like to feed a 'flock raiser' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and all molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer.

 

[junebuggena]

She may have a heavy load of worms interfering with nutrient absorption. Has she ever been dewormed? And how old is she? It's very common and normal for a newly laying hen to produce shell-less eggs.

 

[bellatrix18]

Thanks for the replies. She is 2 years old and I don't think they were ever wormed. I ordered some Flubenvet when I rescued them but it only turned up a few days ago so they've started on it now and I must admit I have noticed an improvement in her. I will def try a 'flock raiser' for them as they are also regrowing a lot of feathers from being a bit shabby/pecked so it wont do them any harm.

This morning she laid a normal shelled egg so I'm quite happy about that. It was pretty huge but otherwise looked good

I might try reintroducing her to the others if she keeps looking bright and happy. Hopefully we have a chicken on the road to recovery.