Puffy chicken laying soft eggs

[dfisher0065]

Hello,

Looking for some help with what I suspect is a sick chicken. I came out this evening to collect eggs, and found one chicken looking very puffy and lethargic, particularly puffy in the crop area. She also looked like she was trying to poop a lot. I first assumed sour crop, so came in to read what to do for that. I setup a dog crate in the garage, and when I went out to get her, she had laid an egg out in the run. It was a soft one, and she seemed to look better, but just to be safe, I brought her in and gave her just some water with vinegar. I checked about an hour later, and she was looking puffy and unhappy again, and about an hour after that, she laid another soft egg!

I am guessing this means she is/was egg bound, but I have been getting 3 eggs consistently for almost a month (I have 3 chickens), so I'm not sure when she would have started to back up. They are all about 8 months old currently. Is there anything else I could or should be doing? Is there some other possible cause? Right now she is in the dog crate with just some vinegar water and a roosting pole.

Thanks!

 

[Helloworld]

Repeat the process before each laid egg until she is better?

I have found that sometimes backed up eggs are created from something or someone disturbing a hen while on the nest to which said chicken runs off and I assume she will come back to lay and she assumes she already laid it and the next day she has double the work. I see it in chickens with A.D.D. Too. Not kidding. And then there are the prim and proper diva hens who won’t lay unless they have absolute privacy. Just not so ladylike to be throwing your stuff out there attitudes lol A very ladylike hen would be a brahma! MUST have absolute quiet to lay said egg and then announces to whole entire world very loudly that she laid it and is proud! Lol

 

[dfisher0065]

I believe that, except none of them have missed a day for probably a month. Not sure when they would have gotten backed up!

What process are you referring to?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello,

Looking for some help with what I suspect is a sick chicken. I came out this evening to collect eggs, and found one chicken looking very puffy and lethargic, particularly puffy in the crop area. She also looked like she was trying to poop a lot. I first assumed sour crop, so came in to read what to do for that. I setup a dog crate in the garage, and when I went out to get her, she had laid an egg out in the run. It was a soft one, and she seemed to look better, but just to be safe, I brought her in and gave her just some water with vinegar. I checked about an hour later, and she was looking puffy and unhappy again, and about an hour after that, she laid another soft egg!

I am guessing this means she is/was egg bound, but I have been getting 3 eggs consistently for almost a month (I have 3 chickens), so I'm not sure when she would have started to back up. They are all about 8 months old currently. Is there anything else I could or should be doing? Is there some other possible cause? Right now she is in the dog crate with just some vinegar water and a roosting pole.

Thanks!

Hi @dfisher0065 Welcome To BYC

How is your pullet doing?
What type of food/treats do you feed, do you offer oyster shell free choice?

It's good that she was able to expel the soft shelled eggs, those can be very hard to pass.
I would give her extra calcium - 1/2 tablet Caltrate per day for 5 days in a row.
Watch to see if she is eating/drinking well. You can also give her a direct dose of poultry vitamins like Poultry Nutri-Drench or Poultry Cell at 1cc per 3pounds of weight - I would give that to her for 2 days.

Check her crop first thing in the morning before she eats/drinks to make sure it's empty. Do that for several mornings.

While you are tending to her, check her for lice/mites.

I hope she is better and continues to improve. Please keep us posted. If you have photos of your pullet and her poop you would like to share, those are always welcome too.

 

[dfisher0065]

Hello! She is doing much better today it seems! Pretty unhappy I left her in the dog crate all day, but she looks normal again, and when I put her back in the run, she immediately went for food. I checked her crop in the afternoon (she only ate some seeds in the morning), and it felt empty I guess, I really couldn't feel it (which I assume is a good thing). Feathers all look good, nothing on her I could see.

I had not ever given them oyster shells, as their food was calcium fortified and I have never had a problem with thin eggshells, but I picked some up today to give them just in case. This particular bird consistently lays jumbo+ size eggs, so maybe such large shells just out-performed the feed. I also bought the nutri-drench, but I am going to hold off on that for now, unless the problem continues.

Hopefully the problem is done with, I'm just still perplexed how a hen could lay 3 eggs in one day, after not missing a single day for almost a month!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello! She is doing much better today it seems! Pretty unhappy I left her in the dog crate all day, but she looks normal again, and when I put her back in the run, she immediately went for food. I checked her crop in the afternoon (she only ate some seeds in the morning), and it felt empty I guess, I really couldn't feel it (which I assume is a good thing). Feathers all look good, nothing on her I could see.

I had not ever given them oyster shells, as their food was calcium fortified and I have never had a problem with thin eggshells, but I picked some up today to give them just in case. This particular bird consistently lays jumbo+ size eggs, so maybe such large shells just out-performed the feed. I also bought the nutri-drench, but I am going to hold off on that for now, unless the problem continues.

Hopefully the problem is done with, I'm just still perplexed how a hen could lay 3 eggs in one day, after not missing a single day for almost a month!

Glad she is feeling better.
Place the oyster shell in a cup or small dish inside your coop or run - they will take what they need. Even though layer feed contains calcium, some hens may require more. Just like humans - sometimes a person needs supplementation.
The calcium should also help with shell formation and contractions so she can push the egg out.
It does sound like she was having trouble passing the eggs. It's not normal to have 3 in there so hopefully she won't do that again. It takes somewhere around 25-27 hours from start to finish to form an egg, so she was getting in trouble there.

Her crop should be full at night when she goes to roost, then empty in the morning, so check it a few times just to make sure there's no crop problems going on.