Pullet laid 2 underdeveloped eggs under roosting bar

[PimsGarden]

@HollowOfWisps @EggSighted4Life Here I am again! It's been 3ish weeks now. Same hen - her poops have not gone back to normal yet. She is still eating a lot of tiny pebbles and all of her poops are basically straight water with little pebbles in it? I think her egg laying has regulated as I haven't seen anymore soft eggs under the roost. But are these liquid water poops normal for the first month of laying? I have another one that has started laying and her poops are all normal.

I treated 6 days for coccidiosis thinking maybe, just maybe. No change. Should I treat for worms with Valbazen? (they've never been wormed before) She is still acting and eating and drinking laying normal.

Someone with more experience will prob chime in but I want to add that she will continue to eat pebbles, they do that because they don't have teeth and they help grind up their food. You can post a pic of the chickens poop and that would help people identify if it's an abnormal fecal. I think she is getting back to normal and kinda what the previous person said "working out the kinks".

 

[Yellow321]

Have you switched to layer feed?

No. I have others in the flock that are not laying yet. Plus I was trying to finish my bag of grower feed before making the switch. She eats the oystershell all the time. But she's still always after the tiny pebbles all over the ground. They have grit right next to the oystershell too. I bought a second kind of grit thinking maybe they didn't like the kind I bought so now they have 2 different brands grit out there along with the oystershell.

 

[SE_Gardener]

@HollowOfWisps @EggSighted4Life Here I am again! It's been 3ish weeks now. Same hen - her poops have not gone back to normal yet. She is still eating a lot of tiny pebbles and all of her poops are basically straight water with little pebbles in it? I think her egg laying has regulated as I haven't seen anymore soft eggs under the roost. But are these liquid water poops normal for the first month of laying? I have another one that has started laying and her poops are all normal.

I treated 6 days for coccidiosis thinking maybe, just maybe. No change. Should I treat for worms with Valbazen? (they've never been wormed before) She is still acting and eating and drinking laying normal.

I'd be cautious jumping to "what's wrong" and then guess treating. Sometimes it's difficult, but hands off and allowing nature to take its course has always been a good rule I learned years ago. Especially young pullets just coming into point of lay - there are all kinds of things that happen with those first eggs and it make take time to work it all out. Just this season I had a large dual purpose pullet lay dble eggs every day. Then after what seemed nearly a month, she skipped a couple days and was clockwork egg production after than. Another large dual purpose pullet started laying at 20 weeks in spite of point of lay being 23-24 wks and sometimes longer. I figured she was early Apr spring hatch which may have an impact on sun hrs in July that were reduced by many days of overcast skies with low lumens. The Rooster had been breeding her, she submitted no problems and he's a gentle big guy. She was laying consistently every day for nearly a week. Then she skipped a day. On that day I noticed she was scratching around quite a bit and thought it a little odd. Went into the house came out a couple hrs later and she was dead. I processed her and saw that an elongated shaped egg was sideways in the oviduct. Egg bound into her body cavity. That type of situation usually causes death because the fecal waste backs up (uses same path as oviduct) and the chicken dies of sepsis. Things just happen when you raise animals. Keep making notes, be observant but please give that little girl some time to iron out her cycles. Unless she shows signs associated with illness or physical issues, I'd be tempted to just observe and not disrupt a digestive system with ACV or OTC medications.

 

[SE_Gardener]

Someone with more experience will prob chime in but I want to add that she will continue to eat pebbles, they do that because they don't have teeth and they help grind up their food. You can post a pic of the chickens poop and that would help people identify if it's an abnormal fecal. I think she is getting back to normal and kinda what the previous person said "working out the kinks".

All chickens even chicks require grit especially now that feeds have so much veg protein supplements...the gizzard helps to break up all that fiber and it needs grit to do so.

 

[PimsGarden]

I'd be cautious jumping to "what's wrong" and then guess treating. Sometimes it's difficult, but hands off and allowing nature to take its course has always been a good rule I learned years ago. Especially young pullets just coming into point of lay - there are all kinds of things that happen with those first eggs and it make take time to work it all out. Just this season I had a large dual purpose pullet lay dble eggs every day. Then after what seemed nearly a month, she skipped a couple days and was clockwork egg production after than. Another large dual purpose pullet started laying at 20 weeks in spite of point of lay being 23-24 wks and sometimes longer. I figured she was early Apr spring hatch which may have an impact on sun hrs in July that were reduced by many days of overcast skies with low lumens. The Rooster had been breeding her, she submitted no problems and he's a gentle big guy. She was laying consistently every day for nearly a week. Then she skipped a day. On that day I noticed she was scratching around quite a bit and thought it a little odd. Went into the house came out a couple hrs later and she was dead. I processed her and saw that an elongated shaped egg was sideways in the oviduct. Egg bound into her body cavity. That type of situation usually causes death because the fecal waste backs up (uses same path as oviduct) and the chicken dies of sepsis. Things just happen when you raise animals. Keep making notes, be observant but please give that little girl some time to iron out her cycles. Unless she shows signs associated with illness or physical issues, I'd be tempted to just observe and not disrupt a digestive system with ACV or OTC medications.

They are right, I think it's especially a bad idea to worm without knowing they have parasites. I'm not hearing anything that would cause me to take action yet, just keep monitoring.