pullets dead after laying eggs

[stonykill]

2 weeks ago I lost an EE. She laid a HUGE egg, and was only 6 months old. The next day she died. She showed no sign of sickness. Just died. Today I lost a RIR pullet. I found an egg this am with a little blood on it, a few minutes ago, she was dead. Again, no sign of being sick. I'm pretty upset here, I don't know what is going on. I don't want to lose any more of my girls!
In both cases, for the lack of a better term, their "egg hole" was open and bloody when I found them dead.

Any ideas? Help!

 

[chickee]

Quote:
How terrible! So sorry

What are you feeding them? Only thing I can think of is that they are getting too much protein which is making their eggs extra large. I have never had this happen but I do know that the different feeds I have fed my chickens has affected the size of their eggs.

 

[stonykill]

Quote:
How terrible! So sorry

What are you feeding them? Only thing I can think of is that they are getting too much protein which is making their eggs extra large. I have never had this happen but I do know that the different feeds I have fed my chickens has affected the size of their eggs.

todays RIR just laid a normal egg. I'm feeding them Blue Seal Feed layer crumbles and coarse cracked corn. Same thing I've fed my girls for 4 years.

 

[Comfrey]

I'm by no means an expert, but my first thought was what chickee said: too much protein making the eggs too big. Whatever the problem is, I'm sorry for your loss and hope you get it straightened out before you lose any more of your birds...

 

[Chemguy]

Are there any other possible symptoms, like lethargy, waddling....?

 

[stonykill]

no other symptoms and today's RIR laid a normal size egg. I don't know, I'm not doing anything different than I ever have.

 

[Chemguy]

Other than being large, were the eggs that your EE layed (or RIR) unusual in any way? (thick shell, rough, mottled...)

 

[tgeerholt]

Same thing happened to my 6 month old. She was fine...and two hours later she was just lying there dead.

 

[Shayna]

That's quite unusual and I really have no idea what could cause it, so this is an "out there" idea, but maybe there is something wrong with that bag of food?

 

[nurse_turtle]

Very odd indeed. In humans, when someone pushes really hard as in childbirth or to make a BM, an extended or exceptionally difficult session of pushing causes a decrease in blood pressure and pulse. It's called a vaso-vagal response.