Recurrent stuck egg

[SheppFamilyFlock]

I've posted a few times about this particular hen. Each egg she has laid since Friday has gotten stuck first. While she is trying to pass these eggs she has some goopy discharge coming from her vent, clear/yellow. Honestly it looks like a raw scrambled egg. However there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a broken egg in there, and after she has a bath she has been able to lay a normal egg. Is it possible for her to be able to lay normal eggs while also having an egg broken inside? I've been reading a bit about peritonitis, does this sound like what's going on?

When she isn't obviously trying to pass a stuck egg she is acting like a normal chicken. She's in the house right now, digging and scratching in my house plants, eating and drinking like normal. I posted the other day about a mass that she's trying to pass that doesn't feel like an egg but is causing her vent to protrude. That issue is still happening but it only lasts for maybe half an hour after she lays an egg. Then her vent goes back to normal and she poops normally.

I have been scouring the internet trying to figure out what the heck is going on with her. We have no vets in the area that see chickens.

I have been giving her a calcium citrate tablet daily since last Friday.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

I'm sorry your hen keeps doing this. There must be something else going on. The calcium you are giving her should have expelled anything broken in there within a day.

If she's got an infection, it must be pretty low-grade at this point since she's showing no signs of being ill. Usually, they are lethargic and walk like a penguin or waddle like a duck.

How old is she? Has she laid an egg lately? Is she on normal layer or all-flock feed with oyster shell on the side and limited treats?

You can try electrolytes in the water to try get her to drink more water. I'm a huge proponent of probiotics too. Those aren't going to cure an infection if she's got one, but might help her all the same. It puts good bacteria into her digestive system and improves flora.

 

[SheppFamilyFlock]

Hi!

I'm sorry your hen keeps doing this. There must be something else going on. The calcium you are giving her should have expelled anything broken in there within a day.

If she's got an infection, it must be pretty low-grade at this point since she's showing no signs of being ill. Usually, they are lethargic and walk like a penguin or waddle like a duck.

How old is she? Has she laid an egg lately? Is she on normal layer or all-flock feed with oyster shell on the side and limited treats?

You can try electrolytes in the water to try get her to drink more water. I'm a huge proponent of probiotics too. Those aren't going to cure an infection if she's got one, but might help her all the same. It puts good bacteria into her digestive system and improves flora.

Thanks for your advice, I feel like a broken record posting about my girl over and over but I just have no idea what's going on!

She is just over a year old, we got her at the end of June last year. She started laying in December and has laid almost daily since. She is on a 16% grower/finisher crumble with oyster shell available, and we feed their egg shells back to them. We have roosters so we don't have them on layer feed.

She has been laying normal looking eggs throughout this whole ordeal - I think she's laid 3 or 4 now. So not her normal daily egg but still fairly regular. This morning I found a partial egg shell and some egg on the floor of her cage.... So my guess is that she laid an egg early this morning, got curious and ate it. OR she laid a broken egg, but there didn't seem to be any evidence of that. So now she's an egg eater, on top of it all

I did give her some plain yogurt today, mixed with some oats. She didn't eat it at first but I just saw her pecking at it a few minutes ago, hopefully that helps.

I'm honestly at my wits end but not ready to give up on her because she doesn't show any signs of illness, like you said. Just having trouble passing eggs. And a very messy rear end

Is it possible that overmating could have caused this? She is our main roosters favourite girl. She's had to wear an apron for a while now because of that. She doesn't seem stressed around him, but she was losing a fair amount of feathers on her back.

 

[SheppFamilyFlock]

Usually, they are lethargic and walk like a penguin or waddle like a duck.

She does walk like a penguin when she's trying to pass an egg, tucking her bum under every 5 seconds or so while pushing. Her vent kind of pops out and back in each time. But as soon as the egg comes out she goes back to walking normally.

 

[Debbie292d]

Thanks for your advice, I feel like a broken record posting about my girl over and over but I just have no idea what's going on!

She is just over a year old, we got her at the end of June last year. She started laying in December and has laid almost daily since. She is on a 16% grower/finisher crumble with oyster shell available, and we feed their egg shells back to them. We have roosters so we don't have them on layer feed.

She has been laying normal looking eggs throughout this whole ordeal - I think she's laid 3 or 4 now. So not her normal daily egg but still fairly regular. This morning I found a partial egg shell and some egg on the floor of her cage.... So my guess is that she laid an egg early this morning, got curious and ate it. OR she laid a broken egg, but there didn't seem to be any evidence of that. So now she's an egg eater, on top of it all

I did give her some plain yogurt today, mixed with some oats. She didn't eat it at first but I just saw her pecking at it a few minutes ago, hopefully that helps.

I'm honestly at my wits end but not ready to give up on her because she doesn't show any signs of illness, like you said. Just having trouble passing eggs. And a very messy rear end

Is it possible that overmating could have caused this? She is our main roosters favourite girl. She's had to wear an apron for a while now because of that. She doesn't seem stressed around him, but she was losing a fair amount of feathers on her back.

So this is not diet-related, not age-related. She eats, drinks, and even walks fine, unless she's laying an egg, and has been pretty consistently laying eggs. Also is seemingly in good health and spirits.

I peeked back at your prior post and @Wyorp Rock was helping you, so since I'm stuck with anything else to try, we should see if she will come back and perhaps have another idea or two.

I wish you the best and I'll pop back in to see if you found anything out about this.

 

[SheppFamilyFlock]

So this is not diet-related, not age-related. She eats, drinks, and even walks fine, unless she's laying an egg, and has been pretty consistently laying eggs. Also is seemingly in good health and spirits.

I peeked back at your prior post and @Wyorp Rock was helping you, so since I'm stuck with anything else to try, we should see if she will come back and perhaps have another idea or two.

I wish you the best and I'll pop back in to see if you found anything out about this.

Thank you so much I appreciate the help. Even just to know I'm not missing something obvious is helpful haha. I'll hold onto hope that she'll get better soon!

 

[LaFleche]

Only 16% protein in her feed is too low for regularly laying hens.
Better find an all flock or grower feed with 18-20%.

How many roosters do you have for how many hens?
Too much rooster attention can cause severe stress for the "favourite" hen.

Keeping the messy butt clean and dry is important to avoid deadly flystrike.

Keep up with the daily calcium tablet and add some vitamin C as well, it helps to form a proper eggshell.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Each egg she has laid since Friday has gotten stuck first. While she is trying to pass these eggs she has some goopy discharge coming from her vent, clear/yellow. Honestly it looks like a raw scrambled egg. However there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a broken egg in there, and after she has a bath she has been able to lay a normal egg.

I posted the other day about a mass that she's trying to pass that doesn't feel like an egg but is causing her vent to protrude. That issue is still happening but it only lasts for maybe half an hour after she lays an egg. Then her vent goes back to normal and she poops normally.

Can you get photos of what you see - the discharge, the vent popping out?

Is her poop normal?

She prolapsed too at one point didn't she? If I remember correctly?

I'd keep us with the extra Calcium Citrate+D3 daily for a few more days.

I'm still not understanding the description of a "mass" that she's trying to pass - where is that located?

 

[SheppFamilyFlock]

Can you get photos of what you see - the discharge, the vent popping out?

Is her poop normal?

She prolapsed too at one point didn't she? If I remember correctly?

I'd keep us with the extra Calcium Citrate+D3 daily for a few more days.

I'm still not understanding the description of a "mass" that she's trying to pass - where is that located?

I can try to get some photos, I'll post them when I get them

Her poop seems to be normal between eggs, but she has a whitish/yellow discharge caked on her bum feathers. Bathing is not getting it all off so I plan to clip the feathers today.

She did prolapse but her vent has gone back to normal now, besides when she's pushing out an egg.

Yes I'll keep giving the calcium pills daily.

The mass seems to be just inside the vent, above the vent. When she's straining and pushing it pops out and back in. It feels firm but has a little give, unlike an egg which feels hard with no give. I have inserted a gloved finger into the vent and the tract goes under the mass, I've been able to feel an egg down below. The mass doesn't seem to be inside the oviduct. I've tried looking for anatomically correct photos/xrays of chicken anatomy but all I can find are drawings or x-rays that I can't read, I have no idea what this mass or structure could be.

 

[SheppFamilyFlock]

Only 16% protein in her feed is too low for regularly laying hens.
Better find an all flock or grower feed with 18-20%.

How many roosters do you have for how many hens?
Too much rooster attention can cause severe stress for the "favourite" hen.

Keeping the messy butt clean and dry is important to avoid deadly flystrike.

Keep up with the daily calcium tablet and add some vitamin C as well, it helps to form a proper eggshell.

We only have a few stores nearby that sell chicken feed and the highest % they have for grower feed is 16%, and only 17% for layer feed. I've found a 36% poultry supplement but can't find info on if you can mix that with a crumble, it says it's used for mixing your own grain rations. I don't even know where to find bulk grain around here.

Can we give her some extra mealworms in the meantime? We have been giving them sparingly because I didn't want to feed too many treats.

We have two roosters, one is a young cockerel who just came of age. We have 14 hens so I know the ratio is a little low, we were hoping to see how it goes and then make a decision on which rooster to keep if we need to. However our older roo only seems to want to mate with her, no matter how many hens we have. What would stress look like? She chooses to hang out with him all day and never tries to flee his advances, almost always squats when he's courting her. She doesn't seem stressed but it is a lot of mating. I would be sore if it were me

I'm doing my best to keep her bum clean but the mess is really caked on, I'm going to trim the feathers today and give her another bath and see if that helps. She's been inside the house for several days so there aren't flies getting after her.