Sick chicken, need help!

[Blessed092001]

I noticed, when I got home from work yesterday late afternoon, that one of my hens looked sick. She was on her own, pecking at food but not really eating. Her comb is starting to look pale now too. She was standing around, closing her eyes. Same thing this morning. Her shells the past 2 days were soft. Yesterdays egg was only 1.6oz. Normal for her is 2.3. I ate her egg from 2 days ago and it was fine. I cracked her egg open from yesterday and the yolk was a solid. It slipped right out of the albumen as pictured below. I bagged the whole thing and put in outdoor trash. Sanitized everything just in case. I'm preparing a kennel for her now. I'm afraid she has an infection. How can I help her??

 

[Eggcessive]

I would offer her a human calcium citrate tablet with vitamin D today, and repeat that for the next several days to a week. Walmart sells the Equate brand for about $9. Tums or other calcium would work today until you get the other. She may have salpingitis or trouble with her shell gland, but hard to know exactly. Is her tail position down? They can feel weak and lousy when they are laying soft or abnormal eggs or parts of egg. Try to keep her eating and drinking to keep her energy up. Scrambled soft egg or mushy wet chicken feed in a bowl would be good. Does she normally lay eggs most of the time, and how old is she? I usually leave chickens with their flock, but if she needs to be separated, I would have some supervised visits with her and the others each day.

 

[Blessed092001]

I would offer her a human calcium citrate tablet with vitamin D today, and repeat that for the next several days to a week. Walmart sells the Equate brand for about $9. Tums or other calcium would work today until you get the other. She may have salpingitis or trouble with her shell gland, but hard to know exactly. Is her tail position down? They can feel weak and lousy when they are laying soft or abnormal eggs or parts of egg. Try to keep her eating and drinking to keep her energy up. Scrambled soft egg or mushy wet chicken feed in a bowl would be good. Does she normally lay eggs most of the time, and how old is she? I usually leave chickens with their flock, but if she needs to be separated, I would have some supervised visits with her and the others each day.

Thank you for the response. I will try the calcium citrate with vit D tabs starting tomorrow. How do I administer it? She ate an egg in the morning with a few feed pellets then 2/3 of an egg in the late afternoon with a few more moist pellets. I don't think she drank much water today. I put a few drops of nutri drench in her water today. She got to hang with the others for about an hour or so this afternoon and sunned herself. She's roosting with the flock tonight. I'll separate her again tomorrow for most of the day so she doesn't have competition for food. She is a consistent egg layer and is the only one that has trouble with soft egg shells and she did lay a double yolk egg last month. She's also my biggest hen. She's 10 months old.

 

[Blessed092001]

I would offer her a human calcium citrate tablet with vitamin D today, and repeat that for the next several days to a week. Walmart sells the Equate brand for about $9. Tums or other calcium would work today until you get the other. She may have salpingitis or trouble with her shell gland, but hard to know exactly. Is her tail position down? They can feel weak and lousy when they are laying soft or abnormal eggs or parts of egg. Try to keep her eating and drinking to keep her energy up. Scrambled soft egg or mushy wet chicken feed in a bowl would be good. Does she normally lay eggs most of the time, and how old is she? I usually leave chickens with their flock, but if she needs to be separated, I would have some supervised visits with her and the others each day.

Thank you for the response. I will try the calcium citrate with vit D tabs starting tomorrow. How do I administer it? She ate an egg in the morning with a few feed pellets then 2/3 of an egg in the late afternoon with a few more moist pellets. I don't think she drank much water today. I put a few drops of nutri drench in her water today. She got to hang with the others for about an hour or so this afternoon and sunned herself. She's roosting with the flock tonight. I'll separate her again tomorrow for most of the day so she doesn't have competition for food. She is a consistent egg layer and is the only one that has trouble with soft egg shells and she did lay a double yolk egg last month. She's also my biggest hen. She's 10 months old.

 

[Blessed092001]

I would offer her a human calcium citrate tablet with vitamin D today, and repeat that for the next several days to a week. Walmart sells the Equate brand for about $9. Tums or other calcium would work today until you get the other. She may have salpingitis or trouble with her shell gland, but hard to know exactly. Is her tail position down? They can feel weak and lousy when they are laying soft or abnormal eggs or parts of egg. Try to keep her eating and drinking to keep her energy up. Scrambled soft egg or mushy wet chicken feed in a bowl would be good. Does she normally lay eggs most of the time, and how old is she? I usually leave chickens with their flock, but if she needs to be separated, I would have some supervised visits with her and the others each day.

I did everything you said to do and she's still not getting any better. I have to syringe the calcium, nutri-drench and water two times a day. Shes really not eating any solid foods. That egg yolk was alarming. Rubbery, not liquid. And that's the day she started looking ill too. She's 10 months old.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is she drinking fluids? How much calcium have you been giving in milligrams? Sorry that she is not doing any better. Is she able to walk around? Can you post any pictures?

 

[Blessed092001]

200mg tablets of calcium citrate +D3 once in the mornings. I haven't been out to dose her yet this morning. She's also getting 1.5ml of nutri-drench twice a day. I wasn't home to encourage her to eat yesterday and it only looks like she picked at a scrambled egg and moistened feed pellets. I'll take pics and send them in a bit. Here is the one I took when I discovered it was not normal. It had slid right out of the albumen when I cracked the egg in the pan.

 

[Blessed092001]

So she just pooped. Bile, urates and water only. Overnight poop was the same. She's not eating solid food and the only liquid she gets is what I syringe her. I'm sad

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'd work on getting the Calcium into her and get her drinking.

Wet mush feed, scrambled egg, sardines/fish, etc. anything that may entice her to eat.

Do you have any antibiotics on hand? If so, I'd consider giving her a round of something like Amoxicillin.

 

[Eggcessive]

You can give a chicken 300-600 mg of calcium daily. If your 20”mg has not helped, I would double it. How much does she weigh? NutriDrench dosage is 1 ml for every 3 pounds of weight once daily. Use it for only a few days or it can cause diarrhea.