Soft shelled eggs with tail?

[ethelandfred]

Ethel is my ~3 year old female duck that has had issues with soft shelled eggs in the past. This year we started her on pellets with calcium and find that it's helping a lot. Not only is she laying more but they are mostly hard shell.

That being said she does have an odd soft shell, maybe 3 so far this year (in between the hard shells).

Now though, when she lays those soft shells they have an odd string like soft shell "growth" attatched at the end.

The "string" itself often appears out of her vent first and after a time she lays the rest.

She currently has a eggy "string" hanging out of her bum. My question is; do I leave it there and let her pass it on her own? Or to I attempt to remove it?

And also any idea what causes this? Is it normal?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Abriana]

Have no idea what the string could be, but sometimes you will get soft shells and that is normal

 

[ethelandfred]

Here are some photos, the first one is an example of the egg with growth (this was a few days later, it has mostly dried up)

The other few are what the fresh eggs look like (the growth fell off this egg and is in 2nd to last photo)

Last photo is my lady's bum right now.

 

[Abriana]

your duck is very pretty!

 

[ethelandfred]

your duck is very pretty!

Thank you!
She's a black Swedish but I think she's got some Cayuga in her, not entirely sure

 

[ethelandfred]

She pulled that tail off the end of the egg but the rest hasn't passed yet. Should I be worried about yolk inside her?