Strange strung out softshelled egg

starystoryteller

Chirping
Jun 6, 2021
47
78
96
I currently have four birds and haven't had too much going on health wise beside a case of bumble footand one bird lacerated her neck as a chick(long healed, cant even find a scar now, she is my cuddle buddy named Pepper). But today i found two softshelled eggs in the nest box and one has me puzzled. Usually i just add calcium, withhold table scrap treats and adjust the diet to take care of softshell....but this one has a tail!

I dont know which bird layed it. I got two soft shelled eggs this morning but one had a 2-3inch membrane like shelled tail stretching from one end. I thought it might be a lash egg and opened it....it had a decent white but no yoke, smelled normal. The tail transitioned from soft shell to leather fairly quickly.
Any ideas? The tailed egg was about 1/4th the size of my usual eggs
 

Attachments

  • 20240917_105158.jpg
    20240917_105158.jpg
    479.8 KB · Views: 28
  • 20240917_105203.jpg
    20240917_105203.jpg
    327.4 KB · Views: 8
  • 20240917_105231.jpg
    20240917_105231.jpg
    257.4 KB · Views: 6
  • 20240917_105212.jpg
    20240917_105212.jpg
    568.4 KB · Views: 7
One of those is called an egg with a tail, and is one of the odd or unusual eggs that can be found if a hen is having some glitches in her laying. The same hen might have laid those if she is having trouble passing an egg, it getting stuck, and then another comes right behind it. Because of the soft shells, I would offer some human calcium citrate with vitamin D3 1 tablet given orally each day for up to 7 days. Walmart Equate brand is under $10. Is she getting a layer feed, and do you put out some crushed oyster shell separate from feed for free taking? Is she close to or just coming out of a molt?
 
One of those is called an egg with a tail, and is one of the odd or unusual eggs that can be found if a hen is having some glitches in her laying. The same hen might have laid those if she is having trouble passing an egg, it getting stuck, and then another comes right behind it. Because of the soft shells, I would offer some human calcium citrate with vitamin D3 1 tablet given orally each day for up to 7 days. Walmart Equate brand is under $10. Is she getting a layer feed, and do you put out some crushed oyster shell separate from feed for free taking? Is she close to or just coming out of a molt?
Well i am not sure which bird it is but you did get me thinking....i havent checked on the grit (I use a combination of oyster shell and their own egg shells...my homemade dispenser holds about a six month supply)in a while and sure enough its needing refill. I will definitely treat the flock since I dont know who is laying it or if both eggs were layed by the same bird or not.

They have layer feed, scratch grains,suiet and seed blocks, and open range bugs available on demand. They get kitchen veggie scraps, canning fruit trimmings, and as many of my grapes and berries as they can pluck (my vines are picked clean from 3ft down, I know Pepper and Cinnamon are both are able jumpers who can get their claws to the 3ft mark)..... i let them roam the garden so long as they stay out of the tomatoes which i do give sparingly.

I do believe they are approaching or in a molt...their bellies are bare with a hundred blood feathers and it looks like they have been pulling other feathers. No skin irritation, no mites, nothing unusual. Its been hot here and it kind of made since timing wise...i felt so bad for my two black birds in the heat(just panting and spreading wings out in the shade on the cool ground.) So i didnt question a few less feathers on the belly, especially as they seem to be returning well and with good time for cool weather...plus had one or two go broody, its normal for them to use feathers in the nest box.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom