Kawkawkaye
Songster
One of my chickens has laid what I now believe to be a lash egg.
I’m hoping to receive some clarification here about treatment possibilities, and my hen’s outlook. I do not have access to a poultry vet.
My #1 suspect has always been a dodgy layer. Her first egg was a huge triple yolker, and for the first six months of her life she regularly laid doubles, and yolkless. From the start she also skipped eggs regularly, experiencing what I called ‘ghost eggs’ where she fluffs herself up into the egg stance for a whole day, like she’s egg-bound, but produces nothing (sometimes we got the odd soft-shelled egg from it, so I figured that because they were soft, they were a little harder to push out) and is fine the next day. I was never able to diagnose her ghost eggs, and have kept an eagle eye on her because I suspected she’d succumb to a reproductive illness eventually. I did not expect it to be so soon, however. In retrospect, her ‘ghost eggs’ may have been a sign of salpingitis, in which case this has been going on for several months.
She’s an isa brown, 1 1/2 years old. Since last week she hasn’t laid, and despite eating well, has been steadily declining in weight. Her tail feathers have also been very mellow this week. So I knew something was up. I suspected worms at first. She’s also a big girl (not overweight, just very big physically). When I say she’s losing weight, she’s probably actually just the weight of a regular chicken now. I can’t feel any masses at her abdomen, and there doesn’t seem to be any inflammation.
I cannot 100% confirm which chicken it is, as I didn’t see who laid it. I may isolate my suspect anyway, to be safe. My flock consists of four chickens, one of which is blind, so she is particularly vulnerable, as she can’t self-medicate and manages to eat all sorts of random stuff. They’re in a massive pen, and get to free range our five acre block every evening.
I’m in a small town with one vet centre, who is notorious for misdiagnosing chickens. They just don’t seem to care that much about chickens, unfortunately. So I’d really love to get some clear-cut information here so I can just go to the vet and tell them EXACTLY what treatment I need, instead of them taking a guess or giving me dog antibiotics, which is all they’ve done in the past.
So given that I can’t confirm which chicken for sure, is it appropriate to treat my entire flock with antibiotics?
What aspect of salpingitis will actually kill my chicken? The build up of the mass? Weight loss? What is it about it that makes it so deadly, and given her declining weight, how long does she have left?
I saw hormone treatment get mentioned, does anyone have any other information on that? Will the hormones actually treat the salpingitis, or is it just a preventative measure for the future so it doesn’t occur again?
I would be grateful for ANY information. The more specific the better, because as mentioned, my vet is not knowledgable in this area. Thank you all so much xx
I’m hoping to receive some clarification here about treatment possibilities, and my hen’s outlook. I do not have access to a poultry vet.
My #1 suspect has always been a dodgy layer. Her first egg was a huge triple yolker, and for the first six months of her life she regularly laid doubles, and yolkless. From the start she also skipped eggs regularly, experiencing what I called ‘ghost eggs’ where she fluffs herself up into the egg stance for a whole day, like she’s egg-bound, but produces nothing (sometimes we got the odd soft-shelled egg from it, so I figured that because they were soft, they were a little harder to push out) and is fine the next day. I was never able to diagnose her ghost eggs, and have kept an eagle eye on her because I suspected she’d succumb to a reproductive illness eventually. I did not expect it to be so soon, however. In retrospect, her ‘ghost eggs’ may have been a sign of salpingitis, in which case this has been going on for several months.
She’s an isa brown, 1 1/2 years old. Since last week she hasn’t laid, and despite eating well, has been steadily declining in weight. Her tail feathers have also been very mellow this week. So I knew something was up. I suspected worms at first. She’s also a big girl (not overweight, just very big physically). When I say she’s losing weight, she’s probably actually just the weight of a regular chicken now. I can’t feel any masses at her abdomen, and there doesn’t seem to be any inflammation.
I cannot 100% confirm which chicken it is, as I didn’t see who laid it. I may isolate my suspect anyway, to be safe. My flock consists of four chickens, one of which is blind, so she is particularly vulnerable, as she can’t self-medicate and manages to eat all sorts of random stuff. They’re in a massive pen, and get to free range our five acre block every evening.
I’m in a small town with one vet centre, who is notorious for misdiagnosing chickens. They just don’t seem to care that much about chickens, unfortunately. So I’d really love to get some clear-cut information here so I can just go to the vet and tell them EXACTLY what treatment I need, instead of them taking a guess or giving me dog antibiotics, which is all they’ve done in the past.
So given that I can’t confirm which chicken for sure, is it appropriate to treat my entire flock with antibiotics?
What aspect of salpingitis will actually kill my chicken? The build up of the mass? Weight loss? What is it about it that makes it so deadly, and given her declining weight, how long does she have left?
I saw hormone treatment get mentioned, does anyone have any other information on that? Will the hormones actually treat the salpingitis, or is it just a preventative measure for the future so it doesn’t occur again?
I would be grateful for ANY information. The more specific the better, because as mentioned, my vet is not knowledgable in this area. Thank you all so much xx
Will definitely be watching out for a repeat. 
