tube hanging from lethargic hen

[robat70]

One of our hens became lethargic today and I noticed something hanging from her rear. It came off easily... was not attached, more just stuck to the feathers. It's a hollow tube, the thickest part is a springy bulb. We discovered a poorly formed egg yesterday. Is this some kind of inverted vent due to a problem passing the eggs? I doesn't look good...

 

[Eggcessive]

It may be the shell-less membrane of an egg.

 

[dawg53]

It's a mishapen soft shell without the whites/yolk. It sounds like your hen is having internal egg laying problems. If there are liquid remains of the egg inside her, it could cause a bacterial infection. I recommend that you give her a vinegar/water flush to prevent bacterial infection.
Use a large syringe without a needle, mix 1 tablespoon of WHITE vinegar to 1 quart of water. Use a syringeful of the mixture and insert it into her vent and gently flush. Use about 3 or 4 syringefuls, the liquid may or may not flow out of her afterwards.

 

[robat70]

She's seems much better now, so I may hold off on the cleansing but will keep track of her. It's probably a method we should get familiar with so I'll look for some how-to videos on utube.

Perhaps they're all going through an 'awkward stage'.
It is nice to have this kind of support-- Thank you.

 

[arast]

It's a mishapen soft shell without the whites/yolk. It sounds like your hen is having internal egg laying problems. If there are liquid remains of the egg inside her, it could cause a bacterial infection. I recommend that you give her a vinegar/water flush to prevent bacterial infection.
Use a large syringe without a needle, mix 1 tablespoon of WHITE vinegar to 1 quart of water. Use a syringeful of the mixture and insert it into her vent and gently flush. Use about 3 or 4 syringefuls, the liquid may or may not flow out of her afterwards.

What size syringe, and how many cycles of flushing? How do you administer it? I came into something similar this morning. The coop had an unhealthy stink in it yesterday, and today I found one of my hens falling asleep on her feet. Someone has been laying soft shelled eggs for weeks but I didn’t know who. I think I found out . An inspection of her vent revealed a string of tough(ish) membrane (think fascia) partially excreted and laying on top of smelly feces on her fluffy butt feathers. I gently pulled it out and there was a spot of blood on the last part of it. I separated her from the flock (in a clean horse stall), cleaned her up and tried soaking her bum in warm water and Epsom salts, but she was having none of it. I left her alone and have been checking on her about every hour. She hasn’t eaten or pooped in a couple of hours... advice, please? Thank you!