What came out of my chicken?!?!

[millietime]

I know it isn't the most appetizing thought but I would cut it open and see what is inside. It almost looks like a shelless egg. Definitely sloughing off tissue of some sort though.

I did. The first picture of what looks like a yolk is what was in the sac.. that weird yolk looking thing was solid. I cut through it and it was all just dry, hard, yellow/white materiel. A little harder than hard boiled egg yolk. It was gnarly

 

[millietime]

This link will take you to a list of conditions that can cause lash egg (proper name Salpingitis).

Looking up each condition you may be able to narrow down what is ailing her.

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/disorders-of-the-reproductive-system/salpingitis-in-poultry

Thank you! Yes I was looking it up. She definitely did not feel good when she had the vent gleet situation. Her behavior is normal now. I think I am going to monitor her for a day or two and then do antibiotics if anything seems off. I was reading that it could be a bacterial infection or that it can happen once and then not have any other problems. (I will probably do antibiotics since now I'm wondering if there was an infection which caused the gleet). Haha fingers crossed I'm monitoring/treating the right bird!!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Gleet is a fungal infection.

I think gleet is over diagnosed by owners.
Often times the hen with a nassy butt ends up with other symptoms such as your hen.

Antibiotics are likely to make gleet worse if it was gleet.

I would get some probiotics in her in the form of plain yogurt about 2 teaspoons a day could help and cannot hurt.

Did you have her messy butt treated by a vet?

 

[millietime]

Gleet is a fungal infection.


I think fleet is over diagnosed by owners.
Often times the hen with a nassy butt ends up with other symptoms such as your hen.

Antibiotics are likely to make gleet worse if it was gleet.

I would get some probiotics in her in the form of plain yogurt about 2 teaspoons a day could help and cannot hurt.

Did you have her messy butt treated by a vet?

No vet here.. I gave her yogurt but she does not like it so it's like pulling teeth to get her to eat it. For the gleet I isolated her (because of the prolapse) and gave her eggs with probiotic solution on them. I assume it was gleet.. mostly really bad prolapse with yellow stinky discharge and a scab that eventually came off. No problems or symptoms for about two months. I noticed the poo feathers last night and then today found the thing in the yard. It is so hard with birds when there is no vet and half the time it seems like antibiotics will either help of make it worse. I am planning to try extra yogurt and probiotics (however I can get it in her) for the next few days and if she seems worse maybe try antibiotics. This is my first experience with a lash egg but the description sounds right and most of the information I found about lash is that it's a bacterial infection. I know that when I was originally researching gleet I read that it could be a bacterial infection which causes the stress which causes the yeast infection. Oh geeze. I love these girls but learning about all their ailments makes my head spin sometimes.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Try putting the yugurt in a small amount of oatmeal or..... Soak some regular pellets in water 1/4 cup of pellets and 1/4 cup water should turn them soft and mushy. It is a good substance to mix the meds into.

I totally know what you mean. They are so hard to figure out and by the time symptoms show every second seems critical.

It may be that she is done laying for the winter and clears up easily.

Best wishes for her healing quickly.

 

[speckledhen]

Lash itself is only tissue that encapsulates, not necessarily an infection that is raging, however, hybrid layers are very prone to egg malfunctions, which do sometimes begin with e-coli infections like salpingitis. I've lost about 16 hens to internal laying, egg yolk peritonitis, reproductive cancer, etc, and all except two were hatchery hen (but no sexlinks, who are even more prone, generally, being bred to produce non-stop). Once I started hatching from good breeder stock, no matter the breed, I almost never see this anymore. It's awful watching them waste away with nothing to do for them; and there is nothing to do for them, either. Internal laying is terminal, no prevention and no cure.

I've seen all sorts of odd stuff, including entire eggs that come out encased in a membrane sack, eggs within eggs, an egg filled with nothing but tissue and blood, etc. Never encountered vent gleet in all the dozen years of chickens, though, so can't really comment other than to agree with another poster that it is probably over-diagnosed.

When you start seeing a lot of lash eggs and other stuff from a hatchery production type hen, especially when they pass two years of age, you should probably prepare yourself. Could be she'll live much longer, but if she's already had a couple of issues, you'll probably encounter more with her before long. The last hen to produce something almost identical to what you showed us was a hatchery RIR, about 5 years old, one of my oldest living hatchery girls, who, we found, had reproductive cancer. I have not seen anything like it that I recall since that time a few years ago. She was one of the last of the original hatchery hens. These threads might be of interest to you when you have some time to read.

Olivia

Ivy Relapse

 

[speckledhen]

Some glitch won't let me edit the other post to add these articles for you:
https://www.nature.com/nrc/journal/v13/n6/full/nrc3535.html?foxtrotcallback=true

https://reeis.usda.gov/web/crisproj...in-aging-and-aged-commercial-laying-hens.html

Oh, the crusty stuff you mentioned after the prolapse could have been poop/urates/yolk that trickled over the prolapse and crusted on it. I had that happen with an old EE hen not long ago. It was like a molded piece of stuff on top of the prolapse and I had to soak her to get it off, not gleet at all. She prolapsed because her large eggs had lost shell integrity and were collapsing in the tract, so she was straining to expel them.


Adding that lash eggs have nothing to do with calcium, or lack thereof. I do sympathize with you on this one, having gone through horrors with so many other hens. Just when you think you've seen it all, something new happens. Take care.

 

[staceyj]

Can I suggest (PLAIN) kefir instead of yogurt?
It has approximately 20 times the probiotics of plain yogurt.

You could soak oatmeal or dry feed pellets with a bit of it.

 

[millietime]

Try putting the yugurt in a small amount of oatmeal or..... Soak some regular pellets in water 1/4 cup of pellets and 1/4 cup water should turn them soft and mushy. It is a good substance to mix the meds into.

I totally know what you mean. They are so hard to figure out and by the time symptoms show every second seems critical.

It may be that she is done laying for the winter and clears up easily.

Best wishes for her healing quickly.

Thank you!! She took the last 2 months off for molting (and I had her with limited light right after the prolapse to stop her from laying). She just started laying again this past week since we don't really have much of a winter here. Maybe it was funk that was built up and came out when her system started moving things/eggs along again. It's like she knows when I am trying to feed her meds and refuses.. most of the time I just dropped it in her mouth (I have been giving extra BOBS big ole bird probiotics by mouth).

She seems spunkier lately with her new feathers and laying so I am hopeful.. but am still going to do extra probiotics and watch her closely

 

[millietime]

Can I suggest (PLAIN) kefir instead of yogurt?
It has approximately 20 times the probiotics of plain yogurt.

You could soak oatmeal or dry feed pellets with a bit of it.

I will try that! Thank you for the suggestion. She is a pain in the rear when she does not want to eat something. Love her tho!!