What did my hen expel?

Chickflick29

Songster
5 Years
Jun 9, 2020
51
49
108
Hi all! A bit concerned for my young hen.. about 2 days ago, she seemed like she wasn’t feeling too well. Spent the morning laying in her run, and wasn’t as active as usual. I separated her and she seemed to start moving around more throughout the day, and was acting back to normal by the next morning so I returned her to her friends. She started laying mid-last month, and was usually producing an egg every other day. She hasn’t layed in the last 2 days, since the day she became less energetic. Then, this morning, I went into their coop and found what looks like maybe a malformed egg in the droppings on the floor. I’m pretty positive it’s from her - one of her friends is a serama and this is much too big, and the other is not laying yet. Does anyone know what this is (pic included)? Is this a soft-shell egg? I’d like to make sure I help her the best I can and keep her feeling well.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9286.jpeg
    IMG_9286.jpeg
    1,017.2 KB · Views: 46
Looks like a membrane with a tail.

If she's not feeling well, I'd give her 300mg Calcium Citrate+D3 now, then once daily for a week, see if she's able to expel more material or an egg.

Just pull down on her wattles to open the beak, pop the pill into the beak, let go of the wattles and let her swallow.

What do you feed, including treats and do you provide oyster shell free choice?
 
Looks like a membrane with a tail.

If she's not feeling well, I'd give her 300mg Calcium Citrate+D3 now, then once daily for a week, see if she's able to expel more material or an egg.

Just pull down on her wattles to open the beak, pop the pill into the beak, let go of the wattles and let her swallow.

What do you feed, including treats and do you provide oyster shell free choice?
Poor girl, thank you so much for the info!

I feed layer crumbles (usually Kalmbach, although recently it has been Purina Organic Layer because my normal supplier was closed when I needed feed), free choice oyster shell, and scratch/mealworms/zucchini/tomatoes/watermelon/scrambled eggs as treats. I’ve also started giving Poultry Cell and a water-soluble calcium supplement (Calcium Plus) 3 days ago per the supplements’ dosage instructions to help them out as we struggle through this SoTX heat and humidity. Hopefully that will help her feel better and avoid more egg debacles..
 
I’ve also started giving Poultry Cell and a water-soluble calcium supplement (Calcium Plus) 3 days ago per the supplements’ dosage instructions to help them out as we struggle through this SoTX heat and humidity.
Be sure to provide Plain Fresh Water in addition to any water you give that may have supplements in it.
 
Update on this thread: my hen laid 2 perfectly normal eggs after this, then stopped laying for a week or two. She’s been in a cycle of not laying but acting completely fine otherwise for a week or more, looking lethargic for a day or two, and then I find a shell-less egg expelled in the coop beneath her usual spot on the roosting bar. She then returns to normal energy levels, and this repeats. In addition to feed and treats listed previously, I’ve been supplementing since my original post with water-soluble calcium supplement (regular water is also offered), a few doses of vet-prescribed oral calcium supplement, and poultry booster multivitamin mixed into scrambled eggs (crushed shells are also offered back to her).

This doesn’t seem to be helping, and then yesterday I found the mystery ‘excretion’ in the picture I’ve attached at the floor of the coop underneath her. Does anyone know what this is? Another odd egg malformation? It’s firm, almost feels like a very thick rubber band.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9402.jpeg
    IMG_9402.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 10

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom