Young chicken laying soft eggs. Super worried mom here

[Neeci84]

I have a hen that is almost 7 months. She has been laying for about a month now and has never seemed normal. She laid some perfect eggs, some with weird shapes and some soft. I just figured its because she's so new at laying. I give her a good layer feed and have a bowl of oyster shell for whenever she needs it. Last week she went 3 days without laying. I decided to feel for an egg and when I pressed near the egg hole, yolk came out on my hand. I soaked her in warm water and used a syringe to squirt a little water up there. Soon after a weird soft yellow thing came out. Well its been 3 days again with no egg. She spends around an hour each day in the nesting box but never lays. Shes acting totally normal so I'm trying not to worry too much. Has anyone dealt with this? What can I do to make her eggs better? How can I catch something bad before she gets ill? Any help is very much appreciated!

 

[azygous]

Any egg yolk breaking inside a hen will almost immediately get infected with bacteria. Yolk is a premium bacteria growing medium. So she needs to be on an antibiotic or else she might develop a chronic reproductive infection that will prevent her from ever laying eggs. In addition to that, squirting water up the vent as you did also risked pushing bacteria farther up into the oviduct.

Starting immediately, she should also have a calcium supplement. Oyster shell is absorbed too slowly, so this is what I recommend.

One tablet directly into the beak once a day until all signs of egg material has been expelled.

You can find an antibiotic without a prescription at a pet store that sells pigeon supplies or fish meds. Look for fish mox. You might find penicillin at a feed store. It would need to be injected whereas the fish mox comes in 250mg capsules and you can give one of those per day for ten days for the infection.

 

[Neeci84]

Its been 3 days since the egg yolk came out of her and besides not laying shes totally normal. If she had an infection wouldn't there be some signs of illness?

 

[azygous]

Not necessarily. Giving an antibiotic on the lone observation of yolk being present in the oviduct for hours or even a few days is evidence enough to assume bacteria is growing. Whether a chicken shows symptoms of illness from infection would depend on the tipping point at which the immune system can no longer keep the upper hand and the infection then becomes systemic and makes the chicken noticeably sick.

Have you heard of a doctor giving a tetanus shot in the ER when someone comes in with a dirty wound that has been made from contact with a rusty metal? Just as bacteria binds to egg yolk, bacteria minds to iron (rust), and it is assumed that infection will develop so a preventative med is given to knock out that bacteria so worse things don't happen.

 

[Neeci84]

Thank u!

 

[icy_flames]

Any egg yolk breaking inside a hen will almost immediately get infected with bacteria. Yolk is a premium bacteria growing medium. So she needs to be on an antibiotic or else she might develop a chronic reproductive infection that will prevent her from ever laying eggs. In addition to that, squirting water up the vent as you did also risked pushing bacteria farther up into the oviduct.

Starting immediately, she should also have a calcium supplement. Oyster shell is absorbed too slowly, so this is what I recommend. View attachment 2559365One tablet directly into the beak once a day until all signs of egg material has been expelled.

You can find an antibiotic without a prescription at a pet store that sells pigeon supplies or fish meds. Look for fish mox. You might find penicillin at a feed store. It would need to be injected whereas the fish mox comes in 250mg capsules and you can give one of those per day for ten days for the infection.

I'm still learning birdy first aid myself. This is very helpful! By "fish mox" are you talking about this?

https://www.chewy.com/fish-aid-antibiotics-amoxicillin/dp/185201

 

[azygous]

Yes.

 

[aart]

Soon after a weird soft yellow thing came out.

Would have been good to see a pic of this.

 

[Neeci84]

The others snatched it up and ate it before I had a chance