Young hen laid soft shelled, broken egg - still not well

[girlsomine]

One of my Buff Orpington hens, 5 months old, has been acting broody for a couple of weeks. Today she laid a soft shelled egg, which was broken in the nest. Her backside and bottom feathers were all wet. We gave her a bath to clean her up and there was some dried whitish material around her vent along with a slight amount of blood. Her vent also looked slightly swollen and protruded along one side. We rinsed her in some water with a little tea tree and lavendar oil in it so that the flies would hopefully stay away from her.

She is still, hours later, leaking what looks like it could be egg white with a little pure white substance in places. She's staying away from the rest of the hens and won't leave the coop, even though it was 90 degrees here today and the coop is terribly hot at the moment.

My hens are fed organic layer feed, they free range daily and they have oyster shell available at all times. All of the other hens are laying eggs with very hard shells.

Is there anything that I can do for her? Is there something still stuck that she can't get out on her own? I'm thinking her broodiness over the past couple of weeks caused a lack of nutrition or bound things up in her from not getting off the nest often enough.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Pictures please?

I can think of a number of things, one being vent gleet, another possibly partially prolapsed vent. Or she is brooding and her poo is wetter due to the heat. She may be going in the nest which is causing the messy bum.

So pics would really help.
LofMc

 

[azygous]

Do you have Epsom salt? If you do, give her a half hour soak in warm Epsom salt.

The soft egg may have only broken once it came out and that is what was all over her butt feathers. The blood, I haven't got an answer for. But it's evident your young hen isn't feeling well. She may need an antibiotic if she's dealing with an infection.

Perhaps someone, such as @Eggcessive, with more experience with egg disorders will happen by.

 

[girlsomine]

Pictures please?

I can think of a number of things, one being vent gleet, another possibly partially prolapsed vent. Or she is brooding and her poo is wetter due to the heat. She may be going in the nest which is causing the messy bum.

So pics would really help.
LofMc

I'm sorry, but they are already down for the night now. I'll try to get pics tomorrow. I do know that the soft egg mess was in the nest, and I think there was poo included too because the smell was awful. I'll do some research on vent gleet. Thanks!

 

[girlsomine]

Do you have Epsom salt? If you do, give her a half hour soak in warm Epsom salt.

The soft egg may have only broken once it came out and that is what was all over her butt feathers. The blood, I haven't got an answer for. But it's evident your young hen isn't feeling well. She may need an antibiotic if she's dealing with an infection.

Perhaps someone, such as @Eggcessive, with more experience with egg disorders will happen by.

I'll try the epsom salt bath. The soft egg in and of itself doesn't worry me too much as it all seemed to be there, but the fact that she's still expelling what looks like egg white and is acting like she's still in distress has me worried.

 

[azygous]

That concerns me, too. The discharge along with her not feeling well could point to an infection.

You don't need to have a definite diagnosis to start your hen on an antibiotic. It isn't the same thing as flinging antibiotics at a well chicken for preventative purposes. I've administered a round of an antibiotic when a hen has presented with similar symptoms. Sometimes it's just not possible to make a diagnosis, and the antibiotic could save her life.

 

[girlsomine]

That concerns me, too. The discharge along with her not feeling well could point to an infection.

You don't need to have a definite diagnosis to start your hen on an antibiotic. It isn't the same thing as flinging antibiotics at a well chicken for preventative purposes. I've administered a round of an antibiotic when a hen has presented with similar symptoms. Sometimes it's just not possible to make a diagnosis, and the antibiotic could save her life.

Do I need to take her to the vet to get an antibiotic, or is that available at Tractor Supply?

 

[azygous]

This is where I order my antibiotics. https://www.kvsupply.com/item/fish-mox-250mg-60ct/P03702/ prescription not necessary. They're very fast. I keep a supply of amoxicillin and penicillin https://www.kvsupply.com/item/fish-pen-250mg-60ct/P02207/ just in case. Fish antibiotics work just fine on chickens. I give one 250mg tablet once a day, or you can divide it into two doses - one in the am and the other in the pm.

But a vet could also sell you some. Unless you live in an upscale locale where vets charge a small ransom for that sort of thing.

 

[girlsomine]

Well, I ordered the antibiotics this morning. I got her to drink some water this morning too.
Right after work tonight I gave her a 30 minutes soak in a warm epsom salt bath. Shortly after putting her in the water I noticed small maggots swimming in the water. I had my husband help me after getting her out of the water so I could get a good look at her vent and get a picture. I have never seen anything like it, and I don't know if I can even save this poor girl at this point. I've attached the picture. Her vent area is now a huge mess of mangled looking tissue.

I can't wait for the antibiotic. I'm taking her to an avian specialist in the morning. I'm just hoping she makes it until then. She didn't even put up a fight during the soak. I moved her to a cage in an isolated pole barn so the other girls aren't bothering her. I covered the cage with a sheet weighted down along the edges in an attempt to keep the flies off of her.

Thank you for your advice. I truly appreciate it.

 

[azygous]

That's such sad news. I feel so badly for her. The maggots are a condition called "fly strike". When you have a lot of flies around your chickens, this can be a big problem. The flies will attack any chicken butt that is moist with poo or in your girl's case, discharge from an infection. Then the flies burrow into the flesh, lay eggs, the maggots hatch in a day, and they begin to eat the flesh.

I'm glad you have an avian vet to see to this. Hopefully they can give you good advice on how to prevent your other chickens from being victimized by these flies, as well as provide healing for this one.

Please update and let us know how things go. We're going to be rooting for this brave little hen to recover.