Zane Made REAL Progress (New Pics Pg 99)!RIP Lorelei...

[gumpsgirl]

This is so weird Cyn. What in the world???

Mercy! It's time for better luck to come your direction.

Sending lots of hugs.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Cyn,
Yes, mine were hatchery chicks. Got them from the local TSC. They were listed as "good utilitiy" chicks. I lost 2 SLW, 1EE, 1BR, Doll, who was also a wonderful head hen, all with reproductive issues of some sort. I also nearly lost 1 Australorp girl but she keeps hanging in there. Every spring she seems to sicken enough to just stop eating for about a week & she just won't eat anything. She layes terrible eggs, all bumpy on one side and the inside where the bumps are is all bloody. She just seems to bounce back each time though, she's one tuff Australorp.

whoa!

Kitty, I have started to find my other SLW's eggs a bizarre shape with wrinkles on the end, but just really strangely shaped. She doesn't seem to have trouble laying, but her eggs have never been a weird shape before now.
Robin, I dont think this has anything to do with Marek's. This really seems to be something reproductive. Both Ruby and Rosemary have been sitting long periods on the nest, then they'll stand like they're going to lay that egg, and strain and strain, then eventually, just leave the nest without laying. Lorelei and Lacy didnt do that, at least this time. Lorelei did that last summer when she had problems the first time, but eventually it worked itself out somehow. Lacy, who died a few months ago, showed no real symptoms, other than one day she was sitting down like she didn't feel great. I picked her up, checked her over and she seemed fine, hadn't even lost weight that I could tell. In two days, I found her dead. We did open her up and all her organs seemed healthy that we could tell, but there was loose yolk all in her abdomen where it shouldn't have been. None of them are doing the penguin stance like they are eggbound; in fact, we can feel no egg at all inside. It's almost like someone flipped a switch on my flock and started shutting them down!

This is creepily familiar. And I am beginning to see some of this once again in my new 1 1/2 year olds. UGH!​

 

[speckledhen]

They don't seem to have ascites. Lorelei's abdomen seems like a deflated balloon, just nothing in there.

 

[CarriBrown]

Look at this... 50 pages of posts! Shows how much we care about you and Zane, and your ladies, Cyn.

I'm just at a loss.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
They seem fine here.

 

[SpottedCrow]

Dang!!!
I wonder if she's onto something...
Hatcheries may import hatch the eggs, but they don't own the stock that the eggs come from...

I mean Obelisk is a barnyard mutt, but she's still going strong...
And she's twice the age of your babies...

Wrinkled eggs are Bronchitis, I think...but there would be other symptoms...

 

[Kelly FG]

oh Cyn, so sorry to hear about all of the troubles you're having. I sure hope your gang can turn the corner to good health. you must be terribly worried about all of them!

 

[speckledhen]

I've never had any respiratory illness here at all. Ruby's eggs have been odd for awhile, weird zipper-like cracks, off color, watery whites. I was researching that and found the bronchitis connection, but she's never had anything of that sort at all. None of them have. She did lay one three days ago and the shape, color and quality of the shell was fine, as was the yolk, but the whites were watery like they've been for a couple of months now.
My other RIR, Rosemary, has always laid almost white eggs rather than brown, but lately, they've been elongated with a very pointy end, almost sharp on that end, with very thin spots on the shell. She hasn't laid one of any kind in at least two weeks that I recall, though. Could be even longer. Lorelei hasn't laid an egg in over a month now nor has she even tried that I know of. Either they'll work through this or they won't and I'll lose them. Since Lorelei recovered last summer, I'm hoping that it's possible for them to recover now.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

No resporitory illness with the chickens here either! Not even last summer when we had pneumonia trouble with the calves. They are right next door to each other.

It sure would be nice to figure something out for you! You don't need anymore problems.

 

[speckledhen]

Kitty, it just doesn't seem right that well-cared-for hens this age should be having this type difficulty. Between Zane and the girls' being in distress, I just want to pull the covers over my head and sleep for a week, oblivious. But they need me, so I won't.
They say that adding extra light to keep hens laying through winter can cause reproductive cancer. We added light at the beginning and end of the day by using a timer, but no more than 15 hours, that first winter we had them. This past winter, we really didn't do that. The light came on right before sunrise and at night it stayed on just long enough for everyone to be settled on the roost for the night plus a few minutes. I can't believe just one winter of extended daylight would do this to my flock. At least I hope it didn't! I don't plan to ever do it again anyway.