Egg inside partial egg - tail down, lethargy - looking for some advice please

[Cinnaminute]

Hi, I have a Polish hen named Peaches who is about 9 months old. I think she started laying sometime around October, if memory serves. She has been laying nearly daily since, as far as I'm aware. I had a bit of a situation where she and several others had to stay inside so they had light for a few hours after natural sun down. However, since about January she's been on normal time. My other Polish stopped laying once put on normal time and a couple others hens started molting, so I figured she's still been laying because that's just what she's going to do. I have others too who have been laying all winter long.

Anyway, Friday afternoon 5pm (the time she usually lays) I found her standing at the back of the run away from everyone else, tail down. I brought her in and put her in a carrier. She ate oats, ate some food, drank, and acted relatively normal. So I gave her a calcium tablet and after a couple hours I put her outside so she could go to roost with everyone.

Later that night (9:30pm) I found her not on the roost and on the floor, tail down. She had just laid this:

There is a full solid shelled egg inside the membrane. What scared me is that I saw a liquid trail from the egg to her. It seems the outer egg had busted while she laid it. I was already prepared that she might get sick.



I let the egg dry and peeled off some of the membrane. Cracked open, it looks normal to me.


I kept her inside all night.

Saturday morning and all day Saturday she was normal. She even went all crazy during lay time and spent time in the nesting area. I couldn't tell if she laid or not since I caught someone else in there too and missing grabbing an egg so I ended up finding 3 eggs. One egg was more round and didn't look like it belonged to anyone else so I thought maybe it was hers. Anyway, she went back in after I took the eggs and hung out for an hour or so. Then she gave a bit of a BAH-GAWK and zoomed out when she was "done". She ate her oyster shell and was 100% her normal self.

Sunday she's been fine all day until around 4pm. I found her suddenly at the back of the run again, tail down. I brought her in and gave her another calcium tablet. This time she ate some oats and food and has been sitting hunched in the corner most of the time (she's one of those hens that like to sit in the corner when she lays). She moves around and such, repositioning. Then around 8:30pm she pooped and it smelled really bad and was loose. She's been scratching around off and on in the carrier like she needs to lay.

Hanging out of her butt was this:
Looks like an egg membrane. It's gelatinous.



If I can get a good poop picture, I'll post one. However, it looked completely normal besides being loose.

I plan on putting her on amoxicillin in case of an infection. I have 250g tablets of fish mox. Is there anything else I can do for her? I was going to give her an epsom salt bath but she's hot, wings hanging down half the time and her feet are hot. But it is about 72 degrees fahrenheit in here and she's been laying in straw for hours. I've got my AC on now and removed the straw. Even I'm hot in here at the moment. Thought it would cool down more tonight but it hasn't. Anyway, she's currently not weak but she is sometimes pumping her hind quarters. I'm pretty sure she hasn't laid today. She also hasn't been interested in food or water after dark, but that's also normal and she ate really good today unlike back on Friday. I'm about to check if she's egg bound. I don't know if that piece of what appears to be membrane came off an egg she's trying to push through or if something broke or what, though I see no evidence of a break.

She's also not talking to me like usual. She's like that, though. Very very talkative so it's easy to tell when she's not feeling well. Friday she didn't talk much until I gave her the calcium tablet and she gobbled down drink and food. Then she perked up.

Quick Update! I pulled her out of the carrier to force some water (I dip her beak in the water to make sure she gets some drops down her). I also gave her the amoxicillin. She fought me, so she's still got energy. She also started looking around and nearly jumped up on the table (looking to roost). And she pecked a bit at the floor. She definitely seemed to perk up for a bit. Also as a sanity check, I checked everyone outside in their coops and they are really hot too so I guess everyone is. It was cold just the other day and we had a sudden warm up so I guess she's normal there. I've got electrolytes in the water so I'll keep getting some fluids down her throughout the night. She pooped on my carpet so here's a picture of that:



Thank you for any advice. I'm new to this and trying to use the info I've read on here to proceed but I want to make sure I haven't missed anything.

 

[Eggcessive]

It may be a glitch in her laying if an egg comes down the oviduct and then reverses course. Here is link with weird eggs and possible causes:
https://www.yellowbirchhobbyfarm.com/weird-eggs-101-the-oddities-explained/

 

[Cinnaminute]

@Eggcessive Thank you so so much for the link! I had a hard time finding any info with my "egg inside an egg" descriptor and some other pages I found on weird eggs didn't include what I'm seeing with Peaches. Going to research more into counter-peristalsis contraction. Thank you again! I can only hope worst case scenario is she goes off lay permanently. I'd hate to lose her, especially so young.

 

[Cinnaminute]

Quick update: About an hour after giving her amoxicillin, she perked up. She ate, drank, and finally started talking to me. She wanted out of the carrier but I made her stay in it all night inside my room. In the morning, she was her usual talkative self. Good appetite. Active. Posture back to normal. Gave her a second dose this morning (doing 250mg twice daily) and put her back outside with her flock.



She did pass this in her poop first thing this morning. I pulled it out to take a look at it. It looks like more egg stuff, some membrane and maybe yolk & white mixed together. I don't know if this would've been yesterday's egg, if yesterday's egg broke inside, or what is going on. Will continue to monitor and keep her on amoxicillin for a total of 7 days at least. Will also continue calcium tablets for a couple days but I don't want to OD her on it if it isn't doing anything to help.

 

[LaFleche]

When did you last deworm her?

She is beautiful but needs a haircut in order to allow for unobstructed view.

 

[Cinnaminute]

@LaFleche She was dewormed the first week of January so about two months ago. Did a heavy deworming, 5 days of Safeguard. Also did nearly 3 weeks of Corid in January as well. Will be doing another round of Corid this month (preventative) because it's been so rainy and I've had regular issues so I've learned I need to treat quarterly.

Thank you! I've trimmed the front of her crest after she soaked and dirtied it really badly. She definitely needs a better trim but she actually has really good sight in most directions except up, despite how it looks. Her crest grew in a way she's always had good side sight and the trim I did opened up her front sight. My white crested black is another story... her crest grew in strange and even after a trim she's still having issues seeing. I'm going to have to cut nearly the whole thing off because it hangs at heavy over her eyes.

I digress, thank you for the advice! I've only recently learned to trim crested chickens so I do a little at a time to lessen their stress while I'm learning. Having done the trimming lately due to a streak of health problems I've been dealing with.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think the yellow mucus is just mucus in the last photo.

 

[Cinnaminute]

Update: I have some questions about what could be going on with Peaches. Good news is she's doing good, bad news is I'm pretty sure she hasn't laid since she laid the double egg. Seems something is awry internally for her and I doubt there's much I can do at this point but I'll try everything I can just in case.

I'll go ahead and lay out what's been going on by date below. But to summarize here real quick: every day to every other day she goes through her usual 'laying ritual' only to never lay an egg. I also found a lash egg one day, which I have to assume was from her seeing as the other hens are all laying fine and regularly. Her behavior has been normal, but she had an episode again 3 weeks after her last antibiotics so I started her on another round as much as I didn't want to.

One big question I have is: should I limit her daily light to make her body stop wanting to lay eggs? And does indoor light from a TV count as 'light'? I do worry about causing her to molt. I don't want to stress her body any more than it already is. Any thoughts/ideas on the matter? Are there other things I can give her to support her reproductive system? I've heard of implants, but I've yet to find any vets near me who'll see chickens.

---
Peaches' detailed history:

• November 2023 - Starting laying eggs (I originally thought it was October but she was 22wk-24wk at the time so it was November). Laid consistently & never molted over the winter.
• January 8th - Started 5 days of Safeguard.
• March 1st - Laid a double egg after acting lethargic w/tail down. Double egg was a regular hard shell egg inside a soft shell egg. Pretty sure the soft shell broke inside her since she left a trail of egg white from the egg to herself.
• March 2nd - Acting normal.
• March 3rd - Lethargic and sick late day. Started amoxicillin. Perked up within an hour.
• March 8th - Ended amoxicillin. Might've made a big mistake going for only 5 days but I wasn't sure if I was right in giving it to begin with.

This is what's happened since I last posted here:

• March 31st - Found what looks like a lash egg. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-very-white-lash-egg-just-need-confirmation.1617097/ I have not treated her for tapeworms yet since I have never seen any segments in her poop and unsure if this is actually a worm or not. However, if it's safe to treat her anyway just in case, I'll happily grab some Equimax and do so. Are segments always seen or are there cases where they're not?

• April 8th - Peaches seemed to slow down a bit. Laid around a lot of the day.
• April 9th - She didn't eat in the morning. Mid morning found her laying in a corner, putting her head in the corner like she did in the dog carrier back on March 3rd. I panicked since I was going to be gone a long time. Gave amoxicillin. She was back to normal when I got home and has been spunky/energetic ever since.
• April 15th - She's as great as ever today. This is her 7th day of antibiotics. I plan on keeping her on them for a total of 10 days this time. I did find someone passed something long and thin this morning, kind of like what was in the lash egg. I'm not experienced in tapeworms, but I highly doubt this is a tapeworm. Looks too translucent and almost like colored snot. If it's stretched too much, it breaks apart. Again, I think it's safe to assume this is from Peaches since I've often found her passing weird mucus-y or membrane-y bits:

And a picture of Peaches posing for the camera. She's such a spunky girl but so sweet.


Happy to give any other details that I can. This is such a mystery to me and she's so young. She's not even officially a hen yet! She won't be 1 year old until around June 7th.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think that again the possible worm is just mucus from the vent. She obviously has some reproductive disorder, possibly salpingitis. Other than spending a ton of money on a specialty vet and hormone implants twice a year, I think that I would just let her live out her life, as long as she is feeling alright.

If you kept her in darkness for 16 hours out of every 24 hours, she would probably stop laying, but she would just probably start back up with a couple of weeks once she is out of that routine. That is not much of a life.

There are multiple possible problems that hens can have. I had one with false layer syndrome, and she never laid an egg for almost 2 years. She would go into the nest box every other day like clockwork, spend 30-40 minutes and come out doing the egg song, but laid no eggs. I gave her away in a group of excess hens when someone wanted chickens for eggs and to butcher. If she had died, I would have opened up her abdomen, and possibly seen lash material, but didn’t. Doing home necropsies on any that I lose is one good way to find out what a particular hen was suffering from. Almost all will eventually die of cancer or some sort of reproductive problem. I have had a few live to 10 years. I think we have to realize that hens may not always live a long life, but I let mine live normally, and would not do any vet intervention to extend their lives. Once they become uncomfortable or suffer, I put them down. Hopefully, your hen will just stop laying on her own, and have a few more good years.

 

[Cinnaminute]

Thank you so much @Eggcessive for your insight and reply! And for sharing your experiences. I deeply appreciate it. I guess chickens aren't really bred to last, after all. I keep eyeing my Easter Eggers suspiciously knowing they'll be 2 years here soon and I've heard that's really when you start seeing the reproductive issues.

I'll go ahead and do just that. I'll let her live out her life as-is and hope I can keep her as healthy and happy as I can while she's with me. I won't bother with trying to force her to stop laying. You make a good point and I didn't really think about the possible issues. Just thought I could bring her inside and put her to bed a bit early, haha!

Thanks again! Hopefully after this round of antibiotics, she should be fine for a while. And as you say, maybe she can have a few happy years of life before it's her time.