Lash egg?

[Jlwennerberg9]

Discovered this rubbery material this morning and wondering if this appears to be a lash egg? I've never had a hen lay one before. I know which hen it is from because I actually have her already isolated inside due to laying several soft-shelled or shell-less eggs recently. I decided to separate her to better monitor her egg production while giving her additional calcium without having to give my other girls too much.

If this is a lash egg, what are my next steps? I know antibiotics are recommended but I don't believe I can get them in my state without a veterinarian prescription.

To provide a bit of history about this hen, she's an EE, just turned a year old a few days ago, and weighs around 5lbs. In June, she suffered a vent prolapse after laying a particularly large egg. After a very expensive trip to an emergency vet and 2 weeks recovering inside our home, the prolapse resolved and thankfully has not reoccurred. She resumed laying normally after this and has been laying healthy, normal eggs until about 2 weeks ago when I first started to notice the soft-shelled eggs.

Other things to note, my entire flock was recently treated with corid, and then fenbendazole. This particular hen also has a bad case of bumblefoot that we have been treating for months now.

 

[Jener8or]

Can you cut it open? If there are a lot of layers to it and gunk in there, it could be, but to me this looks like it may be another soft egg. It is probably just from stress from getting treatment. I'd give her some sardines for some extra calcium and nutrients and free choice oyster shell and see if she perks up. I hope she gets better!

 

[Jlwennerberg9]

Thank you! This poor girl has been through a lot. I already disposed of the material so I can't cut it open but I did press on the top portion that appeared almost like a bubble or sac and a small amount of clear/whitish fluid came out. I tried to capture that in one of the photos but it is hard to see. Previously, all of her soft eggs were much larger than this, the same size of her normal eggs. This one appeared substantially smaller than those and the wrinkles and folds on it had me thinking lash egg.

Without antibiotics, will this continue to happen if it is a lash egg?

Can you cut it open? If there are a lot of layers to it and gunk in there, it could be, but to me this looks like it may be another soft egg. It is probably just from stress from getting treatment. I'd give her some sardines for some extra calcium and nutrients and free choice oyster shell and see if she perks up. I hope she gets better!

 

[Jener8or]

Thank you! This poor girl has been through a lot. I already disposed of the material so I can't cut it open but I did press on the top portion that appeared almost like a bubble or sac and a small amount of clear/whitish fluid came out. I tried to capture that in one of the photos but it is hard to see. Previously, all of her soft eggs were much larger than this, the same size of her normal eggs. This one appeared substantially smaller than those and the wrinkles and folds on it had me thinking lash egg.

Without antibiotics, will this continue to happen if it is a lash egg?

I think by the time they lay a lash egg, it means the infection has gone on quite awhile so it would possibly be too late to treat with antibiotics. If caught early enough though, antibiotics might help.

Hopefully your chicken just recovers and doesn't lay anymore irregular eggs, but if they do, you can see if it is just egg white-like substance and consider it another soft egg, or if it looks similar to a lash egg and treat accordingly. Best wishes for your chicken!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It does look like Lash material.

If you wish, you can treat with her Amoxicillin to see if that helps.

Some folks find that their hens will continue to lay eggs for a good while, often it just depends on the cause of the Salpingitis and the overall health of the bird.

 

[Jlwennerberg9]

It does look like Lash material.

If you wish, you can treat with her Amoxicillin to see if that helps.

Some folks find that their hens will continue to lay eggs for a good while, often it just depends on the cause of the Salpingitis and the overall health of the bird.

I was able to get 10% enrofloxacin but it only just arrived today so I am starting treatment with that. I do not care if she never lays again, I would honestly prefer it at this point as she has already previously suffered a prolapse with a long recovery from that. I just want her to be healthy

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I was able to get 10% enrofloxacin but it only just arrived today so I am starting treatment with that. I do not care if she never lays again, I would honestly prefer it at this point as she has already previously suffered a prolapse with a long recovery from that. I just want her to be healthy

I'm glad you were able to get some medication.
Hopefully this will help with any infection and she will be o.k.

 

[SunriseChickers]

Hoping and praying your girl turns out alright!
I had a hen lay a couple of lash eggs over the course of a year or two. I wasn't familiar with the issue, and since I didn't see any more, I wasn't too concerned.
Not to scare, but she did end up passing away.

Spoiler in case you don't want to read about what happened.

Spoiler

It was not a quick death. She was lethargic and would not eat for several days, and eventually would not stand. The good news is that she was perky and normal up to this point, and was living a normal life as far as I was aware. She was heavier than my other birds, and her stomach was kind of hard (I noticed when she was sick). I wondered if it was water belly. She passed before I could attempt to treat it.
Upon performing a necropsy, I found two absolutely massive lash eggs inside of her, both much larger than my hand, and several smaller ones as well. They weighed a few pounds together, explaining the lean, heavy body she had before passing.
Before death, her breathing became shallow and she would not stay awake. She did pass in her sleep, at least. The lash eggs were taking up too much space in her abdomen and she was effectively crushed from the inside.
It would have been best to humanely euthanize her when the symptoms were first noticed, but I had no idea she had a lasting infection. She was 5 1/2 y/o.

So, if the infection doesn't clear, it is possible for her to live a fairly normal life for another year or two. But once her quality of life begins to go downhill it is best to let her go. It will hurt you to do so, but it hurts less for her. I really hope it clears and that you can enjoy a few more years with her.