Solitary chicken - need advice

[iar fach goch]

One of our girls has been laying soft shelled eggs on and off for the past week, laying them anywhere, when she has always previously laid in the box, and never before laid a softee. She is perfectly happy in herself, eating and drinking, having loads of fun in the garden this afternoon, having a nosey as we were planting, and scattering all the leaves which I had been sweeping up. She has access to grit and baked eggshell, and we have stopped all her treats since last week, however, there seems to be no improvement. Had tried to buy limestone flour last week but it is not stocked locally, eventually found somewhere 20 miles away only to turn up and be told that it was no longer a stock item and could only be ordered in bulk as a special order! As I said she appears perfectly well but this afternoon has been passing small amounts of yellow substance with her poo, could this be a broken egg inside her? Or some kind of infection? Or would she be displaying other symptoms if this is the case? Normally we wouldn't have noticed the poo, but as we have lost one of our girls recently, who appeared fine until the morning of her death, have been especially vigilant (or paranoid?). No lice or mites visible and has been wormed last month. Am really concerned that I will be waking up to another dead hen tomorrow morning. All advice gratefully received.

[Egluntyne]

You can get limestone flour via Ebay, as sold for reptiles.

 

Zolcal D, a soluble supplement, is excellent too and available online.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

iar fach goch, sorry about your poorly hen . I'm getting loads of softies but nothing yellow in poo like you describe, so don't know what to advise .

 

Egluntine, I'm hijacking this thread a little but can I ask if you give Zolcal D should you stop the limestone flour? I was also wondering about the baked eggshells, but presumably that wouldn't be a good idea at the same time as the Zolcal either?

[Egluntyne]

Yes. one or the other.

[sandyhas3chucks]

I had one with vivid yellow poh, unlike the photos posted on here. It was a nasty bacterial infection, so if it is no better I would take her to the vet for some Anti biotics & a chek over!

[iar fach goch]

Thanks for all the advice, have a happy hen again today thank goodness, but has laid a softee in the nest. More yellowy poo overnight but seems to have settled down today. Have ordered some limestone flour to try. Hopefully this will do the trick and she will be back to normal soon.

[sandyhas3chucks]

that's good news. glad to hear it

[The Dogmother]

If she is otherwise well, then the yellow stuff will be egg innards rather than an infection.

[Scramble]

Can i ask as we have a similar roblem where do you all buy Limestone flour from?

and do you put it in their food?

[Egluntyne]

You can get it via Ebay, as sold for reptiles, or from equestrian shops.

 

You do put it in their food.

 

I put the equivalent of about a desertspoonful into a grub full of pellets. I also ad a dollop of cod liver oil, as it contains Vit D3 which assists in the metabolism of calcium.

[The Dogmother]

I do the same, my local feed store stocks the NAF one, which is in a big tub and always works well if one of mine is layign softies. I can't say that I have ever noticed any other makes doing it, but I'm sure they must.

[iar fach goch]

Yipee! Had our first proper egg today after 2 weeks of softies. Limestone flour seems to have done the trick! Cross fingers ths tomorrow's is Ok too, as I thought I was going to have to go out and buy eggs!

[chixandthecity]

Hi

 

We had to have a hen put to sleep last week.

 

She had yellow stuff (what we thought was poo but turned out to be pus) coming out of her vent and had stopped laying. She became very lethargic and off colour. Post mortem revealed she had an egg broken and stuck inside her which had caused a nasty infection.

 

Best to get it checked I say!

 

 

Good luck

 

Chix