Mrs

[Chucky Mama]

I have a hen that went lame last winter, she is now about 21/2 and was my best layer. An egg a day all year. She recovered from her lameness but now lays soft shelled eggs, rough eggs or fragile shelled eggs. I wonder if she has osteoporosis and associated calcium issues

 

Anyway, I have tried (fed on layers pellets, almost no treats & free ranges all day):

- crushed baked eggshells - worked for a short while but then stopped being enough.

- Lifeguard in water - not really any improvement

- Changing to Garvo pellets - no improvement

- Soluble grit - debatable if it was eaten so difficult to gauge response. Don't think there was any difference though.

- Zolcal D in drinking water - variable, improves but is obviously dependant on how much she drinks of the medicated water. Sometime she would produce a good shell, other times far too much bumpiness and ridging on the shell. Not crazy about all the hens taking extra calcium as they are fine, plus the dog drinks the poultry water

- Soaking mealworm in Zolcal D and giving a measured quantity a day to measure how many would do the trick. 6 seemed to work very well and had a decent egg once a day until day 6 when ridging of the egg started again.

- Currently putting a drop of Zolcal D on a small piece of bread or giving 6 of the medicated mealworm. I am going to try 3 days on and 1 day off and see how we go like that. (Baked crushed eggshells are still added to feed).

 

To be fair, the actual white of these eggs is not 'normal' and they are only used for baking or giving to the dog. The reasons for needing to overcome this issue are to hopefully prevent the risk of peritonitis and the day of feeling rubbish that proceeds laying a softie.

[surfer_chicken]

plus the dog drinks the poultry water

[ionian1]

I too have this problem, the other 3 chickens are laying good eggs, any help or suggestions would be gratefully received.

[Green Tea]

I'm having the same problem with one of mine, tried just about everything but nothing has worked so far. I've just ordered some Davinova C so I'm just hoping that does the trick