Chicken bald back

[gavclojak]

I had a scare this morning, my bestest girl didn't come out of the cube this morning, thought she was laying so went out. I came home at 11 and she was still in there, hadn't been out at all so lifted her out, she had a drink then straight back in, didn't eat a thing and wasn't even Interested in tuna! When I took her out the cube again she had a massive drink and then just stood for what seemed like ages

 

She went back in and I left her for an hour then took her out, one of other girls started chasing and pecking her head so I thought.,,.here we go....let them free range this afternoon and she seems a lot brighter and ate well this , a big plate of pellet/oats porridge

 

Her poo was very runny, kind of mucus, very white with what looked like small dark congealed blood,

There was the top end if an egg in the roosting area this morning, think the rest was eaten or someone laid a partial softie!

In all others respects she seems fine now

 

Any ideas? Was she trying to be broody? Never had one! Or anything else I should consider

[Chickabee]

Ex bats don't normally go broody. Sounds like she had some kind off egg problem. See how she is in the morning. Sounds like she might have passed the offending egg, it could have broken inside her. She wouldn't have gone free ranging if she was feeling broody, would have headed straight back to nesting area or nearby if she couldn't get to it.

 

Obviously I'm only guessing about the egg problem, there's probably a technical term for it, but I wouldn't worry too much if she seemed bright this afternoon

[gavclojak]

Thanks sonyascott, I must admit I did think it was an egg issue. I felt her undercarriage and she didn't feel swollen and her vent looked ok.she was quite warm but she had been laying there for ages.

I will be watching her closely, as always

[kentuckyfried]

Just to add, although they dont tend to go broody, it isn't unheard of- one of our hatched and looked after eggs this summer. Don't assume that they never go broody because they do, and they make great parents

[gavclojak]

I would never assume anything with chickens, they constantly surprise and occasionally shock me!

[libby22]

I have this with one of my girls. She has always laid huge eggs however, there was the odd day where she was the same as your girl. She started to lay a scrunched eggshell or just the membrane - all sorts of egg oddities. Each time, she would drink huge amounts, wouldn't eat and spent ages in the nest box until whatever type of egg was passed.

 

She did end up in a bad way at one point when she had an egg break inside her and was bleeding. I took her straight to the vets and they flushed her with a syringe of water and out it all came in a huge splat. He cleaned her up and said going by her diet and the condition she was in, there was nothing wrong, but her egg laying mechanism was just wearing out and the best hope was an egg laying break for her as the darker nights were coming in. I asked about the drinking and he said her body will class the unlaid egg as a blockage and this will make her drink large amounts to flush her system but of course it doesn't really help with moving an egg

 

As the egg sits about, it will crush the poo pipe and basically the poo can't get through so you just end up with whatever liquid that can get past. When my girl gets this, her crop will also slow down overnight and I tend to make sure she either has live maggots or live yoghurt to keep the acid down or clean the crop out and I have found it to work so far.

 

Hope that helps.

[gavclojak]

Oh thank you for that, really helpful. I am going to see how she goes today.

I have just been to let them out and as usual she was the first one out bright as a button but when I cleaned the poo trays there was a softie that had been passed overnight by, I suspect by bestest girl...so maybe that solves that...fingers crossed.

I guess, bring ex commercial girls their bodies need to adjust to the shorter laying cycle, again I might be wrong?

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my panicked cry again.

[libby22]

You are very welcome. It took me ages to piece it together with my girl and the constant drinking was worrying me as I thought she may have kidney problems, so was relieved when the vet helped me out with that extra bit of info.

 

Hope she is ok now.