[caralouise1974]

Hi everyone, I really need some advice if any of you can give it...

I've been having some problems with my young bluebelle ever since she started laying back in February. She always had a clear white liquid running from her vent when I picked her up, and seemed to make a terrible mess with poop everywhere when laying. She went on to lay a mixture of soft shelled eggs and normal ones (but has never yet missed a single day since her first egg), and then about three weeks ago got one stuck, which burst inside her and that ended up taking us off to the vets. That day she laid three eggs in total - all soft shelled. We assumed that they had somehow got backed-up inside her and that it was a one off incident.

The vet put her on calcium supplements and diagnosed Infectious Bronchitis but since then she has been fine and her egg laying has been normal (even a couple of double yolkers).

Then, on Saturday evening she was looking very sorry for herself and had egg yolk coming out of her vent. She had laid a normal egg that morning. She strained and pushed and it seemed she got most of the broken egg out once we brought her indoors in the warm. She clearly still had another soft shell egg stuck though, as the next morning (Sunday) we checked on her, and she hadn't managed to do any poop overnight and a soft shelled egg was in the bottom of the coop, surrounded by lots of runny poop that had clearly been backed up behind it.

Anyway, Monday and Tuesday were fine, with another double yolker on Tuesday morning, until hubbie came home from work at 6pm and found another soft shelled egg in the run. So, together with the double yolker from the morning, that's essentially three eggs she laid yesterday. Then, an hour later, I find her hunched up, straining for all she is worth, her insides turned almost inside-out (not a very pleasant sight) and she lays yet another soft shelled egg on the grass. So that's FOUR eggs yesterday. And a very near prolapse to boot (luckily, after some odd convulsing and swallowing, it all went back inside her about ten seconds after the egg came out).

We spoke to the on-call vet, and he is at a loss to explain how one hen can release four yolks from an ovary in one day. He suspects a cystic ovary or some other weird pathology but has no suggestions whatsoever for us, in terms of slowing down her egg production and thereby easing her suffering.

Does anyone have a clue what's making her over-produce like this? It's only a matter of time before she prolapses or dies of heart failure on the nest, in my opinion. Similarly, if she's leeching all this calcium from her bones to make all those extra egg shells, she's going to be osteoporotic before long. It's heartbreaking to watch her suffer so much.

[Kate and her Ducks]

How awful for you and her. I know nothing first hand about chickens but the only thing I could think of to suggest would be to try and force a moult to stop her laying for a while and hopefully things would have settled down by then. I had a duck laying soft shelled eggs last year but since the moult and the break over winter she is fine and laying like clockwork now (just have a new one doing it now! ).

[chooknewbie]

how do you force a moult?

[caralouise1974]

Indeed, how can I do that?

[Kate and her Ducks]

OK, this is paraphrased from the Duck bible.

"Hens do not usually lay while they are moulting as their bodies cannot maintain both. Hens are thrown into moult by sudden changes in diet or environment and laying usually recommences in 6 to 12 weeks.
The following is a suggested simple method for force moulting:
1st day: discontonue artificial lighting  and remove all water and food.
2nd day: drinking water but no feed
4th day: commence feeding but substitute laying ration with oats free choice
15th day: in addition to the oats suppy in a separate feeder .25lbs/bird of growers ratio once daily - removing any excess ater 5 mins.
42nd day: gradually replace feed with a layers ratio."

I have never done this but really trust the book I got it from.

[richyrich7]

Thats a lot kinder way than they used to do it. 

[Kate and her Ducks]

Sounds pretty mean as it is but if it does the job then Yipee!

[caralouise1974]

Hmm, still sounds pretty unkind, and tricky with my other hen being absolutely fine. I don't want to put them both through it, especially as the other girl hasn't long got over mycoplasma and is probably still a little immuno-compromised. I don't want to risk stressing her too much.

I'm simply going to have to beg the vet to perform the surgery to remove her ovary and oviduct. He's going to have to do it to save her, I'm sure of it.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Could you get another girl to keep the well on company and then isolate the other to force moult her?

[caralouise1974]

I could, but our vet has practically made me promise to keep a closed flock now, as mycoplasma is something that our other girl (Henrietta) will carry, and be infectious with, for the rest of her life. We think the one having laying problems (Bella) was immunised against it as a chick, which is why she hasn't caught it, but we don't want to risk bringing in other birds and having them getting sick.

This is why we need to save Bella at all costs - Henrietta and she are inseperable, and we can't really bring in any other birds to our flock because of the mycoplasma. I just think back to when Henrietta's sister was re-homed though - Henrietta pined so hard she almost starved herself to death within a couple of weeks, so I simply can't lose Bella - my fear is that Henrietta will go downhill again and won't be far behind her.

All very complicated!

[chickenlady]

Sorry to hear of your poorly girl! Sounds like a good plan there Kate with the forced moult! couldnt you make sure you bought a hen that has been vaccinated against mycoplasma!?  you would want to get another girl if anything happened to your bluebelle!? (heaven forbid) hope you get her sorted! xxx

[raeburg]

A possibility is to have the ovary removed so she can't release any more eggs.  I've seen stuff about it on the net but it's something you'd need a good poultry vet for.

[caralouise1974]

Yep, this is what I was thinking - a surgical ooophrectomy or hysterectomy. Quite expensive - people I've heard of having it done for their girls have paid anything in the range of £300 to £1300, but seems to be largely successful, as long as the hen is strong when going into the surgery. It's pretty major I think, so I don't want to leave it until she is really sick, with peritonitis or similar.

I may have to, in the meantime, consider the forced moult idea, and try and find a companion bird for Henrietta who we can be certain is vaccinated against mycoplasma. I just hope that she doesn't take too badly to the stress of losing Bella and gaining a new companion (that she may not initially like very much, if past experience is anything to go by), even if only for a short time, as it really did only take her a fortnight to almost starve to death when she previously pined for her sister. She's very sensitive and docile and takes things very seriously, it seems. Whenever Bella is suffering she goes and stands up against her, looking intently at her, almost as if to let her know she cares and is worried about her. It's incredible how sensitive and perceptive she is. I'm almost as concerned about Henrietta as I am about Bella!

Anyway, I've just called Stow Vets (they are listed in Practical Poultry) who are about 25 minutes from us, and have been told that their avian specialist is on holiday this week, but I've left my details and am going to send him an e-mail outlining Bella's plight. Maybe he can help - if not, then we're seriously running out of options.