[lilli]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can shed some light on my chook situation. I have a 2 year old black rock who usually lays huge brown eggs but from the beginning the shells have always been either very thin or occasionally non -existent.  About 8-9 weeks ago she stopped laying but seemed totally fine, no moult, no brooding, eating OK, comb pink, running around, the only change is that poop is now like melted toffee. I have been watching her closely and in the last few days she has deteriorated. She is eating but less, she has gone grey in the face and her wattles look unhealthy (comb still pink). I noticed yesterday she was shaking her head with the occasional yawn. She was only wormed three months ago but I have started another cycle today in case she has a gapeworm but I don’t think this is primary issue. All the other girls are fit and well. Any ideas what might be going on please?

[Helenaj]

If it is gapeworm (which is not very common), you can sometimes see the worms in the throat, so try and shine a torch down her throat to have a look. Other than that check her crop to see if it is "squishy" or hard - it could be her crop is sour or impacted.
If her poo is like toffee it could be the crop problems or worms, so worming her again certainly will help.
The soft egg issue is probably a seperate one and could be a number of things - It could be her egg "equipment" is a little faulty. Does she have access to poultry grit (oyster shell and grit combined)? Some hens can't absord the calcium direct from the shell so try her with a calcium supplement to see if that helps.   
This time of year my girls have gone into a moult, so egg production has dropped significantly as they can't produce the protein for feather and eggs, so one has to stop. Could she have started her moult?

[lilli]

Hello, thanks for such a quick response. I have just tried to look down her throat but she was not too impressed with that! I couldn't see anything but she was squirming- I'll try again tonight when I have another pair of hands on deck. Iv'e sifted through the poo- nothing remarkable.

Crop feels normal, fairly firm but I will keep a close eye. They have oyster shell and grit available all the time plus I give them poultry spice. When I first got her and her egg shells were paper thin I gave her a course of zolcal-D a calcium and vit D supplement but there was not much change to her and I needed a saw for the other eggs! Do you think another course would help?

 I think you are right about the poultry plumbing- I wonder if she is laying internally and getting peritonitis? I have read about this in 'the chicken health handbook but then again, read that and they have everything!'. Not sure what I could do if she was. I will watch out for the moult, everybody else is laying perfect eggs daily but I guess Autumn is around the corner. Thanks very much for your ideas-