Egg laying Issues

They are very common!

Silkie egg

DISCLAMIER: I am not an expert. This text is based on my research and experience.

The whole egglaying process is very complex and hard on a birds body. Imagine giving birth everyday! So of course issues do occur in our birds.

The most of these problems are very curable with the right treatment and discoverd early. There for its important to know if your bird is feeling ill.

This aint always that easy since birds are prey animals they can hide their illness very well. When you do discover it, its a race against time to put in treatment.

In this article I will go thrue some of the most common egglaying issues in birds.

Understanding is the key!

Thank you to Quaties Quackers for helping with the fact on some of these issues. His text you can read here.

Softshelled egg

Broken softshelled duck egg

Egg Yolk Peritonitis

This is when the yolk goes into its own little way and ends up in the abdomen of the bird.

This will cause an inflammation in the bird, which is most often mild but can also be serious.

Softshelled eggs/Rubber eggs (shelless)

These eggs are due to a fault in the process where the shell goes on to the egg. The egg fails be coverd in calcium.

The most common issue to this is a calcium deficincy. What to think about that not all hens eats their oyster shell with appetite. What could help is to spread the oyster shells on the ground.

Female ducks aint that eager in oyster shells as hen chickens are. They seem to prefer the more fine flaked ones and despise mixes and pellet shaped ones.

Lactose free sourmilk/yoghurt is a good calcium boost. It also exist liquid calcium to give them.

Another reason for softshelled eggs or rubber eggs are stress comming from example bullying.

Also this is a common issue in new laying hens, since the system is still figuring out what it should do.

Xray of a eggbound hen

Eggbound

This is a word to describe that for some reason the bird can not lay her egg.

The most common symtom in the bird is that they are standing in a penguin like stance. She will also do a pulse movment with her behind, trying to push the egg out.

The reason for bird to be eggbound can be:

Egg yolk peritonitis
Obease
Age
Genes

One of the most easy way to help her pass the egg is putting her in a bath with luke warm water (so it cover her ventarea) togheter with a tablespoon of epsom salt. Massage her to stimulate her contractions to help the egg to pass.

Calcium and Vitamin D help the contractions work like they should.

When my hen got salpingitis, she laid these kind of eggs

Inflammation in the Oviduct (Salpingitis)

This is one of the most common reproductive issues in adult laying birds. This is due to the complex estorgen system in their reproductive tract, makes it easy for bacteria to travel from their vent to their oviduct.

The most common cause is a bacteria infection but its proven that it can also be caused by respiratory problems.

Common pathogens to cause Salpingitis:

Ecoli
Mycoplasma
Pasteurella
Salmonella

Symtoms

Unnormal laying
Deformed eggs
Reduced egglaying
Depression
Reduced appetite
Lethargy
Destended abdomen
Penguin like stance
Hardtime walking or sleeping on perch

What can you do?

Support her! Isolate her, make her feel safe, warm comfortable.

Treatment of salpingitis

In Sweden its most common to treat it with hormoneimplant, so called superlion. Most often togheter with antibiotics.

More information about superlion implant here

More severe cases requierd operation removing egg debris from the oviduct.

The change when my hen got her superlion implant

An example of lash egg

Lash eggs

This is a symtom of far gone salpingitis. This is a egg that consits of rubbery debries and solidfied pus.

A chick with ventprolapse

Ventprolapse on a duck

Vent prolapse

Serious condition but can be treated with high sucess rate if caught early. The chance for reoccurance is high.

The reason for a vent prolapse are many but the most common one seem to be birds who starts laying before their body is ready.

Some of the other reasons can be:

Large eggs
Older obese birds
Do not poop as often as they should making the vent area stretch out.
Genes

While I do not have experience my self from prolapse in ducks or chickens (Drakes can get penisprolapse). From what I have heard and seen on social media it does seem more common with vent prolapse on Indian Runner ducks females.

Treatment

Almost the same as on a eggbound hen. Place the bird in lukewarm water. Most of the time in mild cases the condition reverse it self.

In other cases you may need to assist by being gentle, pushing it back. You can use lubricant such as normal cooking oil or vasseline, to make the process easier.

Infectious Bronchit

This is a respiratory disease but I wanted to add this here cause a symtom of the disease is oddly shaped eggs.

This disease is a variation of the corona virus and its highly infectious. It spread thrue infected birds, infected eqiupment but also can spread very far airborn.

Symtom