I can’t believe this is happening again

Smoke looks like she has an egg laying problem. It has been a month since Smoke last laid and I was expecting her to start laying again about now.

Yesterday Smoke didn’t look her usual self. She wasn’t rushing for the treats and she was sitting in the familiar pose of a girl struggling with an egg. I picked her up and checked her and she had a slightly mucky bottom.

I am so shocked by this as Smoke has always been a good layer and never had a problem before now. Of all our girls I never expected Smoke to run into a problem. Smoke is four years old and is our top girl.

It is heartbreaking to be facing this again so soon after Shadow. The thing that Shadow and Smoke have in common is that they were the best layers by far and they were both the only ones to continue laying in winter. I often think it’s not good for them to lay so many eggs.

It also seems that spring is when problems arise as they come back into lay. I am feeling as if there is some conspiracy against me at the moment and as the girls come into lay I am going to lose them. I know this can’t be true but it just seems that way.

Last spring we lost Marmite as she came back into lay followed by Speckles, at a good age, soon after and it now seems as if it is happening again.

I will see how Smoke goes on today but I know that I must not let her suffer and will have to make a decision to take her to the vet sooner rather than later. I feel very heavy hearted right now.

Smoke has gone

Smoke rapidly went downhill. She was sitting in a hunched position with her eyes closed. The other girls were moving around her but she wasn’t opening her eyes.

This was so fast compared to Shadow and I knew I had to take her to the vet as soon as possible. I got an appointment for three o’clock today.

While I waited in the vets Smoke had her eyes closed the whole time and I wasn’t sure she was even going to make it to see the vet.

The vet examined Smoke and said that she had egg peritonitis. She said that she was fluid filled and inflamed. She agreed that the kindest thing was to put her to sleep.

I explained to the vet that most of my seramas lay between thirty and fifty eggs a year but that Smoke laid a hundred and twenty and laid through the winter too. The vet said that her egg laying had exhausted her.

Egg peritonitis is when the egg is laid internally and can be free floating in the abdominal cavity causing inflammation.

I think this was the reason that Smoke went down hill so much faster than Shadow.

The vet was very kind and when I asked if I could hold Smoke she gave her the anesthetic in her vent and settled her on a towel on my lap. Smoke very gently went to sleep while I held her and talked to her.

I will do a tribute to Smoke soon but at the moment I am still shocked by the speed that this has happened. I can’t believe that we have lost another girl so soon.