Amber has always struggled with her laying but whatever her problem is it seems to be getting worse. I said in a few posts back that her eggs had started getting a faint line around them which I thought may be blood.
Today her egg had a more pronounced line round it and on the other side it had what was obviously blood.
The line around Amber’s egg is more pronounced
Amber’s egg has blood on it
This is not good. Amber’s always had a problem with her egg laying but last summer she only laid once or twice a week. She stopped during her winter moult and was healthy.
In spring the problem returned and it seems that now she has matured she is laying more often. Honey now lays most days and Amber is laying every other day.
This seems to have made her problem worse and now her eggs have blood on them which I know is a bad sign.
After she has laid her egg she bounces back to her normal self again. I am reluctant to take her to a vet as I think they would advise that she be put to sleep. A chicken that struggles to lay eggs has a difficult life.
I don’t feel she is ready to give up yet though. I don’t want her to suffer but I wouldn’t want her to go before her time either. She is my favourite girl although I know we shouldn’t have favourites. She is feisty and funny and she isn’t bottom girl despite being the smallest. She runs to me the fastest on her tiny little legs and she chats to me all the time. She is such a sweetie that it breaks my heart to know there is something wrong with her and we will probably lose her sooner rather than later.
Tonight she ran to the late afternoon treat of sunflower hearts. There were a few cabbage leaves left in the run so I tore them into tiny pieces and dropped them in front of each of the girls (this is a game we play at the end of the day if there are any leaves left uneaten). Amber was quick to run for her bits of cabbage.
She is not ready to give up yet and neither am I.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
You could try and find a vet who could give her a hysterectomy http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/22773/chicken-hysterectomy
The problem is that the vets around here know so little about chickens. When Pepper had her crop problem they didn’t know how to tip her and I had to take her back to the farm. When Treacle was ill they were at a loss and ended up putting her to sleep. I really doubt anyone would have this kind of experience. The other thing is as much as I love her it is an awful lot of money and we are not really wanting to spend that kind of money on surgery that such a tiny fragile girl may not recover from. It is difficult but at the moment we both feel we must wait for a bit and see how she goes on.
I am so sorry. I really feel your pain. And I’m sorry you don’t have a bird friendly vet local to you. They really are worth their weight in gold.
I definitely see the stripe you are talking about. They run the direction that the egg comes out so it’s like there’s something in her that is making it difficult for her to push that egg past and now it’s bleeding. And she’s such a sweetheart.
I wish I had better advice for you. I wish you were closer. I’d give you the name of my vet. They are not experts but really pretty good and I can at least get some advice and direction from them.
I wish we were closer too. I have done so much research but just don’t know what else I can do to help her. It frustrates me that I know far more about chickens than my vet does. Last year he tried looking things up on the internet and didn’t find answers, well I can look things up on the internet. She is a sweetheart but she is also tiny and I wonder if that’s part of her problem. Being tiny makes her extra cute but extra vulnerable. I will keep researching.
I agree with you about the vets around here .I have only found one that really cared and treated my girls like they should have been treated .Sadly she has now left the practise.
When I found Rosie in the coup I was so relieved as I did not want the vet to be involved. I think unless the blood gets worse I would just give her extra TLC and hope she does not suffer too much .You never know it may resolve its self . Fingers X
I agree. I am giving her as much T.L.C. as I can and I keep hoping a miracle may happen but I know that is unlikely. I gave her yogurt yesterday and am giving scrambled egg and have bought some fish. I am giving mash each morning, anything to keep her eating which she is. As long as she is eating I know that she is not giving up.
You could try to feed her more carbohydrate (like wheat) and less protein. This could slow down egg laying and/or give smaller eggs.
I am giving her some corn each day and cabbage in the morning and apple in the afternoon (for all the girls). I think I will try less protein for a bit and see if it makes a difference.