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Author Topic: Deformed egg or something sinister?  (Read 6549 times)

Heather B

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Llangwm Corwen
Deformed egg or something sinister?
« on: September 20, 2014, 08:52:30 am »
Help - anybody know what this is found in the nest box, layer unknown.  I have seen a smaller one before but this is massive!  :o

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2014, 08:59:50 am »

I'm delighted to say that I've never seen anything like it  :D  It looks to me like a growth of some sort - if you're brave you could slice it in half and see what's inside - but stand well back  ;D

Hoping someone who knows about such things can identify it.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Heather B

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Llangwm Corwen
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2014, 09:04:39 am »
Oh heck couldn't do that - its quite sticky as well.  I provide plenty of grit mixed in with the food and separate grit in the run so not sure if it is calcium related - perhaps a constipated hen?!  :thinking:

Greenerlife

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Leafy Surrey
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2014, 09:09:31 am »
Oh good lord!  I feel I may lose my breakfast!


Never seen anything like that - but I agree that you have to slice it. (Shudder)

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2014, 09:16:08 am »
Oh, er, wow!!  Perhaps your hen misread the book where it said "Ova" and has laid you an ovarie!  :o

How big is it?  It definitely needs to be sliced (once your breakfast has settled).
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

shygirl

  • Joined May 2013
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2014, 10:01:44 am »
could be an alien

or it looks like a few yolks binded together.

Bex

  • Joined Aug 2014
  • Wales
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2014, 01:11:56 pm »
I believe it's called a lash egg. It's not actually an egg but part of the chickens inner lining. As I understand it it's caused by a hormonal change, possibly caused by an infection. It may well indicate that she will stop laying soon.

Only advice I can find is try to work out which chicken it came from, keep an extra eye on her general health, if she lays anymore of them and mention it in any future vet appointments.
Little bugs have lesser bugs upon their backs to bite 'em. And lesser bugs have lesser bugs and so ad infinitum!

Eve

  • Joined Jul 2010
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2014, 04:38:02 pm »
Yes, it looks like a lash - a funny beige-ish thing with a strange texture like tofu or some imitation meat product, weird stuff.


The first time I saw one the hen in question was ill afterwards for a few days, then got better again and started laying after a 9 day break (before that and after she laid nearly every day).


I've seen it since but I don't know from which hen and the others were fighting over it and ate it!  :o ::)
« Last Edit: September 20, 2014, 04:40:39 pm by Eve »

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2014, 04:40:56 pm »
I believe it's called a lash egg. It's not actually an egg but part of the chickens inner lining. As I understand it it's caused by a hormonal change, possibly caused by an infection. It may well indicate that she will stop laying soon.



I've always called a shell-less egg a lash egg - where it's squishy like a breast implant but with a normal egg inside, which you can see through the covering thick skin.


HeatherB....you absolutely have to slice it in half, not just because it's yuck to do  :innocent: but so we can see the internal structure.   Maybe there's someone else you can persuade to slice it?

cross posted with Eve
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Heather B

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Llangwm Corwen
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2014, 05:23:25 pm »
Hi there, thanks for all the replies.  I'm afraid I threw it away, I could retrieve it from the wheelie bin!  On of my marans, Dolly wasn't too well at the beginning of the week.  She came out one morning and there was some water/slobber coming from her beak and she excreted water.  I confined her for a day and she seemed to recover.  I do have a couple of sneezy hens whom I treated with Tylan some time ago which made no difference.  They are alright however, in their behaviour.  I'll keep an eye out to see what happens but egg laying has been fairly inconsistent all summer.

Heather B

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Llangwm Corwen
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2014, 05:33:37 pm »
Go on then - here it is cut in half - any more clues?   >:(
 

Eve

  • Joined Jul 2010
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2014, 06:00:37 pm »
A lash (the beige bits) but with something extra in it (the white and red bit), so a lash that developed around something else... :thinking:   

The few lashes I found were always just the beige bits, you've got a special one  :)


Maybe it's an alien after all and you'll make lots of money on it :D  You could always put it in the fridge and send it to the RVC on Monday  :thinking:
« Last Edit: September 20, 2014, 06:04:12 pm by Eve »

Louise Gaunt

  • Joined May 2011
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #12 on: September 20, 2014, 07:38:29 pm »
If that came from a human I would say it looks like an ovary, but I don't know what hen ovaries look like, or why she would pass a whole ovary. I suppose it could have been pedunculated, twisted and then sloughed off, but it doesn't look necrotic.

Eve

  • Joined Jul 2010
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2014, 08:19:06 pm »
Chicken ovaries are nothing like human ones - chicken yolks are not all nicely wrapped up together in a little package to then travel down one by one, the little developing yolks just sit in the body cavity, quite a surprise when you kill and gut a hen for the first time and you see a collection of yolks of all different sizes just sitting inside!  :o  We had only done cockerels until then  :D


Anyway, Heather have a look at this page about halfway down - if this is correct then lashes are created by infections whereby the puss hardens:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/460123/hen-just-passed-this/30


Now I'm intrigued about what it is that might be inside the lashes you found...  :thinking:  It could have started off as a yolk, of course... I know a vet student, shall I ask him?

Heather B

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Llangwm Corwen
Re: Deformed egg or something sinister?
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2014, 10:19:20 pm »
Yes please Eve if you don't mind.  I am tempted to get it back out the bin now and ask a local vet/hobby breeder I know.  I am concerned that a hen could 'pass an ovary' and still be standing however!  That sounds pretty catastrophic to me.  Had a look at the backyard chicken site which is interesting and they seem to indicate a 'diseased ovary'.  If that's the case I need to know the cure and how to stop it happening?  Have I done something wrong?  Is there something going wrong somewhere?  Its hard when your not quite sure who laid it also. :thinking:

 

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