"cheese curd" eggs

[cate]

One of my 2-year-old production reds is "laying" -- sometimes pooping -- pieces of what appear to be densely congealed egg white. I first found some of this material in the nest box over the summer. It's off-white, rubbery, and smells like egg, or boiled chicken, though there is no yolk and no shell. The shape, too, is not egg-like, but irregular, like cheese curds. However, I can identify vestiges of chalazae (those little "ropes" of white that center the yolk in the egg.

Lately, it's clear she has not felt well -- her energy and appetite have been off -- and over the last 36 hours, she has passed more of this material off the roost at night. It has been some time since she laid normally this season; during her first year of production, I noticed no abnormalities. She gets plenty of food, water, oyster shell, grit, exercise and so forth, and none of my other hens are affected.

I realize this does not sound good, and that she may in fact have some sort of reproductive tumor. But I am curious to hear if anyone else has observed such a thing in their hens.

[Pathfinders]

I see no one has replied to this, so I thought I would, but have to say I've never seen this phenomenon.

Could it be some form of vent gleet? Not sure what else it could be, sorry.

[Altair]

I had a hen(s) with this and also no one seemed to have any answers. I didn't know which hen it was out of six but it was very rare. I had a hen died from what appeared to be a growth in her abdomen but this was over a year after her symptoms and I'm not even sure it was the same hen. I also had one lay something strange. When I broke it open it was filled with something like liquid yolk. Luckily I kept these pictures for future reference:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/Bresis/uh.png

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/Bresis/uhhh.jpg

[cate]

Thanks for trying, gang -- and special thanks for the photos. (What she had been laying looked like the top photo, but there was nothing inside it.) I have a research vet for a colleague, and she wasn't sure what the stuff being laid is, either, though it's acellular, and most probably malformed egg white. In the meantime, I'm no closer to an answer, and things aren't looking good for this girl, who wants to drink a lot but has mostly stopped eating. She seems to now be sometimes pooping just albumen -- white -- of the normal consistency. I've got her isolated now, and am giving her antibiotics, but that's a complete shot in the dark that probably can't touch what she's got...

[Altair]

That's a shame, Cate. I hope that your hen pulls through and at the very least that you at least get to the bottom of this mystery.

[Chrissy]

i had a hen lay one like the pic on top last year. it was the last "egg" of the season. i was surprised when she started laying normally last spring. no other symptoms, just this thing. it smelled really rotten too.