{"id":1617,"date":"2022-06-01T16:04:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T20:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/?p=1617"},"modified":"2022-06-02T08:33:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T12:33:56","slug":"hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>We get occasional hen health questions like this:<\/h3>\n<h4><strong>Question: <\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>I\u2019m hoping you can provide a little advice. One of our six three-year-old chickens has been laying eggs that are so soft they break immediately, sometimes the shell is just a shriveled-up little blob, and once or twice I didn\u2019t see any shell at all, just an egg. At any rate, it\u2019s a mess we have to clean up.\u00a0 We do know which one it is, and she seems fine otherwise. I\u2019ve read stuff online about soft shells and calcium, etc., but nothing specifically like this. They get oyster shells and ground-up eggshells, and none of the others seem to be having any problems. Is there anything we can do specifically to treat her?<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Answer: <\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Glad to hear the others are ok!\u00a0 There could be several things going on, such as an infection of the shell gland and oviduct (salpingitis), or a failure of this bird to absorb or metabolize calcium (could be congenital, or due to lack of light, failure to get to the feeder {bullying?} or other abnormality), or sometimes can be a manifestation of Infectious Bronchitis or of an adenovirus (Egg Drop Syndrome).<\/p>\n<p>Please review your nest box hygiene and management, just in case it&#8217;s salpingitis. If you decide to euthanize the bird, we can do a necropsy for you to try to figure out what went wrong.\u00a0 To learn how to submit samples and to learn more about the lab, please visit University of Maine Cooperative Extension&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/\">Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also, don&#8217;t forget we are still concerned about avian flu: keep your flock separated from wild birds! Please keep your flock inside until later in the summer, and please use special care to keep your birds biosecure.<\/p>\n<p>Thank You!<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 Anne Lichtenwalner, DVM Ph.D., University of Maine Associate Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences and Director of the UMaine Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We get occasional hen health questions like this: Question: I\u2019m hoping you can provide a little advice. One of our six three-year-old chickens has been laying eggs that are so soft they break immediately, sometimes the shell is just a shriveled-up little blob, and once or twice I didn\u2019t see any shell at all, just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,2],"tags":[44,54,53],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hen-health","category-news","tag-avian-health","tag-egg","tag-hen"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022 - Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022 - Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We get occasional hen health questions like this: Question: I\u2019m hoping you can provide a little advice. One of our six three-year-old chickens has been laying eggs that are so soft they break immediately, sometimes the shell is just a shriveled-up little blob, and once or twice I didn\u2019t see any shell at all, just [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-01T20:04:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-02T12:33:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"msnowden\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"msnowden\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"msnowden\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#\/schema\/person\/f0d5c5e075847442b55f065f04825236\"},\"headline\":\"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-01T20:04:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-02T12:33:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/\"},\"wordCount\":331,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Avian Health\",\"egg\",\"Hen\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Hen Health\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/\",\"name\":\"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022 - Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-01T20:04:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-02T12:33:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#\/schema\/person\/f0d5c5e075847442b55f065f04825236\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/\",\"name\":\"Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory\",\"description\":\"Information you can use. Research you can trust.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#\/schema\/person\/f0d5c5e075847442b55f065f04825236\",\"name\":\"msnowden\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9c868d0e618a8996db6b8ead21c7b4edabc3f0ef82d6b03c5fb54e373687a01?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9c868d0e618a8996db6b8ead21c7b4edabc3f0ef82d6b03c5fb54e373687a01?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9c868d0e618a8996db6b8ead21c7b4edabc3f0ef82d6b03c5fb54e373687a01?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"msnowden\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/author\/msnowden\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022 - Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022 - Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","og_description":"We get occasional hen health questions like this: Question: I\u2019m hoping you can provide a little advice. One of our six three-year-old chickens has been laying eggs that are so soft they break immediately, sometimes the shell is just a shriveled-up little blob, and once or twice I didn\u2019t see any shell at all, just [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/","og_site_name":"Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory","article_published_time":"2022-06-01T20:04:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-02T12:33:56+00:00","author":"msnowden","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"msnowden","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/"},"author":{"name":"msnowden","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#\/schema\/person\/f0d5c5e075847442b55f065f04825236"},"headline":"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022","datePublished":"2022-06-01T20:04:53+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-02T12:33:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/"},"wordCount":331,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["Avian Health","egg","Hen"],"articleSection":["Hen Health","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/","url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/","name":"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022 - Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-06-01T20:04:53+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-02T12:33:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#\/schema\/person\/f0d5c5e075847442b55f065f04825236"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/06\/01\/hen-health-q-and-a-june-1-2022\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hen Health Q&amp;A, June 1, 2022"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#website","url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/","name":"Cooperative Extension Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory","description":"Information you can use. Research you can trust.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/#\/schema\/person\/f0d5c5e075847442b55f065f04825236","name":"msnowden","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9c868d0e618a8996db6b8ead21c7b4edabc3f0ef82d6b03c5fb54e373687a01?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9c868d0e618a8996db6b8ead21c7b4edabc3f0ef82d6b03c5fb54e373687a01?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9c868d0e618a8996db6b8ead21c7b4edabc3f0ef82d6b03c5fb54e373687a01?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"msnowden"},"url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/author\/msnowden\/"}]}},"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":52,"label":"Hen Health"},{"value":2,"label":"News"}],"post_tag":[{"value":44,"label":"Avian Health"},{"value":54,"label":"egg"},{"value":53,"label":"Hen"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"msnowden","author_link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/author\/msnowden\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":52,"name":"Hen Health","slug":"hen-health","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":52,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":52,"category_count":2,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Hen Health","category_nicename":"hen-health","category_parent":0},{"term_id":2,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":145,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":145,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":44,"name":"Avian Health","slug":"avian-health","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":44,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":32,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":54,"name":"egg","slug":"egg","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":54,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":53,"name":"Hen","slug":"hen","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":53,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1629,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions\/1629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}