I was given an 18 month old GL Wyandotte in December. The previous owner, who had had her for 9 months, said she had only ever laid a handful of eggs. In the time I'd had her I don't know if she ever laid. She appeared healthy (beautiful feathers, red comb), ate, drank and ran around.
Last weekend, I saw her in the nest box and when I went to check later in the day there was no egg. The next day she had the classic 'penguin stance' of an egg bound hen. I checked her internally and no egg so I wondered if she was an internal layer. If so, her prognosis wasn't good. I put her in the infirmary for a couple of days and it was clear she wasn't getting better I decided to euthanize her.
Here are the post-mortem photos: She's the one on the right. It is clear she had ascites (fluid retention). Once punctured she was full of a dark liquid and was just skin and bones. In the bottom photo are those hard circular things unlaid eggs? Anyone else have experience with an internal layer? This is another lesson to give your birds a routine physical check up so you can spot things out of the ordinary.
Last weekend, I saw her in the nest box and when I went to check later in the day there was no egg. The next day she had the classic 'penguin stance' of an egg bound hen. I checked her internally and no egg so I wondered if she was an internal layer. If so, her prognosis wasn't good. I put her in the infirmary for a couple of days and it was clear she wasn't getting better I decided to euthanize her.
Here are the post-mortem photos: She's the one on the right. It is clear she had ascites (fluid retention). Once punctured she was full of a dark liquid and was just skin and bones. In the bottom photo are those hard circular things unlaid eggs? Anyone else have experience with an internal layer? This is another lesson to give your birds a routine physical check up so you can spot things out of the ordinary.
