Pale shelled egg followed by egg with no shell?

[zoella16]

Hi again everyone,

I noticed our Gingernut Ranger was a bit off this morning so I have been watching her closely - first unusual event was that she laid an egg in the pen and it was very pale, almost white (her eggs are usually brown and she always lays in the coop). She then took herself into the coop and laid an egg with no shell which she squished so it was everywhere. I have had a good clean up and she seems back to normal again, scratting, eating, drinking, tail up, lively etc.

Could this mean the fox visited last night and scared her or do you think it is something more serious like egg peronitis? Is there anything else I ought to do now?

Thanks

Zoe

 

[chrismahon]

We had a fox visit few weeks ago and the first clue was two premature eggs under the perch in the morning, poo under the opposite perch to where they normally roost (so they moved in the night) -then fox poo on the footpath. A brown egg laying hybrid probably puts the colour on last, so it would be white earlier and therefore premature. So it could well be a scare, particularly as she is apparently perfectly healthy. Won't be egg peritonitis as that's the egg slipping through a tear in the ovaduct and lodging in the abdomen. Presume she will be back laying normally tomorrow. Need to make sure they are wormed with Flubenvet every 6 months maximum as we let it slip and ended up with odd soft shelled and premature eggs. Wormed them and they are all back to normal.

 

[zoella16]

That's reassuring, thanks very much Chris.