In CT, they test as part of the necropsy offered by the state vet. I would assume they do the same in VT?
@Abbie.S I also like using a crate or similar to integrate birds when introducing–works great! Although I’ve found that introducing multiple birds into a flock all at once is pretty easy. Lots of newbies seems to = not a whole lot of angst!
Oh, did she have a necropsy done? I misread. Sorry about that, OP!
That works too 
There was a necropsy done on the first bird we lost this year, haven’t gotten anything back on the second. I looked up the symptoms for Marek’s disease and neither bird fits any of the symptoms. The first bird just seemed lethargic and depressed but no other outward signs of illness. The second bird looked much more ill - lethargic, enlarged pupils, was constantly tucking one foot, ruffled up, not eating/eating minimally on her own.
Sometimes the only external symptoms are anorexia & ceasing to lay. However, if the first chicken was necropsied & didn’t come back positive, then it is highly unlikely to be Mareks. I always raise the possibility whenever there is no other explanation for a chicken taking ill & dying, as the symptoms can be extremely vague.
Another possibility is that they were patented production line birds. Those often develop internal maladies & don’t last as long as “normal” hatchery or breeder stock.
I’m so sorry you are having all this trouble.
I’m baffled why AVIAN vets won’t treat chickens or ducks. At least they won’t in my area. I understand why they won’t treat large or commercial flocks, but our backyard chickens are much more like pets. If we’re willing to pay the high cost of a vet visit and treatment I’d think an avian vet would take them on.
I had to go to the University of Wisconsin vet school to have the “exotic” vet look at my injured duck. He did a great job and didn’t make me feel ridiculous.
I’m glad to see this thread bumped! @Abbie.S how are your chickens doing? Was just thinking of you and your flock the other day!
Aw, so kind that someone is thinking of my feathered friends!
The 2nd necropsy on the sick Australorp didn’t come back with anything conclusive, which was frustrating. We’ve not lost any other birds and the three hens that were quarantined with the sick Australorp ended up recovering well and returned to laying. We returned them to the rest of the flock this past weekend.
So right now everyone looks happy, healthy, getting lots of sunshine and fresh air…and still not laying much. I’m at a loss. They have free access to fresh water, a 20% protein granule feed, oyster shell and they are getting a couple handfuls of black fly larvae/meal worms per day in addition to whatever they scratch up outside. I’m noticing a few times a month that there will be a crushed egg in a nesting box, and twice we’ve gotten what my husband calls “alien eggs” - there’s a full yolk and eggwhite but the shell is soft and squishy, like a water balloon. So all that points to a calcium deficiency, which I don’t understand if they have free access to calcium.
What a bummer to not get answers from the necropsy! Glad to hear everyone seems to be doing well, though, yay!
I’ve seen that salpingitis can contribute to reduced laying and shell-less eggs. Maybe something like that is going on? You don’t really see lash eggs until the infection is well advance. Not much you can do about it, I don’t think 
Production birds are also bred to lay A LOT that first year, and they often peter out pretty quick after that. My neighbor is facing kinda the same thing–her small flock of 3 yo production red hens is barely laying. You’d think they’d still be going a little? They’re not that old! But nope.
Maybe time for chicks? 
You know, you said a ways back you were having URI issues and tried Tylan… I’m wondering if you didn’t get Infectious Bronchitis in the flock. It’s a virus, so doesn’t respond to antibiotics (sometimes they’ll seem to improve a bit but that’s usually because they can have a secondary bacterial infection at the same time) and it’s spread by wild birds. What IB does though is messes with egg production: you’ll get wrinkly eggs, and fewer eggs. I have one that lays an egg with a bulge all the way around the center with a very fragile shell and those often break in the nest. It can take them quite awhile to recover well enough to lay normally again, I think it’s something like 3+ months, maybe 6.
The shell-less eggs (water balloon ones) do sometimes happen in any layer.
I think so, re: some chicks.
I looked up “lash eggs” as I’d never heard the term before. Not what we have going on - these eggs literally were otherwise perfect eggs on the inside (we didn’t eat them but did break them open to check them out), and looked like a normal egg on the outside except you’d go to pick them up and it was like a balloon-like exterior.
So we may very well just have some spent hens, which is a bummer. I hate to kill things just because they aren’t producing anymore, but when it’s 3/4 of the flock, that’s a bit harder to justify…
@Mosey, do you know if you can have Infectious Bronchitis affect birds and not cause any symptoms other than showing up as lack of egg production?
At this point it’s been easily 6mo, if not longer, of the egg production issue.
I think it can present very mildly, it basically makes them wheeze and sneeze, you don’t get a lot of discharge like with Mycoplasma or Coryza.
They could also just be spent hens too, like you suspect. Or it could be both.
Yeah, I’m not saying that the shell-less eggs you’re seeing are lash eggs. But the infection that causes lash eggs can also reduce laying and cause shell-less eggs, before it advances enough to cause lash eggs.
I had one like that, I think. Regular eggs with no shell despite no issues in the others and plenty of calcium available. She was a little puny for a few days, and then died, and when I opened her up, her ovaduct was hugely inflamed and infected looking. Very clear why she died I never saw a lash egg, but do think it was salpingitis.
@Simkie, with the length of time this has been going on I’d sure hope it’s not salpingitis…
Either way, I feel like we’ve exhausted what we can do as everyone right now appears healthy and content. I think we’re going to see if the change to warmer weather brings about a change in egg production and if everyone stays healthy. If no to the former and yes to the latter, we’ll probably be euthanizing a few hens 
Honestly, if we had the space, I’d just create a “retirement flock” of hens that are healthy and happy and served their purpose but don’t lay anymore and let them live out their days in peace. It’s just hard right now to know who is laying and who isn’t because all the eggs are brown except for the sole Ameraucana hen.
I know deworming and de-lousing has made a big difference in my flock this past week. I had so much going on with my mom’s illness that I basically kind of forgot, and I feel terrible about it. I usually do it fall and spring and did not last year at all 
The 3 production reds kept laying like normal but my Rocks were really wiped out. I butchered a couple for different reasons last Saturday and decided to open up their intestines a bit and pulled out a roundworm and about DIED. Two days post deworming and they’re all laying, it’s amazing and I could just kick myself. I’m using Valbazen, for what it’s worth.
I dewormed the whole flock with Safeguard within the last two months. The quarantine group got it about 2 months ago, the “healthy” group about 2 weeks ago. The quarantine group started laying again within a couple weeks, but it could be coincidental.
They can live a surprisingly long time with a chronic infection
One way that I’ve read of to see who is laying is to squirt a little food dye into their vent. The egg will come out with a little color.
Or you can trap nest! https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/frostonchickens/items/show/205
Were you able to rule out any egg eaters in the flock?
FWIW, I have … 21 hens here. They are all 2 or 3 years old. I get…hmmmm…between 6-9 eggs a day right now. None are production birds, they’re all heritage breeds. Given the age of the hens, it seems to be an okay number of eggs?
Just how little is your flock laying?
Hmm…so we have 10 hens, one of which is ancient and definitely not laying but super sweet so we kept her around. So 9 that should be laying.
Out of an average week, about 3 days are no eggs. The days we do have eggs we average 1-3. The Ameraucana pulls most of that weigh, with about 4-6 eggs a week. The three healthy Australorps that we just put back with the rest of the flock were averaging 2 per day while in quarantine, so they’re doing pretty well. That leaves the Wyandottes, and I’m guessing either all of them are laying super sporadically (one egg or less per week) or one of them is laying a couple eggs per week.
It’s quite low no matter how you cut it. We were up around your production numbers prior to the start of whatever is going on.
Those numbers do not include crushed eggs, etc.
So, in a week, you’re getting… 5 eggs from the Ameraucana, 14 eggs from the Australorps, and 2 from the Wyandottes? 21 eggs a week from 9 hens plus whatever is soft or they break?
TBH, that doesn’t sound too bad for hens that are in their second year.
That doesn’t line up with your 3 days with no eggs and 1-3 eggs/day otherwise, but not sure you’re counting the Australorps in that, since they’re at 2/day?
How many crushed etc eggs a week? Have you been able to rule out an egg eater in some way?
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