5 year old hen, thin, eating active, but slowing down.. diarhrea with yellow white slime

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Hi everyone.

I don't have good news to share. The vet took a look at her today and confirmed that it is most likely another case of EYP. Her abdomen, which I did not realize, has grown much since I brought her inside from the coop a week or so ago. There is nothing that can really be done for her. I asked about euthanizing, but the costs are too high. She looked very weak once I got her into the office. Before I brought her in she had seemed much better and perkier at home. I suppose the trip was stressful on her. She is very emaciated. She did not weigh 5 pounds- my scale was off. The vet recorded her at 3.25 or 3.5 pounds, or something near that if I remember correctly. The object I was feeling in her neck was just her trachea, the vet noted also that you could very prominently feel her vertebrae near it, and perhaps that is what I was feeling.

I want to thank all of you for helping me so much through this. Kathy, I thank you immensely for your time and expertise and your willingness to help- its so appreciated. Now I feel confident that the next bird that gets sick and is in need of tube feelings will be able to. I will know what to do. Thank you for being that one person who helped me over come that fear and educating me! Who knows, maybe in the future I will be able to save a few birds.

As for now, I'm not exactly sure what I will do, but I will keep on trying to keep her comfortable as I can. When she passes, I might do a necropsy, I might not. If I do I will definitely post the pictures here. I kind of just don't want to think about that right now and rather just enjoy the moments I have left with her.
 
Hey all!,

Just wanted to update....

Maple is surprisingly a bit better than she was. She is eating better- probably eating about twice the amount she was before and the best news is that her poop is becoming solid! For the most part, no more watery diarrhea that is bright green except for an occasional few droppings. The poop itself is green, but a light green granular (actual digested food matter) with white specks all through it. She has had very large very smelly normal looking cecal droppings. I had from her one almost normal looking poop with the drop of white urates on top.

There was evidence she was trying to jump out of the bathtub (that's where I've been keeping her). I took this as a sign she is most definitely feeling better. When she was ill she didn't bother to move so much. So, instead of her hurting herself trying to get out of the tub, I put the chicken diaper I have on her and let her roam around the house. I'm not a real fan of having a chicken in the house but its freezing cold outside and this gal has no meat on her bones to keep her innards warm, so this is my only option. She was walking around like nothing is wrong eating whatever small bits of food off the kitchen floor that she could find. She looked really happy, if one can really assess that.. what I mean is she looked and acted fine with gusto. Even the feathers on her head were flat and not raised as they have been for so long. I don't have her out all the time, just when I'm around to watch her.

I have not weighed her yet so I don't know if she is gaining weight or not but I do think there is a bit more flesh on her breastbone- its not as 'sharp'. I've not really been doing anything to keep her alive except making sure she has a clean space, clean fresh water at all times and food- the 'yummy stuff', as that seems to be what she really goes for. Since getting the bad news from the vet, I stopped all meds. (no antibiotics. no vitamins) I didn't see a point in prolonging the inevitable. I didn't de-worm her for the second time either. I'm not sure if I should go ahead and do that now... kind of worried it could effect her possible recovery. You know, I don't want to effect whatever is working for her now. I am not really sure what to do as far as medication... sometimes I think I should start again, but I'm really worried I could mess something up. Sometimes it seems the body knows better than what we think we know and its better we just let it do its thing. I'm worried about upsetting that balance, although before, I'm fairly certain that the oral chicken vitamin water helped a lot. I was using a product called "nutri drench" I got from Stromberger's online. I think this helped a lot in her times of physical stress. I imagined that her anorexia was just very hard on her heart. No real nutrients to keep it pumping well and efficiently.

To be quite honest, and I want to be clear, I don't know if this is just a fluke, her getting better, that is. There is evidence that she has internal problems probably due to internal laying, due to some hard lumps in the abdomen. I believe what the vet told me is correct. I will probably loose her sometime in the near future to this. I think maybe she's just had enough time to rest and receive good care and been away from stress that her body is recovering a bit.

I just wanted to update this in case anyone was periodically looking to see necropsy photos or something.. it seems that her death won't be soon now. It seems like she may recover for a while. I've had other hens that were like this- getting ill then recovering. I also think that the cold really is tough on sick birds... too much energy being used to conserve heat when it is needed to fight illness.etc. There's also the fact that she is being spoiled with goodies and that when the weather outside gets warmer (45 to 50 degrees F) and sunny she gets to go back outside. I think this helps boost her morale. When she is with her flock mates, she acts compleately normal, then comes back to the door of the house when the temperature drops.

I will still update this thread periodically, and when she does pass, if I'm able to, as I stated before, I will do an (amateur) necropsy and take pictures and post them.
 
Just an update...

Maple is still doing well, holding steady. She looks and seems better. Her fecal matter seems to be returning back to normal. She seems heavier, but I think her weight gain is not in the normal areas because her breastbone still seems extremely prominent while her lower abdomen seems to be getting heavier. She is back to eating regular chicken food, although I also have for her treats to choose from. She is still rather choosey, and oddly, every day its a different food she dives for. For example: One day it might be scrambled eggs, and the next day she won't touch the eggs. The next day it might be corn, or oats.. and other days she won't touch that but will go for the protein (usually some leftover ground beef) instead. So I find that peculiar. I'm not sure if she is drinking water as much as she was before. Her comb seems better, but a little dry at the top, whereas before it was all dry and withered... I wrote about this when I noted before that she was dehydrated. I'm going to be giving her some fermented feed in a few days as long as it turns out ok... its brewing now.

Her appetite has definitely increased. since the last time I posted So has the output (poop). She eats about twice as much as she did in the last post, however there are some days where she does not eat as much. Its been less and less diarrhea, less and less dark green poo, vivid green poo, green with undigested materials like corn kernel coverings/sheathes found in her fecal matter. She has had almost normal looking cecal poo now... She did not have any cecal droppings before that I could make out. Her poo is still a hue of green though. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. I'm concerned that she is not adequately digesting her food... it is grainy when it comes out. I have seen the return of the white urate- looking normal, in fact today she did her most normal looking poop in a long while... (here is a photo of it. Its the one on the right...)



The one of the left is what she normally does and has been doing for the past week or so. Sometimes it has some yellow/white/clear slime with it, but not that often. Here is a close up of the one on the left...



Does that look like undigested material, or is this still considered diarrhea?


I don't know if I mentioned it, but she is a very hard lump in her lower abdomen next to her inner thigh. It seems to be growing.
hmm.png
I know that is not a good sign.

Her feathers are not ruffled anymore. Here is a head shot of her taken just minutes ago...



Overall she seems to be resting comfortably. She stands most of the day and walks around inside the tub. I have not had her back in the house- her diaper failed somehow once and I'm not going to take that chance again. (too risky for human health!)

Oh I should also note that I still have not given her any more antibiotics and I have not given her the second dose of valbalzen. I'm just keeping her calm, clean, warm and well fed.

I'm just updating here so that its documented and doing this for the purpose and study of chicken health. I hope this is ok.
 
Maple is still alive and kickin'. She's gained much more weight and is not emaciated anymore. (She is eating well again) She's still on the smallish side, and also still has her abdominal 'lump' which I think is from EYP. I also still have the other sick hen I mentioned in this thread- the R.I.R named "Peanut". I have them in their own pen outside so that they aren't stressed from my roosters, but both of them seem to be doing well for the time being.
 
Thanks Kathy!



Just wanted to post another update- Maple is still doing very well. Has been totally back to normal for months now.

Now I'm wondering what it was that had her so ill for so long!
 

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