Drained a Hen, First Time in Years....Removed 660 cc Yellow Fluid RIP, HOPE *GRAPHIC PHOTOS ADDED

[JensChickies]

I'm slogging through moving our website over to a new host/server today, inputting store items (what a job!) and DH did chicken chores. I asked how they were doing today. He said Xander keeps going back inside and looking around and then he starts whimpering. I feel so bad for him! He only had three hens and he's a precious little guy. I hope he doesn't make himself sick grieving over Hope.

Awwww Xander! What a sweetie pie. Maybe you can give them their absolute favorite treats. Just to cheer them up a little.

 

[speckledhen]

Awwww Xander! What a sweetie pie. Maybe you can give them their absolute favorite treats. Just to cheer them up a little.

I will do that. He's a peach of a little rooster and he deserves it. I also feel for Nugget. She and Hope were the only Buffs and they always slept side by side, though Nugget was dominant over her. Dusty is a mean old grumpy heffalump of a hen in her old age so Nuggs has no friend in Dusty unless something shifts with the loss of Hope.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your loss.

-Kathy

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you, Kathy. Hope was not one of my favorite hens, having been very skittish and just not your usual Buff Orpington personality, but cared about her. I never euthanized her because her body kept taking care of the fluids it built up and she never lost her appetite, not for a minute. I figured when she quit eating, we'd put her down, but she never did. Interesting case, this one. She was a giant chick, looked weeks older than the others her own age in other breeds, even her own sister who hatched with her. That hen died strangely as well at only a year and a half old, maybe something genetic there.

 

[abserbean]

So sorry for your loss. I have been reading many of your posts about internal laying/reproductive issues b/c I am going through something with my RIR hen, and is obvious how much you care for you birds. Could you tell where the tumors were coming from? Poor girl hung on for a long time to be so sick.

 

[speckledhen]

So sorry for your loss. I have been reading many of your posts about internal laying/reproductive issues b/c I am going through something with my RIR hen, and is obvious how much you care for you birds. Could you tell where the tumors were coming from? Poor girl hung on for a long time to be so sick.

Thank you for saying so. I'm trying to get a read on what they are. They were up behind where her left lobe of her liver should have been, which I couldn't locate, though I saw some shreds of what looked like it might have been that side of the liver. I can't say what they were, other than fibroid-like and huge. They were not reproductive, I don't believe. I sent photos to someone I know for his opinion. She had no worms, no internal laying, heart was small and pale, left lobe of the liver was more pale than it should have been and elongated but not yellow or spotty. Could have been genetic since I lost her sister under odd circumstances as well. No one else in the pen has ever been ill, just those two hens. I mean, my big old RIR/Buff Orp hen Meg from that same pen just died three months ago-she almost made it to 8 years old, no illness whatsoever, no laying issues her whole life. So, poor little Xander has lost two hens of his now. So sorry, little man that I gave you old hens. I didn't have him when I had Hope's sister.

 

[abserbean]

The fluid looks very much like what you would see with liver failure, at least what it looks like in humans. (I am a biopsy tech, so I help perfom paracentesis on people, but have never had to do one on a hen) I wonder if it was a primary liver issue, or a metastasis. The fact that she lived so long with the issues does not lend itself to metastatic ca though. Thank you for sharing your info with everyone. I am curious as to what is actually going on with my hen, but I think I would have a hard time doing a necropsy on a pet if she doesn't make it. Which seems silly, since I do procedures on people all of the time. Hopefully your little roo will come around, it is amazing how much animals can grieve each other.

 

[speckledhen]

The fluid looks very much like what you would see with liver failure, at least what it looks like in humans. (I am a biopsy tech, so I help perfom paracentesis on people, but have never had to do one on a hen) I wonder if it was a primary liver issue, or a metastasis. The fact that she lived so long with the issues does not lend itself to metastatic ca though. Thank you for sharing your info with everyone. I am curious as to what is actually going on with my hen, but I think I would have a hard time doing a necropsy on a pet if she doesn't make it. Which seems silly, since I do procedures on people all of the time. Hopefully your little roo will come around, it is amazing how much animals can grieve each other.

Thank you for your input. I've done so many necropsies on hens here and some I skipped since I was sure what killed them, but I had determined that I would most definitely open Hope up when she passed to see what had been going on in there for the past two years other than fluid buildup. I've never seen this in a hen here, the huge double tumor. And no others were present, just that one monster inside the poor girl.

 

[enola]

As always......very interesting!

 

[casportpony]

You should email those the the UC Davis labs in Tulare and Turlock, I'm sure the doctors would appreciate seeing them.

-Kathy