Drained Hen Doing Better!!!

[MyHappyGirls]

Our hen Blue (2yrs old) has suffered slow crop issues that caused her to stop laying eggs three times in the last year . Each time seemed to get worse and needed more treatment, 1st time just vomiting her and yogurt, 2nd time vomiting her and stronger yogurt type drink and the 3rd time vomiting her and giving miconazole worked. All of this started before her first hard late fall molt. Our vet told me that there was probably an underlying issue that caused the slow crop. So two weeks ago when I had to take her to the vet (4/15/17) because she didn't start laying again & her abdomen (on a hen it's her rear end just below the vent) started to swell, she was waddling like a penguin & had a "poopy butt" I tried all the home treatments for worms, and egg bound but none worked and over the course of three weeks she just kept swelling more and more. I was so worried because she was having such a hard time and nothing I did was helping. The vet called it EYP and drained over a pound of fluid from her abdomen and sent us home with antibiotics and pain meds. When I got her home she was so much better running around and digging little holes eating and acting completely healthy and vibrant. The antibiotics were to be dosed twice per day and that became difficult because as she got stronger and stronger she got harder and harder to give the little pill to. I started out just holding her and opening up her mouth and popping it in, but ended up having to wrap her up in a flannel and force her mouth open(gently) and get it down that way. So now she is finished with the antibiotic treatment and her abdomen is swollen a bit again, I know she has something going on. Our vet says we can drain her again if it gets too swollen but it will cost $350 to do that. We really love her and don't care if she ever lays again. She is our pet and we dont want her to suffer either.

She has been acting normal (aside from laying eggs) she has some poopy bum but I will bathe her to get that off. The poopy butt is happening because the abdomen is swollen and so it sort of gets stuck in her feathers. I will try trimming her feathers where the poop sticks.
I have researched homeopathy for treating this I found a couple of good sites

http://www.abchomeopathy.com/
http://ucanr.edu/sites/placernevadasmallfarms/files/103000.pdf
http://www.archive.org/stream/poultrydoctorin00tafegoog#page/n7/mode/2up
so I have narrowed it down and am started her on hepar-sulph yesterday
She still has some swelling about a fist size. I am going to keep track of her progress here.
Thanks BYC!!

 

[MyHappyGirls]

I forgot to add that I also began giving yogurt, Host Defense Chaga mushroom vitamins, coq12, and calcium, magnesium & D3 to her food. She has a sister that is laying eggs reguarly.
Blue is an andalusian hen and her sister Happy Feet is a Black Langshen I think .
Happy feet is a larger young lady also two years old and on the heavier side she loves to eat and fill her crop before bedtime and wakes up with an empty crop every day! Because she is on the larger side she has a bit of a sore foot sometimes. I keep a close eye on this and give her a foot soak if she starts showing signs its bothering her by limping or guarding it. Right now it looks like a splinter is stuck in there so she is on daily foot soaks and I am treating her with silicea 6c. She seems better in the morning and worse at the end of the day. She gets her soak just before bed and she loves it! Both of our hens love the bath! Blue falls asleep and Happy feet gets really relaxed. So now I am off to give Blue a bum bath hopefully get her bum better!
Thanks BYC!!!

 

[MyHappyGirls]

Today Blue looks and acts great so far, she is taking hepar-sulph 2-3x per day, I dissolve it in a tiny bit of water then mix it up with some geeks crumbles and chia/flax/hemp seeds or cooked brown rice. At night I have been leaving a little cup with her dose next to her perch and I see her snack on it before bed, it's empty or almost empty in the morning. Both girls have full crops at night and empty crops in the morning...very goos sign when Blue first started experiencing these problems her crop was not getting full despite her strong appetite, she had diarrhea & muscle loss, trouble breathing & a large abdomen (small cabbage size 18oz) before her vet visit, but that is gone her poops are normal not very large but normal enough. I noticed that when she was laying eggs her poops were much larger. Her sister Happy Feet has large poops about the size of her eggs( I would say her eggs are medium size). Happy Feet is taking her dose of Silicea for her sore foot 2-3x per day. She is walking better, laying normally & has a healthy appetite. She has had two foot soaks since this flare-up started 3days ago.
Blue's abdomen is reducing in size to a teenager size fist now & her poopy bum is a cleaned up since her epsom salt bath & blow dry(which she very much enjoys), She also eats some of Happy Feets dose of Silicea. I think we are making good progress I am very happy with our results so far. Thanks BYC for giving me this place to keep track of our progress

 

[MyHappyGirls]

Today Blue's swollen Abdomen is growing again, in the morning it was her egg size, and now in the evening, it is large fist size and squishy. She has not laid an egg. I am changing her TX to dandelion tea and kali-phos, her poops are still looking good and her spirit is still excellent. She is continuing her diet of geeks crumbles, & chaga mushroom powder. I'm also doing energy healing by touch and prayer with her. I really hope we can get this under control and she can live a healthy long life. I gave her about a tablespoon of strong dandelion tea (steeped, then cooled all day with the tea bag) mixed up with the dissolved Kali-Phos and cooked fettuccine noodles. I increased Happy Feets Silicea to 30c and her foot is improving faster. It still feels warm but not hot anymore and the swelling is drastically reduced. If her foot is better by morning I will stop her TX. I am hoping that the dandelion tea will help Blue with its diuretic properties and her abdomen will reduce to normal very soon, the Kali-Phos should help by preventing the yolk from going reverse into the abdomen. Time will tell. Blue's abdomen is not hot to the touch that's a good sign that there is currently no infection

 

[MyHappyGirls]

Yesterday I continued with the Kali-Phos(2times) & dandelion tea(4times) & some energy healing at bedtime. She was not showing any changes, her abdomen was still swollen(large fist size) & her poops still normal. It was hot 80+ degrees,so I expect to see some watery poops but have not yet. I stopped the Silicea for Happy Feet because she is improved back to normal (without a limp) Happy feet is laaying daily (almost I have found 6 healthy eggs within 7days) This morning Blue has improved, abdomen swelling is reduced to normal fist size and poops still normal. Blue is still very vibrant going to bed with a full crop and waking up empty. She is running around eating scratching & preening just like a happy healthy girl. At his point I am not worried about her as much, She hasn't laid an egg but I'm not concerned. I think she is overall improving with dandelion tea & Kali Phos. Continuing the chaga mushroom & CoQ10. Her rear end has some poopy bum but not too much. I will keep an eye on that and if it gets bad again I will give her a soak in epsom salts. Since we don't eat eggs at our house I will scramble them up and feed them to the animals today. We have Chloe & Poppi (8yo Chihuahuas), Captain (15yo ORANGE Tabby cat), Cuddles (2yo Parrot) Happy Feet(2yo Black Langshan Hen) & Blue( 2yo Blue Andalusian hen).

 

[MyHappyGirls]

Just some more information I found on the Web with a homeopathic treatment for egg yolk peritonitis
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/egg-peritonitis
I am going to try this starting tomorrow if Blue gets worse by the end of the day because I read that if the homeopathic treatment doesn't show signs of improvement after first 24 hours or if symptoms get worse then try a different one until you get the right treatment. It is so hard with hens because they hide their symptoms so well!

 

[MyHappyGirls]

I stopped all the treatment on Blue two days ago. She wasn't getting worse or better and I was very busy and gone all day so I couldn't give her any treatments. Yesterday evening when I had time to spend with her she was acting normal (this doesn't always mean a lot because they hid their illness so well) So I checked her out really well and noticed she isn't pooping very much and she is trying to poop but not much is coming out. It looks like she is starting to get poopy bum again. I cleaned all the poop around up so that I can see what is around this morning. Her abdomen hasn't gotten any bigger or smaller (happy!!!) So I checked her sister's abdomen and it's only a little bit smaller(Happy feet does lay small eggs and is about twice the size of Blue). Both girls had nice full crops when they went to bed. I fed then rice with coconut oil, Chaga, & coQ10. I also put cotton balls with peppermint oil around the coop where Rats run because I think the Rats bother the hens (&well they bother me). I am going to go let the girls out of the coop now...

 

[MyHappyGirls]

After thoroughly checking under Blue's perch and watching her for a little bit today I observed normal consistency poops. She ate a lot of rice with coconut oil early this morning when I opened up the coop. When I came back a few hour later she was laying down & seemed to have a heavy time getting herself up from a nap, it's like she was really drowsy, her eyes were kind of foggy and she just walked over to another warm sunny spot and laid down again she lets her wings drop & just sinks into the ground with her tail down and feathers fluffed.. I picked her up and she is definitely more swollen in her abdomen than yesterday evening. I was worried about that. Her vent is not pulsing but she does have some poopy bum back there so I might give her a bath later. So I let her be for a few hours and when I came back with some spinach, seeded bread & corn cobs(favorite treats) she came running over like she usually does. She pecked and pulled very vibrantly at all the snacks and now she is dust bathing in the sun with her sister Happy Feet. I don't know what to do now. I am at a loss, I have a few more treatments to try, colloidal silver, kombucha and milk thistle. I ordered the colloidal silver online & should receive it tomorrow. I don't know how to tell what the underlying cause of all this is. If I could figure that out I could try to treat that. I guess there are actually a couple more things I can try homeopathically (i.e the hepar-sulph & Bryonia together). I really don't want to go through the draining of her abdomen every few months. I just can't do that. Its $350+ each time. Maybe the Vet will work something out with me, at least until I find a remedy that will work forever or cure the cause of all this.

Happy feet laid an egg today with little powdery deposits of eggshell & had some poop on it anyone have any ideas about that?
Or does anyone have any ideas abut Blue?
Thanks BYC

 

[MyHappyGirls]

We are still dealing with the swollen abdomen, it seems like she has a good day then a bad day, yesterday I gave her a bath because she had such a messy smelly bum & I know she loves the soaking in warm epsom salt water because afterwards she is very happy and strong and she holds her tail up and she even falls asleep in the bath I have to hold her because its too slippery but she just loves it & everytime it seems to make her abdomen shrink down a little So I have started her on two sprays on each side of her abdomen of 20ppm colloidal silver, two drops of 120ppm colloidal silver and 2 pellets each of hepar sulph 30c & silicea 30c. She has now developed two little callouses one on each foot I suspect this is from carrying around the extra weight. The vet wants me to bring her in I cant pay the $400 to drain her again. But the Vet did say that her messy bum is due to the swelling and that the baths are good to do to clean that up & for comfort. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the new remedy works. I won't let her get so bad she is miserable again. She is acting normal eating well, even her poops are normal. She is not laying eggs & she is still preening and dust bathing all though it has been drastically reduced in time. She used to spend a lot more time on the bathing & preening. I left a message for the Vet asking if she can teach me how to do the drain here at home and provide the needle & supplies. Hopefully she calls me & says yes
Thanks for reading & if ANYONE has any ideas I would definitely appreciate them!!!

 

[MyHappyGirls]

I forgot to add that she is now on an organic non GMO feed, Milk thistle, Chaga Mushrooms, & coconut oil with brown rice.