Egg Periontitis?

[Savvylrose]

Hello everyone,
I am in a bit of a chicken trouble situation, and I wondered if you had any input. My Light Brahma, last Friday, started acting sick. I will list the symptoms: Tail down, not walking much, often sitting down, not eating much, barley drinking, her abdomen was really sensitive (I mean "biting" me when I would feel it.) I checked for egg-boundness... first on the outside, then on the (y'know) inside. Now I can't figure her out. I felt no egg, although egg perontitis sounds quite similar. I feel like my current attempt to diagnose is: egg perontitis with the possibility of a bacterial E.coli infection resulting from the perontitis. My other two haven't show any symptoms of sickness. She has been quarantined since Friday, but is no longer improving. She has hardly eaten anything lately. She didn't want regular food/ grain, so I tried egg. Only a tad of scrambled egg was eaten. Then I decided to try cucumber (in case of worms). Sunday night, she ate about 4 TBSP. of cucumber. Since then I don't think she has eaten anything. She is still sipping some water, this evening she didn't want too much.
Anyways, I am guessing I won't be able to fix her. I don't know if she doesn't eat due to depression from loneliness or if she could be contagious. I just really want her to see her friends, but know possible E.coli infections are contagious. Should I give her a better quality end of life with friends? Or would that be selfish to risk the other birds lives? I am at my wits end. It pains me to see her not eating. I don't know if she is feeling any pain or if I am starving her to death. I don't know what else to feed her. She just stares at anything I try to give her. I feel no hard lumps of food stuck in her crop. Honestly, every day she still lives is surprising me.
Thanks for any tips that may be helpful. Also I don't have any chicken vets around here, which is why I am try to treat at home. My guess is that she won't be lasting much longer.

 

[Chickenchiquita]

I think my hen is going through the same situation. I hope your Brahma gets better and she can see her friends, I'm so sorry you're both suffering. Someone suggested to me that my hen might have coccidiosis? Maybe that's it. Also, maybe try reposting this to the "disease, illness, and emergencies" tab- it might get more attention!

 

[Shezadandy]

You could try draining her abdomen. If she has a bunch of fluid compressing all her organs, including her digestive tract, she doesn't have room for eating and drinking right now. I'm not saying in any way that draining her will cure anything, but it may maker her considerably more comfortable and give her more quality of life. There's always a risk for introducing infection when you stick a needle in, but if she's just about done either way-- well, I take the risk.

If you've got a farm supply store nearby, generally the larger gauge needles are found in the cattle section where their injectable medications are kept. Otherwise they can be ordered online, but it sounds like time may be of the essence.

A 16 gauge 1" long needle will do the trick. I prefer the 14 gauge, but again, availability is an issue. (I ordered a box of 14 gauge 1" to have around) The goal is to only have to do a single poke. There are numerous videos on youtube that show people using 18-24 gauge needles with tiny syringes poking the poor hen in a bunch of places. Then I found the how-to that made me confident enough to try it. Personally, I don't bother attaching the needle to a syringe any more. I just use the 14 to 16 gauge needle by itself and let the fluid drip-drain into a bucket.

Here's the video.