Egg Yolk Peritonitis -- 20 month old Rhode Island Red.

[pwand]

I am so sorry to hear that you lost Iris so unexpectedly and your daughter finding her dead.

The other possible cause could be she had a broken egg in her that came out and the birds ate it. I know they haven't been laying, however, its always possible. They feel so unwell after and it can kill them pretty fast. I had one that had that happen to mine a few weeks back, a soft egg shelled broke inside and came out of her and she had blood that came out. The birds went after her and pecked her vent, it happened so fast. If you look farther in, you might see her sore and bleeding. She also passed some blood after being in the house for about three days later. Its so hard to know sometimes. It still doesn't hurt to treat them for coccidia.

It sure is a life experience for everybody. She was a beautiful hen. You can share whatever you chose on your thread, it your thread and I enjoy reading it.

Again, so sorry for your loss.

I am going to ask you a question that may be hard to think of doing, going to ask anyways, any thoughts about opening her up and having a look or sending her for a necropsy?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

pwand. That would be another logical explanation for Iris. Hmmm. Makes me think. We did have two "rubber eggs" a few weeks ago. one egg appeared to be more of a "clump" and the other with the membrane on it. If the clump one was Iris' then that scenario would be more likely.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your loss.

-Kathy

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Thanks Kathy. Kind of a fluke deal.

 

[pwand]

How is your daughter making out?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

She's ok. We said our good-byes to Iris and petted her and know there's a heaven for her to chook around and there's a couple handsome roosters up there waiting for her so she's not alone.

So that helps get us through.

She's seemed to have moved on with it...and understands that chickens can be fragile...try as we may to maintain their health. I told her that maybe I should wait to treat the rest with the medicine I get from (bigger) town later this week --(the corid). She said, "No, Mom you treat them RIGHT NOW with what you have." She's tough as nails. I think she's probably right too.

We tucked Iris in the Freezer to wait for our Thaw this spring for a burial. I thought about doing an autopsy but then saw those blood strings, associated behavior and thought I had my diagnosis until pwand you offered up the broken egg scenario. Maybe when I bring her out this spring I can make a quick incision to check her before we put her in her final resting place.

 

[pwand]

Sending hugs to your family.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Thanks so much pwand. You are such a dear. How is your girl that had sour crop last winter, BTW? I go on about mine...I should check in on yours! Ha.

 

[FoxyChicken]

Hey Bogtown, so sorry to hear of your loss and your ongoing battle to keep Rose comfortable!
As I was reading through your thread I sometimes felt like I was reading my own diary! (I don't actually keep a diary, but if I did it would read very much like yours

)
This has been my first winter with chickens and I feel like I've been fighting it the whole time. One girl got sick in the beginning of December (not really sure what it was, just the general puffed up, keeping to herself not laying eggs symptoms) but she eventually came out of it on her own with no intervention from me. She started laying eggs again about a month later, then another one had an impacted crop and possibly had a broken soft egg inside of her that she passed on her own within a day or two, but I was bringing her in to the house twice a day for a week to massage her crop and try to tube feed her water (which I never had success at). She finally got better after a week or two, and now I've got this serious feather picking going on! I'm pretty sure it's from exactly what you had going on: too many treats! It's been so blasted cold though! But I was really starting to notice that they were not eating their chicken food hardly at all, so they must have been just subsisting on scratch. I had been playing around with fermented feed, and they liked it when it was fresh but then after a week or so they wouldn't touch it, and I don't blame them, it smelled like a rotting animal

! So when this feather picking started I baked them flock blocks and threw more BOSS and scratch at them just to keep them busy, and added meal worms for more protein, but they still weren't getting the right nutrition. Now I've just started wetting their food and mixing in some yogurt and Avia Charge (not fermenting it, just wetting) and have cut out the scratch all together. They still get a little BOSS and mealworms in the morning, but they are licking their feed bowl clean now! They definitely seem happier now that I've got things balanced out, with an occasional feather pick out of habit and boredom I think.
Anyway, sorry to drone on and on, but what I'm getting at is that I thought this was supposed to be easy!! Believe me, I have had those "is it all worth it?" thoughts too, but then I picture myself sitting out on the swing in the chicken yard in the sun watching them peck around. I just keep telling myself (and my girls) that we're almost done with this torturous winter and every winter after this one will seem like a breeze!
Oh look, a forecasted high temp of -4 on Thursday...

Hang in there Bogtown. I have yet to lose a chicken and I know I will be devastated when the time comes for any of my girls. My thoughts are with you!

 

[pwand]

Thanks so much pwand. You are such a dear. How is your girl that had sour crop last winter, BTW? I go on about mine...I should check in on yours! Ha.

My hen got impacted crop and very soured from eating straw about three weeks ago, by the time I discovered her with it, the crop was swollen like a balloon. Long story short, the straw had to be removed from her crop, there was lot, and had to deal with the sour crop with Fluconazole. It worked. She is doing great, she is out with the other girls fashioning her apron over the crop area to keep her and others from pecking at it. The crop is almost healed. No more straw, replaced it with shaving. I hope that is the last of those problems. She did well over this past year. She had to make it a one year anniversary for me.

I hope this is it. I had the other hen with the egg broken inside her in my downstairs shower and the sour crop one in my bath tub up stairs. We had to work around shower times until my hen downstairs could go out with her apron over her butt. They are all doing great now. Time to relax. We got 1 ft of snow here over the weekend. It does happen, my chickens love to eat it. Its heavy wet stuff.