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

[Bogtown Chick]

Rose was slowing down today. Little more poo on her fluff feathers. Puffed up...sleepy in the corner. Eating but taking more of her little puffed up snooze breaks. Tomorrow Saturday, I'll bring her up to the house. Fluff Bath, Scrambled egg, some scratch, Baytril 10% 1/2 cc with the food to counter taste issue and discomfort associated with administering the med.

Felt her abdomen...but I have to say that it feels the same to me. Poop is still "okay" looking on the poop board. But going to jump in with another round of antibiotic...just to get a handle on it right away. She roosted herself tonight, yet.

 

[pwand]

Its heart breaking having to go through this. I know this must be so hard. I hope the antibiotics will work. What i have done is put the meds in a piece of sardines, mushed it together. They love the sardines. Mine makes a chatty noise, worried someone is going to get it. its cute to hear.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Thank you pwand for checking in and your wonderful idea of the sardine. I'll get some at the grocery store.

She did okay with the dosing of her medicine for the most part. but I made sure she had some scratch water and some scrambled eggs to get down and mix around with the medicine too. She is such a sweet bird. I got her in a luke warm water bath in the laundry room and got her poos off her fluff. She fought it-scared at first...but then she felt that warm water after I got her back down in and started to squat a little more in it. LOL. I'm sure it felt good. Got her cleaned off. Let her snooze while I sang her a lullabye. LOL. "Stay awake" by Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins. All the birds like that one at roost time. But I digress. I wanted to also look her belly over for distension and palpate to see if any swelling is happening. She is firm in the abdomen...not protruding but definitely things are different there and it is not the usual supple chicken abdomen. Then I saw something...

A louse and its nits on her vent feathers. Those darn things. I've never had troubles before. But I suppose in her weakened state she is an easy target for this. Dang it! I've dealt with them before on kids at my job but they are such a pain and I hate the idea of her having them. So in addition to her sitz bath she got some poultry dusting. I checked over a hen that I introduced this fall and she seemed clear...although I'm fairly certain she is the one that brought them in...IDK for sure. She sits next to Rose at roost time. Even though I didn't see any on her I dusted her bum as well. Looked over an australorp and my New Hampshire. Everybody else looks okay...So IDK.. I've also had hay bunked in the coop...they say lice and mites can come in on that too. Anyways when I saw that I thought I should just end this misery for her and to be honest for me. So the lice don't pass to somebody else. But I just dusted her and the silkie and will just trudge on at this point I guess. Plan of attack is I'll let her set with the Poultry dust tonight and then tomorrow I'll bring her up for her usual med dosing and do some nit pickin on a chicken.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Brought Rose up again today for meds and check over. It appears I've got those cooties. No scrambling to get out the light! LOL. I checked over a few more birds and I do see our problem extends beyond Rose. The Roo, and a couple others. I'll just Poultry dust the whole works and clean out the bedding. At 18 below this morning I wasn't jumping to do the whole job. But will attempt to get everything done this afternoon.

Rosie is still drowsy and fluffed up a lot. But then she eats good too. Up and down the roost like a pro.

 

[pwand]

How did the dusting go at 18 below. Burrrrrr. I would say you had your work cut out for you today in that freezing weather. Your birds are loving you now, peaceful non scratching night.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Hey pwand.

Well fortunately it warmed up to 1 degree today. LOL. I went down to the coop just as they were getting ready for the roost. And grabbed each and every one. Premetherin powder (Poultry dust) was sprinkled on every vent and worked into fluffy bottoms. And a dash under each wing. I have a few EE's who I adopted and are quite skiddish as at their previous home they encountered quite a lot of predator attacks and survived. They are friendly enough and know me as the food lady...but just rather not be handled and I always respect that about them. Poor dears. Anyhow they put up quite a fuss for their dusting bath...LOL. Cutie pies. The Roo supervised me closely with those girls and came out of the coop a couple times raising his head feathers up a bit. Concerned boy he was...but he never flogged me. Love my Big Tootsie. LOL.

Rosie who had already had her dusting kicked back on the roost and watched as all the others had their treatment. LOL. She maybe even looked a little smug. Haha.

My hubby talked to me about Rose today and supports our efforts with her and agrees that eventually she'll have to be put down when it becomes apparent that medicines no longer help and she appears in pain. And he said that one there will have a little special burial. I think he's developed a soft spot for the chickens as well as he sees the kids and I enjoying them so. They bring out the softness in us all, I guess.

 

[pwand]

When my daughter was younger, she bagged me to get chickens. I was afraid they would make to much noise, we live in an area that does not allow chickens. A lady said to me they are very quiet, so I agreed and ordered four female chicks. When they started laying they were not quiet or if frighted, you knew about it. I was constantly throwing scratch trying to quiet them down. :/ I feel in love with chickens ever since getting our first four. great experience for my family, especially my daughter. . They would follow her around, little miss hen. My husband goes along with it, he likes them. We even took them camping, we had a seasonal site before the chickens were even considered. It was fun, started off with them as chicks in an aquirium to carting them back and forth in an extra large dog kennel and at night, they slept in that on the back of the truck. We had a temporary fence for them during the day. Some people probably thought we were crazy, however, a lot came to see them with joy. It will always be a positive and fun memory for my children. The things we do for our children. The last hen from the four lived to be 10 or 11. They are such joy.

You might find Rose feels better after the treatment for mites. You must be glad to get that job done, just have to do it all over again in 10 days with Mr. Rooster on guard again.

It will be a hard decision when that time comes for Rose.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Wow 10-11 years. Great job on that pwand. Fabulous!

As well researched as I think I am, I am making errors with them. Their diet, which I knew in the back of my head; I might have kept them under light for too long in their younger years...developing their reproductive system before their time. I'm second guessing myself on that one. But the things I know I've done right by them is letting them free range. Gosh I love that I can do that for them spring, summer, fall. Our winter is so long though and the below zeros are hard on us all.

I had two girls drop rubber eggs last night on the poop board. They were frozen there this morning. So I think things are moving along with the feed changes and of course with the increase in daylight. Unfortunately this doesn't help our Rose any. This morning I dug her out of a nest box. And as an after thought, I realized what a smart move that is on her part finding a dark place to keep herself part of the day. That's my girl.

I love that you brought your birdies camping. LOL. That's awesome. I'm sure the neighboring campers did find conversation in that! Last summer we went camping at a gorgeous spot and the campground hosts had a pot bellied pig with a portable pen. She was quite adamant on going over to our friends' site though as the grass was greener. Our friends loved her though and thought she was neat and told the hosts not to worry about her visting a site over. And of course the kids loved her too.
There are not so tolerant people though. Just as a side note. I live in a remote, wooded area of Northern MN. On the weekends there are many city people visiting their cabins and such. My kids and I went for a cross country ski yesterday and wanted to bring the dog. I usually do take her during the week without issues. And I should have known better on a Saturday. Sure enough policing the trail head was a grumpy old man skier with his rule book telling me to get my dog off the trail. He kept on and kept on about it in front of my kids. I ignored him mostly. Finally after Jasmine's excitement lead her way out ahead of me...I decided to turn around and put her back in the car. It's public property--county trails and she can go out there and hunt grouse with my husband in the fall but these fuddy duddies from the city just are used to rules and like them apparently, even though there is no legal basis for them. ugh. I understand not everybody likes other people's dogs. But I tell you I know there's an older guy that skis out there with his dog during the week and that dog barely leaves a mark on the trail and him skiing with his best friend doesn't bother me one bit. I'm sure that dog gets that old guy out there every day he can for his exercise...and think of the good that's doing keeping that guy's heart in good shape. IDK.... I'm still stinging about my tongue lashing I guess. LOL. There's too many rules in the world these days.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

pwand I was thinking of poultry dust again in 6-7 days. Maybe I should look up poultry louse life cycle. Maybe a little googling is in order.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

You are right pwand. 9-10 days would be more appropriate for the life cycle. I also read an article that a small louse load is normal on chickens and not harmful.

I'll rationalize out this treatment this go round though in that it's winter with below normal temps a lot of the time. Again -15 this morning on the car. There's just been a lot of coop time and they don't seem to dust in the dusting bowl I have for them unless it's a good 20-30 degrees outside there in the run.

Rose is up eating and getting her medicine. I took a picture of her as she rested on the towel as she ate. I'll post it later when I get a little more time. It was cute. Breast feathers in the bowl. I think she was warming her feet from our walk in the cold to the house. Gosh she's a cute one.