Hen with suspected impacted crop, swelling between legs, no appetite

[Beverrlly]

Hello!
I've had chickens for many years on and off but I've been (fortunate?) enough to never have a sick bird, just a suddenly dead bird. Here's what I'm dealing with:

About the bird:
Speckled Sussex, 1.5 years old. Purchased from MyPetChicken as a 6 week old to replace a racoon loss. The whole flock (just 5 total) is molting and it's shorter days so we weren't getting any eggs at all for the past 3-4 weeks. I don't think she was/is laying at the moment.

How it started:
We found her at death's door lying on the ground of the run on Saturday morning (10/24.) I literally thought she was hours away from death so we placed her on a towel, in reach of water in a sunny spot (nice day, mid 60s) and figured she could at least pass in peace surrounded by her flock mates. Well she continued to lay there alive but not moving, eating or drinking. Just before sunset we placed her in the coop for the night fully expecting to find her gone in the morning. Sunday morning came and she shocked us by being still alive. At that point we decided if she was that determined to live, we were determined to help her.

Set up a "hospital" in the basement: a short rubber water trough with some bedding and a heat lamp (hung fairly high just to keep it comfortably warm as our basement can get chilly.) She has water, chick crumbles (which I thought might be slightly easier for her to eat) and I've been offering her scrambled eggs.


Symptoms on Saturday:

• Listless
• Unable to stand on her own
• Swollen, squishy crop
• Mucousy poop, very watery, some yellow in it

Treatment on Sunday/Monday:

• Copper sulfate solution mixed into water
• Encouraging her to drink often and offering food. She will eat a tiny bit of cheese (her favorite) and drink whenever we bring the water to her so we do it literally as often as we can to give her the chance to get hydrated.
• Nutridrench squirted directly in her mouth (maybe 1ml) just to get some vitamins into her

Symptoms now (Friday):

• Able to stand and waddle the length of trough but just barely. She uses her wingtips like canes to support some of her weight so it's obviously not comfortable to walk around.
• Her crop went WAY down but never goes away completely. It feels gritty, not completely solid. I believe we got the yeast infection/sour crop under control but it never completely empties so I think it must be slightly impacted.
• I didn't know prior to Thursday to check for swelling between her legs but she's swollen and squishy between her legs.
• Poop is minimal but she is pooping so some food is getting through her system. Not sure how to describe her poop but it looks like small tubes of brown.
• She's drinking but hasn't eaten since yesterday morning.

Treatment now:
Copper sulfate solution ongoing in her drinking water
2 days of trying Dulcolax for her impaction. I break open 2 capsules and pour it on her food but she's not eating much.
Yesterday I gave her an injection (a little less than 1ml) of Bio-Mycin 200 because I had it on hand and honestly, she's doing so poorly that I figured it was worth a try.



Things you should know:

1. We don't have a chicken vet anywhere close. The only vet who will treat birds within 100 miles is an exotic bird vet who treats $900 pet birds. I went to him once and it's prohibitively expensive for him to treat my $6 backyard hen.
2. I don't feel capable of doing crop surgery on my own. I watched some videos and I just don't have the constitution to do it on a conscious bird. If I had a way to sedate her, I might try but I also don't have any of the necessary equipment.
3. She's a pet, and I want her to get better but I'm not attached to her the way I am to my dogs/cat. If euthanization is my best route, that's OK.

I guess what I'm really wondering is if my hen has a chance at survival or if I'm just prolonging the inevitable and we should euthanize her humanely instead of letting her suffer. She's much improved from when we found her on the ground but she's kind of stalled and hasn't improved at all in the last few days.

 

[azygous]

Thank you for providing such complete and thorough information. Believe me, it's refreshing and very helpful.

At the beginning of your post, you may have provided the most important clue to what could be going on with this hen. If you've had several chickens die suddenly and mysteriously, that points to an avian virus in your flock. The symptoms your hen has also point to that. If this hen dies, it would be wise to inquire about a necropsy to find out if your flock is carrying an avian virus.
Illinois Department of Agriculture
State Fairgrounds
801 E. Sangamon Ave
Springfield, IL 62702-1813

Meanwhile, your hen could recover with some supportive care as it appears you're giving. Keep that up.

You might try an antibiotic if you have one on hand. If not, you can get amoxicillin here.

https://www.kvsupply.com/item/aqua-mox-250mg-capsules-100-count/P06184/

Your hen may be experiencing organ failure, thus the swelling of the abdomen. Often, we can treat the symptoms and see what happens. If the hen gets better with an antibiotic, she may be suffering from a bacterial infection. If she doesn't get better, it may be a virus at work.

In the event of death, refrigerate her body and call a lab for instructions on how to get the chicken to them for testing. Knowing what has made her sick would help you to manage your flock going forward.

 

[Beverrlly]

I'm sorry--I should have been more clear. I meant that in my chicken-keeper past, I've had hens die suddenly. I haven't had any suddenly die in the past 4 years (minus one raccoon attack where cause of death was clear.) I mostly said that to express that I've never nursed a bird back to health--when they died, they died quickly with no symptoms.

 

[azygous]

I have an avian virus in my flock and I see a chicken die suddenly from it only every four or five years. In other cases, the virus can cause immune system weakness and secondary infections occur. When organ failure occurs, it's often a slow, drawn-out process.

I would treat this hen with an antibiotic and hope she can recover.

 

[Beverrlly]

What kind and dosage would you recommend for an antibiotic? I gave her Bio-Mycin 200 because that's what I had on hand but I can get another antibiotic. I also gave it sub-cutaneously because she's very, very thin and there's not much muscle there. Should I be doing something different?

Also--how long before I "call it" and put her down? If organ failure is a long, drawn out death sentence then I don't want to subject her to that. I'd rather her go quickly with minimal suffering.

None of my other hens are showing symptoms but if (when?) this one dies, I will definitely consider an necropsy.

And thank you for your replies and advice!

 

[azygous]

It would be fair and reasonable to try the antibiotic and if you see no improvement at all withing three days, it would be humane to euthanize.

Continue the antibiotic you have. It's a broad spectrum med and should handle most bacteria. Lets' hope it's an infection and she can have many more years as your pet.

 

[Beverrlly]

AT least now I feel like I have been doing OK by following my instincts up to this point and at least have a path forward now. Thank you so much for the straight forward and reasonable advice. I'll update this thread in a few days so future chicken owners know what the outcome was.

 

[Beverrlly]

Update:
I treated the hen with .30ccs of oxytetracycline for 4 days straight. She's made a lot of improvement. She can stand and walk around much more and she's eating and drinking on her own without encouragement from us. The swelling between her legs seems to have gone down but isn't gone. Her crop never seems to fully empty so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to help the impaction but I'll keep trying the dulcolax. I haven't been consistent with that because I'm trying to make sure I don't dehydrate her. Now that she's drinking on her own, I feel like I could do more dulcolax.