I have a 5 year old austrolorp hen with cancer

AceSierra

Songster
Jun 2, 2020
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So my almost 5 years old hen has been acting lethargic so I took her to the uga vet Here in gerogia last wensday night because I know chickens can die just from a few day as soon as any symptoms arise. Her crop was really full and distended and the night before that she had a soft shelled egg break inside of her (it's happened often the last few years I give her probiots ans antibiotics whenever it happens.) But she was really lethargic and not eating and drinking alot of fluids. They kept her over night and had her scheduled for an exotic vet to see her the next day. The next day I tell them all thay had been going on and they do blood work,parasite smear, check vitals weight etc. She has no parasites and they flushed out her crop. We opted to do an mri to see what was going on and she has 2 pretty large tumors and a few small ones. The largest and a few scattered are in her ovaries (I'll include pictures below) theirs nothing they can do because of the likely hood she would bleed out during surgery and the cancer would just grow back and spread to more vital organ. With her having cancer her immune system is comprised and she can no longer lay normal eggs. Because of this immune system compromise she's more likely to get sick and have sour crop. (I've had a chicken before her with mareks a type of cancer causing disease but this one is called carcinomatosis and is extremely common is egg laying hens) she Is vaccinated and currently still eating they recommended I switched her to an all flock diet so she is eating purina flock raiser. She's just now started eating pretty good again but she's not drinking on her own I've been having to force water in her with a syringe. Iconsider her eating anything a win so I've been giving her lots of meal worms, crickets, kale, greens, preobiotic yogurt, and the occasion cheese cake which is her favorite. She is an indoor chicken (who wears a diaper lol) and sleeps inside with me and a 3 year old silkie rooster. I've had her since she was a baby she's the love of my life and an amazing girl I just want to know what I can do to make these last few months the best for her. She's currently on antibiotics/anti-inflammatory medication and antifungal meds. We've been going outside everyday for the last few days because she loves the sun and her dirt baths. She's underweight right now and one of the medications said it could cause anorexia and diahrea so I'm also wondering if I should stop using it after awhile.
 

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I'm wondering if this has anything to do with what we're feeding our hens and their breeding to mass produce eggs. I never new how great and kind and funny chickens could be before her so I hope to take better care of my 3 year old silkie as well as her in the future (my silkie is doing fine he's eating and running around great. It's really sad but I'm glad for all the years I've had with her. Her sister only got 1 and half years before she passed of mareks and I got a silkie around when she turned 2 so she wouldn't be alone. I'm in the same situation again lol but I'm not going to leave him alone lol. Only when I work which is 4pm to 12. He's going to get plenty of treats and sunshine
 
I'm wondering if this has anything to do with what we're feeding our hens and their breeding to mass produce eggs. I never new how great and kind and funny chickens could be before her so I hope to take better care of my 3 year old silkie as well as her in the future (my silkie is doing fine he's eating and running around great. It's really sad but I'm glad for all the years I've had with her. Her sister only got 1 and half years before she passed of mareks and I got a silkie around when she turned 2 so she wouldn't be alone. I'm in the same situation again lol but I'm not going to leave him alone lol. Only when I work which is 4pm to 12. He's going to get plenty of treats and sunshine
I'd stop feeding scratch and mealworms today if I were you.
Diets like this can absolutely cause problems with the lady parts of a hen.
Screenshot_20230220-214413.png
 
I know it's been several months since you posted this. Do you have any updates to share? Also, can you describe what your australorp's poop was looking like? Watery with white and green streaks, or something else? I'm so sorry she got sick.
 

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