Please share your experiences with salpingitis/lash eggs and any possible advice.

[Shadrach]

I've looked after Ex Battery hens for the past couple of years. Salpingistis is a common cause of death for these hens.
I would caution against the use of antibiotics. Many vets will prescribe them for reproductive infections and for many other sicknesses and injuries. One has to make a judgement. Antibiotics kill all bacteria, good and bad. In my experience they can also cause other problems like crop disorders and from what I've seen, they make the hen feel like crap, much as they have me when I've had to take them.
It is very unlikely that a single course of amoxicillin is going to prevent the hen dying. They might, if you are lucky, kill off this round of infection, but in my experience and of others who have kept high production hens, the problem returns.

There are other more effective options in the way of drugs and/or surgery but they are expensive and require a competent avian vet.

Once a hen lays her first lash egg I give them three more months to live. Sometimes they do a bit better than that, sometimes they die a lot more quickly.

Most of the hens I've cared for that have laid lash eggs lay a few and then stop laying altogether. What one has to decide is given the prognosis isn't good, does one want the hen to spend her last days struggling with fending off the negative effects of the antibiotic; say seven days of treatment and allow another seven days for her crop and gut to function properly again, only to find that the infection reapears and one has to go through the cycle again.

The last hen I had die from Salpingitis lived about two months after her first lash egg and from what I could see, lived a very normal life up until the last three or four days.

For many of us even if the money for the other more effective treatments isn't a problem, finding a vet that can carry out the procedures is difficult. For such people, and I include myself in this group, I accept the hen is going to die and try to provide the best living conditions I can and close to the end, give pain reliefe in the form of Metacam or similar.

I was very fond of the last hen I had die from Salpingitis and she had a great life right up until she died. She died with her chicken family, under my chair, looking out on green grass and sunshine with her rooster and frinds close by.

 

[TwoCrows]

Whitetail is a 2yo ISA Brown who was given to me along with her sister from my workplace. I don’t know what breed or age Constance is, she was also given to me along with two others from a client’s family.

ISA Browns aren't a long living breed unfortunately and are prone to laying issues, even dying from them. Production breeds are just that, they lay like mad for a couple of years, and tend to pass on much earlier than other breeds. Many of them are genetically pre-disposed to defects in the laying department.

 

[Lillith37]

Thanks for your reply @Shadrach

I’ve been giving Constance meloxicam which sounds like a similar anti-inflammatory/pain relief medication to the one you’ve mentioned. She seems to be doing well. I guess it remains to be seen what happens. I’m glad to hear your hen’s quality of life wasn’t compromised and that she had a peaceful death. It sounds like that’s the way salpingitis tends to go — they are fine until they are not, and then it’s a quick deterioration.

I do have an avian vet but I’m hesitant to go down the surgery path. I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t necessarily want to set a precedent for myself and I know surgery/anaesthesia has risks. She hasn’t laid for months prior to this lash egg. But maybe an ultrasound and testing the lash material can provide more information.

@TwoCrows I know and it’s heartbreaking because Whitetail is one of my best loved hens, she’s top of the pecking order but falls asleep like a baby in my arms. She always comes up to the window roost and chats to me in the morning when I make the coffee. I’m hoping she’s just got a tummy upset because I gave them some oregano yesterday thinking it might help with immune support, and then they all feasted on snails while I was doing some gardening. I’m just hoping she has an off day and then bounces back.

 

[SmiYa0126]

I've looked after Ex Battery hens for the past couple of years. Salpingistis is a common cause of death for these hens.
I would caution against the use of antibiotics. Many vets will prescribe them for reproductive infections and for many other sicknesses and injuries. One has to make a judgement. Antibiotics kill all bacteria, good and bad. In my experience they can also cause other problems like crop disorders and from what I've seen, they make the hen feel like crap, much as they have me when I've had to take them.
It is very unlikely that a single course of amoxicillin is going to prevent the hen dying. They might, if you are lucky, kill off this round of infection, but in my experience and of others who have kept high production hens, the problem returns.

There are other more effective options in the way of drugs and/or surgery but they are expensive and require a competent avian vet.

Once a hen lays her first lash egg I give them three more months to live. Sometimes they do a bit better than that, sometimes they die a lot more quickly.

Most of the hens I've cared for that have laid lash eggs lay a few and then stop laying altogether. What one has to decide is given the prognosis isn't good, does one want the hen to spend her last days struggling with fending off the negative effects of the antibiotic; say seven days of treatment and allow another seven days for her crop and gut to function properly again, only to find that the infection reapears and one has to go through the cycle again.

The last hen I had die from Salpingitis lived about two months after her first lash egg and from what I could see, lived a very normal life up until the last three or four days.

For many of us even if the money for the other more effective treatments isn't a problem, finding a vet that can carry out the procedures is difficult. For such people, and I include myself in this group, I accept the hen is going to die and try to provide the best living conditions I can and close to the end, give pain reliefe in the form of Metacam or similar.

I was very fond of the last hen I had die from Salpingitis and she had a great life right up until she died. She died with her chicken family, under my chair, looking out on green grass and sunshine with her rooster and frinds close by.

I'm so sorry for the losses of your hens, mine have lived a year and a half after their last bout of infection. They're not battery hens, they're hybrids, Plymouth blues. One hasn't laid at all, the second one lays sporadically.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would not treat with antibiotics since I seldom used them on my hens. Really in the literature I have seen, that once lash material is seen, antibiotics probably don’t make much difference. Some people will do antibiotics though, and I will usually tell people that some use them. They could prolong life, but in my own chickens, I don’t like medicating them, unnecessarily. Most of them will eat when they feel like it and love to hang with their flock, even if they feel under the weather. My flock had infectious bronchitis when they were about 1 1/2, and because it can affect the reproductive tract, a lot had reproductive issues later. Many stopped laying prematurely, and that actually can be a good thing. I always did a necropsy after losing one, just to see what might have been going on inside.

 

[Lillith37]

Thank you for your reply @Eggcessive I always value your input.

How did the infectious bronchitis present in your flock? I’m wondering if mine have any of those dormant underlying sorts of viruses/mycoplasma that have caused other complications or flare ups occasionally. Each of my chickens (except the ones my broody has hatched) have been rehomed to me for one reason or another and I don’t know some of their histories. Some of them get the occasional runny nose, some of them have recurrent crop issues, some of them go through periods of soft shelled eggs.

It’s been such a huge learning curve for me and there have been so many issues I can’t help but wonder if I’m doing something wrong or if there is some other hidden factor at play. There is lead in the soil here as well we’ve discovered so that’s been another challenge.

 

[Eggcessive]

Mine one by one came down with frequent sneezing and mild congestion. They sneezed every few minutes round the clock. I separated the ones doing it, and they recovered in about 3-4 weeks. Then more got sick. They all got it eventually, and I had about 30 birds then. I learned later that IB virus makes them carriers for at least 5 months, and up to a year by some sources. My new chicks hatched or brought in caught it from the carriers that year, but I waited a least a year to hatch any others. That ended the virus finally. But many of my birds had weird eggs, and suffered premature deaths or stopped laying permanently. I never knew how my birds got it, but we have a lot of wild birds who come in for the chicken feed.

 

[Lillith37]

Well I thought I would give an update on this in case it’s useful for anyone else facing similar issues and for my own documentation I guess.

I ended up taking Whitetail to the vet instead of Constance as Whitetail’s condition deteriorated in the days subsequent to discovering the lash egg, whereas Constance seemed to be fine/normal.

Whitetail laid a soft shelled egg, was better after that, but then the next day became lethargic and fluffed up, kept to herself, still with greenish watery poops. I gave her an epsom salt soak in the afternoon which she loved and then she passed some small pieces of what looked to be lash material.

So we went to the vet and Whitetail has since been on a course of amoxyclav 250 antibiotics and she also received the deslorin contraceptive implant. She is significantly improved, appetite is back, droppings normal, she is just resting a lot which I put down to the implant (I’ve had another hen with an implant in the past and saw similar behaviour during the adjustment period). It’s quite sweet because she’s the top of the pecking order and so everyone has been resting more/staying close to her.

All Whitetail’s organ function is fine but she did have inflammatory markers consistent with infection, she’s a little underweight, and unfortunately she tested positive for lead toxicity. There is lead in the soil here. Constance was over 6x concentration of lead in her blood, Whitetail was over 3x. I haven’t started Whitetail on the chelation medication yet because I want to see her stabilised from the contraception first.

I’m fairly sure it was Whitetail who passed the lash egg. Constance does have some swelling in her abdomen (between keel bone and vent) but all my chickens have this to varying degrees. The worst is my broody who also has a slight waddle, and once had a superficial vertical wound/skin tear in the relevant area, which healed quickly and easily with vetericyn application.

Lead toxicity can cause nerve damage which can affect the crop muscle, mostly resulting in liquid not emptying efficiently from the crop. This is what happened to Constance who ended up with yeast and bacteria overgrowth in her digestive tract which made her sick which resulted in the first vet visit where they discovered the lead toxicity. I have other chickens with liquidy crops in the evening and one in particular with chronic slowed digestion.

Lead toxicity can also affect organs over time, particularly the heart. This can lead to hypertension which affects the liver which can result in ascites.

Constance’s organ function was fine when it was tested in August. She hasn’t been laying for several months but considering her lead levels I’m more inclined to believe any abdominal swelling may be related to the lead toxicity rather than salpingitis.