septic EYP - death sentence or not?

[Freia]

I finally got too frustrated stumbling around int he dark trying to find something to help poor Henrietta, so I was able to find the only avian vet in the county. I took her in as much out of curiosity and wanting to learn and understand as much as hoping to save her.

The vet found that she had egg yolk peritonitis. Her abdomen was swollen, spongy, and red, and her breathing was labored from the pressure of the fluid on her air-sacs. She said it's almost always fatal. If I really wanted to try everything, regardless of cost, I could take her to a specialist 50 miles away and pull out all the stops, etc.

We euthanized her.

Now I'm reading as much as I can about EYP to understand why it happens, how to recognize it, what can be done etc. It sounds like a lot of chickens cycle through EYP, getting better and worse off and on, and live quite long that way. It also sounds like some people have success giving aspirin or Baytril to cure it.

Which is it? Are the "cures" really only temporary measures, or do they really work. Could they have worked on my chicken, or being septic, was my chicken likely beyond hope?

I'm just wondering if it happens again, do I put her out of her misery sooner, or should I try one of these remedies sooner. I have lost another hen to this before, so I'm sure this won't be the last I see of it. BTW, that hen did get better and worse several times before she died. Both of my hens who had this were laying shell-less eggs or just yolks for a while before getting sick.

 

[casportpony]

I finally got too frustrated stumbling around int he dark trying to find something to help poor Henrietta, so I was able to find the only avian vet in the county. I took her in as much out of curiosity and wanting to learn and understand as much as hoping to save her.

The vet found that she had egg yolk peritonitis. Her abdomen was swollen, spongy, and red, and her breathing was labored from the pressure of the fluid on her air-sacs. She said it's almost always fatal. If I really wanted to try everything, regardless of cost, I could take her to a specialist 50 miles away and pull out all the stops, etc.

We euthanized her.

Now I'm reading as much as I can about EYP to understand why it happens, how to recognize it, what can be done etc. It sounds like a lot of chickens cycle through EYP, getting better and worse off and on, and live quite long that way. It also sounds like some people have success giving aspirin or Baytril to cure it.

Which is it? Are the "cures" really only temporary measures, or do they really work. Could they have worked on my chicken, or being septic, was my chicken likely beyond hope?

I'm just wondering if it happens again, do I put her out of her misery sooner, or should I try one of these remedies sooner. I have lost another hen to this before, so I'm sure this won't be the last I see of it. BTW, that hen did get better and worse several times before she died. Both of my hens who had this were laying shell-less eggs or just yolks for a while before getting sick.

Sorry for your loss. Interesting questions... I have at least six, maybe more that I suspect have EYP. Now if I find one laying shell-less eggs, I give it a calcium pill.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Freia]

Sorry for your loss. Interesting questions... I have at least six, maybe more that I suspect have EYP. Now if I find one laying shell-less eggs, I give it a calcium pill.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Yes!!! That is one thing the vet taught me yesterday. A stuck egg, and soft or shell-less ones get stuck easier, will cause the other eggs to back up in the system and get forced into the body cavity, causing EYP. Not only does the calcium give better shells that are less likely to get stuck, but helps the muscles expel the egg. Henrietta did not have a stuck egg, but apparently a chicken laying shell-less or soft eggs is more likely to get EYP anyway.

I take liquid calcium supplements myself. I figure it should be easy enough to give it to any high-risk hens from a dropper. It's raspberry flavored - should go right down.

I also wonder if there are any deficiencies or defect in a chicken which will make it not absorb calcium well. Henrietta had always had pretty thin-shelled eggs, despite using a good layer pellet with lots of calcium and supplementing with oyster-shell. I wonder if giving her some regular doses of vitamin D might have been a good preventative for her? Or could she have been foraging something that would have blocked calcium absorption?

 

[casportpony]

Just lost one yesterday, going to do a necropsy today. I'll let you know what I find.