Sick Dorking.

[heartsizedfarm]

My two year old Dorking has been slowing down the last few days. Her breathing is laboured and raspy. Her crop feels empty and her abdomen feels spongy and full. Her poop is a greenish clump with wet yellow liquid around it. Any ideas what I'm dealing with? Any suggestions for treatment?

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Her abdomen looks more swollen now and her vent is purple. Guess I'm off to the vets.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

In case anybody has something like this I'll finish the story. Vet found that her lungs and abdomen were filled with fluid. She could hear the rattle in her lungs and she aspirated the yellowy watery fluid from her abdomen. So she felt that the hen's system was breaking down. Heart failure or liver failure. Probably wont last the night. We discussed, then decided to give her a big dose of morphine so she wouldn't feel pain. I brought her home and tucked her into the coop with her friends. She is breathing in an obviously distressed way, but hopefully the morphine is helping too.

Her name is Jane. She laid the prettiest pale pink eggs. She loved milky bread. Her sister died after a hawk attack. She was never mean. She dust bathed in my asparagus patch. Her tail feathers looked like a Spanish fan.