surgery today- Ruthie is gone.

Hey Guys!
I have a situation that has me totally perplexed. I posted this in the raising baby chicks forum first because I didnt think it counted as an emergency, but got no responses...so I'm going to try here. I'm going to give as much information as possible in case something rings a bell to one of you. I would love some input/ideas, as I'm at a loss for what to do and have started to get pretty worried. This is going to be a long post



Ruth is a 6 day old Salmon Favorelles chick. She was ordered from My Pet Chicken, vaccinated for Mareks, on medicated starter crumbles, in a brooder with heat lamp with 6 other chicks of mixed breeds. They have had water with Nutri-Drench one day, water with Save-A-Chick electrolytes another day, and always free choice plain water when I offer supplemented water as well.

The first day they arrived, her little eye was swollen shut. I've experienced this before with chicks of her breed because they are so light in color and tend to get their eyes pecked at. I assumed this was the case with her. It looked a little infected so every day I have held a warm wet compress to it, and applied terramycin eye ointment. As of today her eye has opened and seems much better.

She is eating, drinking and pooping. She has grown since her arrival.

Saturday night I noticed when holding her for the evening pasty butt check that she has a swollen area on her lower abdomen. She has not been pasted up a single time, and I am 100% certain that this is not her crop, which is filling and emptying daily. It is however on the same side of her body (right) as her crop. It is roughly an inch around, round, and feels fluid-like. If I part the down and look at the skin it looks redder than usual. It seems to be growing, which has me worried.

Here are all the possible options I can think of:

1. Ascites? It seems like if this were the case the swollen area would be more gradual and the entire abdominal area extending to the vent would be swollen, which it is not.

2. Infected area of egg yolk absorbtion? I know this happens, but usually thats what is referred to as "mushy chick" right?- and don't they usually present with immediate failure to thrive? wouldn't think ? Ruth has been acting like a pretty normal chick.

3. Punctured bowel/going septic? They are on pine shavings covered with paper towels, I usually take off a layer of paper towel a day until they are a week and a half at which time I let them be on the shavings, but they had managed to scratch up the paper towels at the corner of the brooder and were digging in the pine shavings and eating some when I came home from work Thursday. Could she have eaten a shaving and punctured a bowel as it moved through? Tonight I noticed a small bit of blood in her stool (I have been watching poops closely ). Cocci seems unlikely, and she's showing no other symptoms- but it made me consider the shavings issue more seriously.

4. Infection related to her eye problem? I just assumed her eye got pecked- I didn't see it. The swollen abdominal area is on the same side as the injured eye. Could it be something systemic?

5. Cyst???

That's all I can think of. She seems well enough, but if this is going to be a problem and keep growing, I'd like to figure out if I can do something to help her. If there is some sort of infection, I wouldn't know where to start as far as which antibiotic would be effective (and I don't like to throw antibiotics blindly at something not knowing what it is).

I'd be open to pulling a little fluid out of the swollen area - it's about the size of a walnut now- but she's so tiny, I'm scared of hurting her.

I'm at a loss.

She's such a good little trooper. I've messed with her so much since they arrived on Wednesday of last week and she still comes running up to my hand every time I stick it in their brooder. She's forever turning her head so her good eye is looking up at me when I come in the room. I'm pretty smitten with this little girl.

I can post a picture of the little sweet pea, but i don't think the swollen area is not large enough to show up in a picture- it's very noticible by touch.

I would love some ideas if anyone has any!
Thanks!
Andrea

Could it be EYP?

FlyHigher said:

Could it be EYP?

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I don't think so...she's only a week old. EYP usually occurs in hens that have been already laying or are of laying age, right?

So there is an avian vet who apparently treats chickens, and he can get me in on Saturday. I'm undecided on whether or not I should bring her in. I'm skeptical of vets opinions on chicken health, but he hand raises baby birds...so....maybe?

I'm so scared to try draining this myself. If she was bigger I would, but she's so small.

Any thoughts on an antibiotic? I have a whole arsenal, but I wouldn't feel comfortable injecting a chick....and the water soluble ones seem to be so ineffective......UGH. I have duramycin, terramycin, ls-50, tylan and penn g.

She's a little more sleepy this morning, and her wings are definitely not feathering out as much as the other girls. The spot looks about the same, perhaps a bit larger and the skin seems to be stretched tighter and more red. It might be enough to show up in a picture so I'll go see if I can get one.

This is Ruthie-





The crusty spot on her back is from when her eye was infected and running, she kept wiping it.



Here are the two best belly shots I could get...This is just a few minutes ago. The spot is about the size of a walnut, squshy and red...

Wow, what a fantastic post- thanks for providing all of the info that is asked for! Hmmm, I always have to start simple and rule out the obvious before we get into rare and unusual....
Have you looked at the other chicks' navel stumps? Have you looked at pics of chicks' navel/umbilical stumps online? Does it seem like that could be in the same region as poor Ruthie's lump? I'm wondering if maybe she's just healing a little more slowly and having some fluid pool in the process. I definitely would not attempt to poke it or draw fluids out at this point- it may very well be a normal part of the body process. I can't tell too much from the pics. Since it is not open and she's still bright eyed and active, I would sit on my hands and observe rather than rush to treat. If you're sure it's not the navel stump, we'll go from there.

TeamChaos said:

Wow, what a fantastic post- thanks for providing all of the info that is asked for! Hmmm, I always have to start simple and rule out the obvious before we get into rare and unusual....
Have you looked at the other chicks' navel stumps? Have you looked at pics of chicks' navel/umbilical stumps online? Does it seem like that could be in the same region as poor Ruthie's lump? I'm wondering if maybe she's just healing a little more slowly and having some fluid pool in the process. I definitely would not attempt to poke it or draw fluids out at this point- it may very well be a normal part of the body process. I can't tell too much from the pics. Since it is not open and she's still bright eyed and active, I would sit on my hands and observe rather than rush to treat. If you're sure it's not the navel stump, we'll go from there.

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Thanks for the response! Any time I have a question I try to be as thorough as possible, since the way I see it, the more information I give, the better the chances are that I will get a good answer. Unfortunately, that makes for very long posts...

It is where the naval stump is- or, part of the swelling is under the naval stump. It does not necessarily seem to originate from there though.
It is definitely a protrusion, and definitely more to the right side of her body. None of the other chicks have swelling like this, and I have never noticed it in a chick before.

I like your idea about fluid pooling if she's just healing a little more slowly.

This is what has me the most concerned- If it could be infection where the egg yolk was absorbed through the umbilical cord- The area of skin that is pulled tight is redder than the rest of her skin....now, that could be just because it is taunt, or it could be an indication of infection, right? I don't want to jump to conclusions and try to drain it or give her unnecessary medication- since she is eating, drinking, pooping, preening, etc....BUT- here's my fear: if there is an infection, right now it might be relatively contained....however, if it gets into her system, she could be poisoned.

I certainly wont do anything until I hear from someone else who has experienced something similar or knows what might be going on.

Another thing to note is that I think it has gotten larger since I first noticed it Saturday night....and it is very much round, like I could almost get my fingers under it- not like roundish on top gradually going into the rest of the body. It feels like a soft walnut under her skin.

I'm open to ideas/suggestions!

BeulahBreezes said:

oh, I don't know....but I just had to reply because she is so cute! Good luck! ~Beulah

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She totally is, right? I love the Salmon Faverolles chicks...so darn cute. Thanks!

I can understand your concern- if it is infection, it wouldn't take long to ravage a little body. If you do have antibiotics that can be added to her water, at the appropriate dosage for her size I think it'd be the best bet to rule out infection without a ton of harmful side effects. She is adorable!