Help! had peritoneal fluid removed, & on antibiotics… was better now worse…

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amyduck

amyduck

Songster
11 Years
Jan 20, 2011
319
199
241
Oakland, California
I have a sussex hen that has had yellow diarrhea going on for about 5 days - I've seen no blood at all. She is probably about 5 years old. She is alert and is eating, not fluffed up at all, but is being very picky about what she eats. I've tried yogurt - she's not too interested, but very interested in fresh spinach and hardboiled egg. She still runs when called but doesn't get up on the morning preening roost like she usually does… Any thoughts? I looked at the slightly wormlike thing in the top middle with a loop, but it doesn't seem worm related.

 
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Diarrhea is a sign of cocci at times, although the fact that there's no blood means it could be something else. Hopefully somebody else will reply with better advice.
 
Hi Emma!

Thanks for your replies and concern. I ended up taking "Loudy" to the vet and thought I'd post what happened so others could know just what might be possible because the result was rather shocking and not what I expected!

The vet palpated her abdomen (it was a bit mushy and somewhat distended) and so he used a needle to pull out a little cloudy yellow fluid out (she didn't react, I guess the skin is thin and there aren't too many nerves there).

He said she had an infection in her peritoneal cavity - maybe an ovarian infection - and that they would need to drain the fluid - so they took her away to another room :( - it was hard to let her go…


Fortunately, I only heard a couple of clucks while she was gone and then they came back with her and that huge vial you see in the picture! They pulled out 800cc's - that's about 2 pounds! Who knew there could be so much in there? She's a big hen, so I guess you could say she carried it well! Just yesterday she ran out to greet me when I got home!

At any rate, the Vet gave her a shot of antibiotics and I need to give her a pill each day for 10 days and he also gave her something for worms just in case she has any.

She was such a trooper… you can see she started eating soon after. Anyway, I brought her home and she seems to be doing well… she certainly should feel better without all that liquid… so I'm crossing my fingers.

Thanks again!
Amy
 
Oh my gosh!
I'm glad you took her to the vet, it would have been very hard to diagnose that online. Hopefully she won't fill up again (although if she does you know that you can drain her now and you could probably do it on your own).
 
Oh gosh…. that doesn't sound good… I'll read this right away.

For what it's worth she's probably at least 5 years old. She stopped laying this winter… I hope eggs haven't been building up since then. The vet said he could tell she wasn't laying anymore because of the color of her beak…. so maybe it's her liver or?

Thanks.
 
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She seemed quite a lot better last evening - ate a ton of blackberries when I got home and a lot of meal worms too… One almost wouldn't have noticed that she wasn't feeling well. But now this morning, she doesn't seem to want to eat anything and has no interest in water either which really worries me. She also seems to have no energy. She ate a few nibbles of chard and tasted a blackberry but that's it. Then I felt her crop and it felt pretty full! I'm wondering if she's having trouble digesting the meal worms!

I was so hopeful last night…. but now I'm worried she's on the way out. Any suggestions? What should I try to feed her? Any way to get some water down her without stressing her too much? It's supposed to be pretty hot today and I'm worried she might be or get dehydrated… I wish I could stay home with her, but I have to get to work.
Thanks….
 
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