2-year-old Hen pooping an alarming amount of blood

[missbeasty]

One thing good about the sulfa antibiotic is that it can treat different possible illnesses. Just check the dosage of your product and give the dose for her weight. Without lab work or fecal float with a gram stain, it is mostly guess work to diagnose. Most times we get a good idea after death when a necropsy can be done by the state vet pathologist.

Thank you, @Eggcessive , I’ll try to figure out the right sulfatrim dosage for Sprinkle. I understand most of the time, the answers come out in the necropsy.

 

[Eggcessive]

According to this Merck Manual link, dosage is 50 to 100 mg per kilogram (each 2.2 pounds) given every 12 hours:
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/multimedia/table/antimicrobials-used-in-pet-birds

 

[missbeasty]

Morning all,

Sprinkle made it through the night! I found her in a nest box eating an egg this morning. She's still pretty pale, but behaviorally very normal. I took her in for a weight check and poop monitoring (because, as a rule, chickens poop once an hour outside vs. every 2 minutes inside). She had a much less alarming stool -- on the small side, with dark reddish solids. Definitely an improvement over the huge amount of bloody fluid she was expelling yesterday.

@Eggcessive, thank you very much for your help!! I saved that page for future reference, as I'll be using a powdered form when my current sulfa supply runs out. The sulfatrim I got from the vet says it is 200+40mg/5ml (I think that's 200 trimethoprim : 40 sulfa ??). I wanted to compare that with the Merck page, but the math is bending my brain a little bit, lol... This was prescribed for another chicken who is 6.6 lbs, 2.4 ml twice daily. If my scale is correct, Sprinkle is 70 oz or about 4.4 lb., so I think I'll follow the vet's dosage and give her 1.6 ml of this solution every 12 hours until it runs out.

P.S. -- I realized little Sprinkle is only 2 years old, whoops. I amended my title / first post, sorry about that. My poor girls are having so many problems, so young. It breaks my heart. I will probably spring for NPIP/breeder-quality chicks next time, maybe even breed some mutts for more genetic diversity if I end up with a roo.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Morning all,

Sprinkle made it through the night! I found her in a nest box eating an egg this morning. She's still pretty pale, but behaviorally very normal. I took her in for a weight check and poop monitoring (because, as a rule, chickens poop once an hour outside vs. every 2 minutes inside). She had a much less alarming stool -- on the small side, with dark reddish solids. Definitely an improvement over the huge amount of bloody fluid she was expelling yesterday.

@Eggcessive, thank you very much for your help!! I saved that page for future reference, as I'll be using a powdered form when my current sulfa supply runs out. The sulfatrim I got from the vet says it is 200+40mg/5ml (I think that's 200 trimethoprim : 40 sulfa ??). I wanted to compare that with the Merck page, but the math is bending my brain a little bit, lol... This was prescribed for another chicken who is 6.6 lbs, 2.4 ml twice daily. If my scale is correct, Sprinkle is 70 oz or about 4.4 lb., so I think I'll follow the vet's dosage and give her 1.6 ml of this solution every 12 hours until it runs out.

P.S. -- I realized little Sprinkle is only 2 years old, whoops. I amended my title / first post, sorry about that. My poor girls are having so many problems, so young. It breaks my heart. I will probably spring for NPIP/breeder-quality chicks next time, maybe even breed some mutts for more genetic diversity if I end up with a roo.

View attachment 3543985

You're doing a great job!

I have the same thought. Only one out of eight hens I bought as pullets are healthy. The girls I raised from chicks haven't had any health issues. Two are mutts. I did lose my RIR as a 1 year old, but that was due to cancer. She had no other issues.

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes, around 200 mg would be about right for about 4 pounds of weight. Some use 800 mg tablets, and quarter those for grown chickens.

 

[missbeasty]

@SmiYa0126 Thanks so much!! :') I'm so sorry about your pullets. Chickens are such interesting and funny little individuals, it doesn't take long to get attached and break your heart when they go! It is encouraging to hear you've had greater success raising your own.

@Eggcessive , thank you! I *think* what I ordered comes as a loose powder, so I'll have to figure out how to measure it out. For now though - I was able to get a refill on the liquid solution from my vet's office today even though she wasn't in. Despite the weirdness around the other Dr.'s offer to euth, I love this office, they always do their best.

I sent my vet an email around the same time I posted here, and she responded this morning:
"I doubt coccidia is the cause but it is not an impossibility. There are 3 systems that void into the cloaca: renal, reproductive, and digestive. My suspicion is that it is reproductive (cancer, infection, trauma or even something like hyperplasia) but cannot rule out the other systems without diagnostics. Your dose for SMZTMP is correct at 1.6mL by mouth twice daily for at least 7 days. It shouldn't hurt her and may help." (I told her I was prepared to euthanize with CO2 if Sprinkle takes a turn for the worst.) "I would take it one day at a time. As long as the bleeding is not worsening and she is going about normal chicken business, then giving her time is fine. If she is hanging in there an exam may be helpful to see if there is something that can be done."

It sounds like there are a number of potential causes, some of them terminal, but for now I'll see how Sprink responds to the sulfatrim. She's walking, vocalizing, resisting handling, but she doesn't seem to be feeling great. I was out running errands today and I think she was hiding out in a nest box all day. When I brought her in, she produced this heinous-smelling liquid dropping (looks/smells like it contains old brown blood, hopefully that means no active bleed). She wasn't interested in eating scrambled egg. I suspect her crop is slightly sour -- it was squishy and her breath was a little off. I gave her some miconazole and tube-fed 20 mL of electrolyte water. I'm worried about her being weakened by dehydration, between the diarrhea and blood loss. I think I'll keep her inside tonight and, assuming I can get her crop moving, try to push fluids aggressively to see if she perks up again.

Wish us luck!

 

[SmiYa0126]

@SmiYa0126 Thanks so much!! :') I'm so sorry about your pullets. Chickens are such interesting and funny little individuals, it doesn't take long to get attached and break your heart when they go! It is encouraging to hear you've had greater success raising your own.

@Eggcessive , thank you! I *think* what I ordered comes as a loose powder, so I'll have to figure out how to measure it out. For now though - I was able to get a refill on the liquid solution from my vet's office today even though she wasn't in. Despite the weirdness around the other Dr.'s offer to euth, I love this office, they always do their best.

I sent my vet an email around the same time I posted here, and she responded this morning:
"I doubt coccidia is the cause but it is not an impossibility. There are 3 systems that void into the cloaca: renal, reproductive, and digestive. My suspicion is that it is reproductive (cancer, infection, trauma or even something like hyperplasia) but cannot rule out the other systems without diagnostics. Your dose for SMZTMP is correct at 1.6mL by mouth twice daily for at least 7 days. It shouldn't hurt her and may help." (I told her I was prepared to euthanize with CO2 if Sprinkle takes a turn for the worst.) "I would take it one day at a time. As long as the bleeding is not worsening and she is going about normal chicken business, then giving her time is fine. If she is hanging in there an exam may be helpful to see if there is something that can be done."

It sounds like there are a number of potential causes, some of them terminal, but for now I'll see how Sprink responds to the sulfatrim. She's walking, vocalizing, resisting handling, but she doesn't seem to be feeling great. I was out running errands today and I think she was hiding out in a nest box all day. When I brought her in, she produced this heinous-smelling liquid dropping (looks/smells like it contains old brown blood, hopefully that means no active bleed). She wasn't interested in eating scrambled egg. I suspect her crop is slightly sour -- it was squishy and her breath was a little off. I gave her some miconazole and tube-fed 20 mL of electrolyte water. I'm worried about her being weakened by dehydration, between the diarrhea and blood loss. I think I'll keep her inside tonight and, assuming I can get her crop moving, try to push fluids aggressively to see if she perks up again.

Wish us luck!

View attachment 3544657

How is she today?

 

[missbeasty]

Thanks for checking in, @SmiYa0126 . Sprinkle is hanging in there. Her crop is very slow right now. It was mostly full when I checked her in the morning. It emptied some after a lot of crop massage, so I topped her up with electrolyte water along with her morning dose of sulfatrim and miconazole. I could feel some small, firm mystery chunks in her crop and tried to gently break them up. She is pretty low energy, still having that gross brick-colored diarrhea. I hope we can get her crop moving. Hard to hydrate/medicate when nothing’s getting through. I do worry she’s shutting down from a more serious illness. I’ll put her back out with her sisters for the day, to see if she improves at all in a more normal environment.

 

[missbeasty]

Morning all, Sprinkle is about the same this morning. A small amount of fluid is getting through, but her crop is extremely slow and I can still feel some small, flat (indigestible?) solids in there. She had a dropping that was just urine/urates, maybe she's done clearing that stinky blood? I gave her a little more electrolyte water this morning, keeping up with the miconazole and sulfatrim.

Miss Maeve is doing better today, thankfully, normal-feeling crop and a little more pep in her step.

 

[missbeasty]

Hi all, sad news… I put Sprinkle to sleep this morning. She was not improving. Her crop wasn’t emptying at all and she was continuing to poop what looked like blood, presumably becoming more anemic every day. She was dehydrated and probably starving, barely able to stand. I assume she had some terminal illness, and I thought it was kinder to let her go rather than let nature take its course.

As a last-ditch effort, against advice, I tried to make her vomit the contents of her crop. It was a bad idea. I had her tipped over for no more than 2 seconds and I think she aspirated immediately. She spent the rest of her time wheezing and making “drinking” movements with her beak. I assume she would have developed pneumonia or some kind of respiratory infection if she lived longer. I do not recommend it. Maybe I could have emptied her crop another way, but even if vomiting worked, I would probably just be prolonging her suffering from whatever was wrong internally.

I will not be doing a necropsy.. I apologize for the lack of answers/closure. Thanks so much to everyone who read and offered advice, I appreciate your kindness.

R.I.P. Sprink.