Last Thursday evening we noticed one of our 2 year old Buff Orpingtons wasn't acting herself and not eating much, only drinking. The day before was foraging and eating/acting fine. Also based on the egg tracking numbers, had laid a confirmed egg a couple days prior. She had some energy as was going thru the motions of foraging but didn't do much and didn't accept any grubblies (dried solder flies) that they normally go insane over. She also looked a bit puffed up feathers wise and was avoiding the rest of the flock that was out. When she did poop, was mostly whitish yellow liquid with no smell at all. Her crop was pretty empty (felt a bit like a very deflated water balloon) and maybe 1/4-1/3 the size of my fist, so hadn't been eating. Brought her inside and she's in a dog crate, she readily ate at least 1/2 a scrambled egg before she settled for the night.
Being Friday before Memorial Day weekend here in the states, finding an appt for her was tough, but managed to get her into a vet on Friday that works with chickens and ducks. She had fluid in her ovaduct, so suspected she may have an infection was put on antibiotics for 10 days. Also said potentially egg yolk Peritonitis, my wife was at the appt, so got the abridged version from her and they've been closed for the holidays, so haven't been able to call to get more details yet. But basically said give it a few days on antibiotics before she may act "normal", and then see if she starts laying normal eggs. If she's not laying normal eggs, this particular vet said she'd likely need to be culled as said any surgery was prohibitively expensive and usually doesn't work in her experience.
She's eating and drinking, but strangely, as in not touching her normal feed, but will take treats and other things now. I need to try scrambled eggs again as over the weekend she wouldn't touch it all of a sudden. We have two older chicks, and since she hadn't been eating, offered her some of the chick feed and she readily ate it up, my thought process at this point is just get her to eat something vs starving. She has energy again and is acting chicken like, very alert, though have her isolated still in a crate with the occasional "visitor" from one of the now 2 mos old chicks popping it's head out of the brooder box to watch her. With the wet weather, she hasn't been able to go outside at all to see how she's doing there.
Today found what looked like a deflated soft egg with no substance to it. Prior to all this, I had noticed once or twice a week a "monster" egg was being produced by one of the girls, it was a good 25-50% bigger then then the rest, and the top often had a slight hexagonal shape to it. Concerns me it may be this girl as haven't yet seen one of those eggs. Not sure if the empty egg is a bad sign, or, since she's not be eating a lot yet, her system may still be messed up? For those who's had to deal with egg yolk Peritonitis, is this looking bad? Thanks!
Being Friday before Memorial Day weekend here in the states, finding an appt for her was tough, but managed to get her into a vet on Friday that works with chickens and ducks. She had fluid in her ovaduct, so suspected she may have an infection was put on antibiotics for 10 days. Also said potentially egg yolk Peritonitis, my wife was at the appt, so got the abridged version from her and they've been closed for the holidays, so haven't been able to call to get more details yet. But basically said give it a few days on antibiotics before she may act "normal", and then see if she starts laying normal eggs. If she's not laying normal eggs, this particular vet said she'd likely need to be culled as said any surgery was prohibitively expensive and usually doesn't work in her experience.
She's eating and drinking, but strangely, as in not touching her normal feed, but will take treats and other things now. I need to try scrambled eggs again as over the weekend she wouldn't touch it all of a sudden. We have two older chicks, and since she hadn't been eating, offered her some of the chick feed and she readily ate it up, my thought process at this point is just get her to eat something vs starving. She has energy again and is acting chicken like, very alert, though have her isolated still in a crate with the occasional "visitor" from one of the now 2 mos old chicks popping it's head out of the brooder box to watch her. With the wet weather, she hasn't been able to go outside at all to see how she's doing there.
Today found what looked like a deflated soft egg with no substance to it. Prior to all this, I had noticed once or twice a week a "monster" egg was being produced by one of the girls, it was a good 25-50% bigger then then the rest, and the top often had a slight hexagonal shape to it. Concerns me it may be this girl as haven't yet seen one of those eggs. Not sure if the empty egg is a bad sign, or, since she's not be eating a lot yet, her system may still be messed up? For those who's had to deal with egg yolk Peritonitis, is this looking bad? Thanks!
