8 year old hen

[hispoptart]

I am so sorry that I can't be of any help. But reading your posts about her and how much you care about her and how bad this is hurting you has brought me to tears. I am so sorry that you and her are going through this, all I can do is hope and pray she makes it through or at the very least if she passes it's as painless as can be for both of you

 

[vanlash]

I am so sorry that I can't be of any help. But reading your posts about her and how much you care about her and how bad this is hurting you has brought me to tears. I am so sorry that you and her are going through this, all I can do is hope and pray she makes it through or at the very least if she passes it's as painless as can be for both of you

God bless your heart! Thank you so much, I appreciate your prayers. After I finished up, I laid my hand on her and prayed the same.

 

[Sarasarasara222]

I don’t know if this will be of help but I’ve had a hen die mysteriously and it sound similar to this, except in my instance she wasn’t able to excrete so double check if she is really excreting enough at all

 

[dawg53]

I don’t know if this will be of help but I’ve had a hen die mysteriously and it sound similar to this, except in my instance she wasn’t able to excrete so double check if she is really excreting enough at all

If you suspect constipation in a chicken, try giving apple sauce, it acts as a mild laxative in chickens. Or you can use molasses as a flush.

 

[vanlash]

Good to know. She actually has very liquid eliminations, but hardly any. Question though (for future). How do you do a molasses flush?

 

[dawg53]

Good to know. She actually has very liquid eliminations, but hardly any. Question though (for future). How do you do a molasses flush?

Here's a link, scroll down to "LAXATIVE SOLUTIONS."
http://extension.msstate.edu/content/solutions-and-treatments

 

[vanlash]

Hello All, An update on Rosie, my girl with ascites and a hope to give you all the experience I am gaining. I was able to get about a half a cup of yellow fluid out of her belly. But sadly, I think it is a tumor. She did not exhibit a lot of relief today. Her comb is still partly purple despite giving her oxygen.

At one point, when I was withdrawing fluid, I pulled a little blood. I withdrew slightly and repositioned the needle, and got clear fluid again. I moved the needle (ouch!) and pulled a little more yellow fluid. After all the fluid I got out, she still has a swollen belly that is not so soft, so possibly a mass.

Poor dear girl, she was so brave thru it all. When I took her back out to be with her sisters, she made what sounded like little happy sounds and was a little more perky. I am going to let her be with the rest of the hens tonight again. I don't think her prognosis is good, but I'm going to give her some more time before I make any final decisions.

For anyone researching ascites (water belly), I want to be sure to note my journey in learning how to do this.

• When I first noticed her, she just seemed to be moving slow and lethargic. The second day, she started standing and walking like a penguin (see pic above).

• After getting the clear fluid, I gave up. I couldn't find anything about withdrawing a clear fluid and I was concerned I wasn't doing it correctly or that wasn't her problem (and I did find a crushed egg in her vent after the warm epsom salt baths (2)). It was not a lash egg, but an actually egg that had crushed inside her vent and gotten lodged inside when I checked the next day. But after braving another session, and another spot, I was able to get a good amount of the very yellow fluid.

• I had to do this myself, so another video also helped me. In this video, the gal turned the hen over on the hen's back, elevating the hen's head with a pillow on the woman's legs - hen's back end facing you. This allows the fluid to accumulate down very low to help withdraw, plus you can really see what you are doing, if you don't really know what you are doing like me (I'll try and find the ones that helped me and add them later. - I am also in the midst of work emergencies during all of this. Thankfully, I am working from home, so are taking care of Rosie, while working).

• One thing I noted in all my youtube research (which is attached above by another member) is that you should insert the needle only into the bird's right side as all her organs are on the other side. Some of the youtubes showed withdrawal of fluid from both or the left side). Of course if you turn her over as described above, this would be your left side. This really helped me, because when withdrawing the fluid and changing out the syringe (keeping the needle in, so you don't need to poke her again). The fluid can still drain.

• I used a size 18 gauge needle as instructed, but it was really long (had it left over from my horse's wound treatments). And the video above indicated not to use a really long needle. I was pretty shaky, unsure of how deep to push the needle into a bird's belly. My first try, it came out when I tried to change the syringe (I was using a size 60cc syringe, which was really hard to withdraw). And the liquid was clear, not yellow. The next day, I ended up using a syringe that I had gotten for my dog's sub Q treatment which was much smaller, but easier to withdraw). So my solution was to duct tape the needle to allow the needle to go in only about 3/4 of an inch at most. That way when I pushed it in, it stopped there. I was able to successfully, pull of the syringe, empty it and reconnect it until I had all that I could take out. It also kept draining while emptying the syringe which was good. (puppy pee pad was very helpful to put under her to catch I was changing the syringe).

• You should not take more than a 1.5 cups (though I couldn't get even that much out, hence my deduction that there is a tumor in there. Eventually, I got blood and then the clear liquid. So I stopped.

• This did seem to allow her to defecate easier (though she has total diarrhea).

• I also found a very good youtube about how to give liquids to thru the beak. In all 18 years of (having backyard hens - and my highest # of hens was 18 girls), I never realized their windpipe opening was at the very front of their beak. I never have had any problem with giving them droppers of liquid when treating them, but this is a very important thing I should have known.

• I also gave her oxygen when I noted that her comb was turning purple. I am using a baby oxygen/ (dispenser) used for a cat I had that cancer and a with a small sleep apnea mask ( from me) which I had modified for a cat that has asthma. Works great both for my cat and for Rosie. (I will also add a pic of that later). I just did this because I noted that her comb turning purple was from a lack of oxygen, not because of anything I read.

• I guess further of note, is that my girls are free range. Though I also feed them scratch daily. I'm not sure when she stopped laying because of the other girls that lay the same color eggs. Other questions that arose, were if she might have mites, lice or worms. I don't give them wormer, but instead feed diatomaceous earth (DE) - human grade for internal consumption in their food and I dust them also. But I hadn't done this recently. So I checked for that as well. I have never had these issues over the 18 years.

She is the first girl that has had this kind of issue in my 18 years of raising hens. So it seems kind of rare. Well, for small flocks I guess. My conclusion is that it is a tumor at this point.

I'll keep (a shorter update) on her status. please feel free to email me, if I can help anyone else in this journey...

 

[micstrachan]

Wow. I am amazed that this is your first chicken health issue in 18 years. Well done!

 

[vanlash]

Wow. I am amazed that this is your first chicken health issue in 18 years. Well done!

Thank you! Well, only my first internal organ issue for hens. Lots of wounded hens/roosters (my very first chicks were 4 males and only 2 hens) . We live on an acre, but I had to re-home "the boys" (because of neighbors too close - we are the only acre property) - Just for a laugh -- we knew our neighbors were fed up, when we would come home and they would start crowing (really - are you humans with voices? Can't you just say, your roosters are really bothering us???).

Anyway I soon found real homes for the roosters (not for food - because I am a raised in the CA bay area and a total city girl)and added in new hens.

But, in the beginning years as we live across the street from a greenbelt, and we had a lot of raccoon/possum raids, then a persistent and wiley coyote for 5 years. And had some local dog raids which massacred our hens and ducks.

My approach is to trap the wild animalsand find them a new area to live in outside of the Bay Area, but I could not catch that coyote. I think I lost about 25 hens over that time frame.

Physical external wounds have been pretty easy for me because of feral cat rescue, owning horses and sick dogs and 2 wonderful vets, that were both friends and lots of issues. But both my friend vets have both passed - one very young and another older vet mentor, both from cancer (they were large animal/farm vets). I sadly miss them both greatly. Wildlife animal rescue helped me gain experience when I was younger (birds, squirrels). This enabled me to help a lot of my hen/rooster issues...broken legs, external wounds.

But this is entirely new for me, and I have learned a lot. I hope I am able to pass it on. This site has been fantastic and very helpful. Though I have been a member and visited occasionally, I had not been active in discussion.

 

[micstrachan]

I’m super tired and going to bed (4:30 alarm comes early!) so not writing much right now, but I’m in the Bay Area, too!