Air Sac Rupture Treatment

[Dimitar Zlatanski]

A few days have passed now and no recurrence of swelling and seems very happy to not have the massive balloon on his side (I say he, I have no idea )

I'm so happy to hear you also successfully treated your chick! Mine is about three days old and he has a leaking air sack on the right of his neck, going past the wing, and behind the neck. I'm sure it isn't the crop because it doesn't get smaller overnight and without the chick eating.

I'm planning to deflate the lump exactly as in the video and hopefully have him recover from this.

 

[Beth42]

Good luck! Ours grew up to be a full sized cockerel with no recurring issues who has now been rehomed...

 

[ScarlettG12]

Hello everyone! We have this 3-4 day old chick who was rejected by mama hen. Strangely she accepted 8 babies and just rejected this one. We went to bed with her sitting on all 9, and woke up to 8 happy babies and 1 bloody baby. This happened yesterday morning and all day yesterday I treated the wounds with antimicrobial spray and pick-no-more, and have been giving her vitamins and electrolytes and Poultry Cell. She really seems to be acting fine, eating and drinking and peeping. Late last night however we noticed this bubble on her back/shoulder area, above the wing, and my research led me to this thread. It definitely looks like a ruptured air sack right? I watched the YouTube video posted at the beginning of the thread and I definitely think I'm capable of treating her, I guess I just want a confirmation before I start puncturing anything. Thanks in advance!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello everyone! We have this 3-4 day old chick who was rejected by mama hen. Strangely she accepted 8 babies and just rejected this one. We went to bed with her sitting on all 9, and woke up to 8 happy babies and 1 bloody baby. This happened yesterday morning and all day yesterday I treated the wounds with antimicrobial spray and pick-no-more, and have been giving her vitamins and electrolytes and Poultry Cell. She really seems to be acting fine, eating and drinking and peeping. Late last night however we noticed this bubble on her back/shoulder area, above the wing, and my research led me to this thread. It definitely looks like a ruptured air sack right? I watched the YouTube video posted at the beginning of the thread and I definitely think I'm capable of treating her, I guess I just want a confirmation before I start puncturing anything. Thanks in advance!

Looks like it to me.

 

[Kimmyh51]

I recently had an issue with a 3 week old chick with a ruptured air sac, and I want to share my experience with treating her. I’ve included 2 pictures of her after the air sacs ruptured. She looked like an inflated balloon, and you could tell she was in pain. I found this YouTube video that walked me through removing the air with a syringe, and it worked.

. After I removed the air, I was concerned she would inflate again so I cut a section off a the finger of a woven glove and use it as a collar for about 10 hours. The last picture is of her with the black collar. It was loose enough to provide a gentle compression but allowing her to breath easily. She had a rattled breathing for about 2 weeks after, but now she is 100% okay.

Hello, I suspect from hearing your accents that I am just across the tassie from you lol.
I was wondering if you knew what had caused the air sac rupture in the chick initially. I also noticed you left a little air in and wondered whether that was just because there was most of it gone and the birds symptoms relieved, or was more intentional? I ask because I had a few ducklings a couple of years back which had ruptured air sacs and I noticed if I deflated the air sac too far they were more likely to die.. I am not sure why complete deflating would cause them to die (it appeared to cause sudden respiratory distress - im quite certain when it happened I didn’t put the needle into the other side of the air sac or anywhere else it shouldn’t have been, it just seemed to be that if I allowed all the air to escape…. I was not using a syringe, just a sterile needle inserted and as soon as the needle went in you could hear all the air hiss out.
ill also be looking at your pressure thingy and seeing if that is something i can use in future.

I currently have a duckling with a mild leak of air in the same place your chick hadl it’s one that was brought to me after someone’s cat brought it in, had a wound on the left shoulder from the cat and the right side air sac is ruptured so I am guessing that one side of the cats mouth went into the left shoulder the other hit that air sac.
also did you treat yours with antibiotics? This duckling I have will be on AB due to the cat bite anyway but I keep reading that antibiotic treatment is essen for air sac rupture regardless of cause

 

[khind]

Looks like it could be a leaking air sac, you can either leave it alone for a few more days or see about deflating it. The video is good.

Do you know if I can use a sterilized sewing-type needle or pin, or a scalpel, to deflate a ruptured air sac in my 6+ year old hen? It's above her right shoulder, and sizeable. This may explain why she has far less stamina the past 2-3 days. She gets winded and tired easily. I have no needled syringe, and I want to give her some relief fast. (No respiratory symptoms.) She will be seeing a vet soon for a different matter.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you know if I can use a sterilized sewing-type needle or pin, or a scalpel, to deflate a ruptured air sac in my 6+ year old hen? It's above her right shoulder, and sizeable. This may explain why she has far less stamina the past 2-3 days. She gets winded and tired easily. I have no needled syringe, and I want to give her some relief fast. (No respiratory symptoms.) She will be seeing a vet soon for a different matter.

You would need to be absolutely certain it's a ruptured air sac before you attempt home care. If you are seeing the vet soon, it would probably be best to wait until the visit unless she's in respiratory distress.

 

[khind]

I understand, and I would normally like to take a very guarded approach. Sadly, Buffy is in dire straits. She needs to eat, not fall asleep.
Do you happen to have experience with pendulous crop? We've been working with that for the past 2 months. But I don't know if her case is too severe - if what I'm seeing is a sign her crop just cannot work properly again.

 

[khind]

You would need to be absolutely certain it's a ruptured air sac before you attempt home care. If you are seeing the vet soon, it would probably be best to wait until the visit unless she's in respiratory distress.

...And the vet who treats chickens has extremely limited hours and days, or Buffy would have been there last Friday. (I tried to get her in a couple weeks before that too, but was given advice over the phone to try instead. Now I wonder if that was partly because they have very limited availability, but I could be wrong.)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I understand, and I would normally like to take a very guarded approach. Sadly, Buffy is in dire straits. She needs to eat, not fall asleep.
Do you happen to have experience with pendulous crop? We've been working with that for the past 2 months. But I don't know if her case is too severe - if what I'm seeing is a sign her crop just cannot work properly again.

Does she have Pendulous crop or a ruptured air sac?

I'll tag in @azygous to help with this. Read her article through and through. If you don't have a bra on Buffy, then I suggest that you fashion one if her crop is pendulous.
The bra will help push up the crop so the contents can empty. Usually a crop that is Pendulous will become sour as well, so if you haven't treated as sour crop, then I'd begin doing that too.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/