Hi,
Thanks for your replies... sorry I did not see them until now.
Yes, she is on Baytril. My vet prescribed it for her and she's been on it (off and on) for almost 6 months now.
She is still kickin'. (alive.) She does seem to be getting worse, albeit slowly. I have not been able to put her back outside with the other hens. She is too weak- but not weak enough to try and defend herself from angry hens who don't know who she is anymore. I figured she does not need that stress, and she was breathing heavily after the small skirmishes- so I brought her back inside. Its also very cold outside where I live right now- temps in the single digits, so again, she doesn't need that stress. Oh, and then also the fact that my coop is very dusty right now due to all the hens having to be inside due to the large amounts of snow... so it is better that I kept her inside for now, I feel.
What I've noticed since last time is that her breathing is seemingly more difficult than before. I can't say that its all times though- sometimes she still seems to be resting comfortably. I think what concerns me the most is that the bulges in her abdomen have become more swollen in spots and it appears that she is having quite an irritating feeling of having to poo all the time which, I just noticed today seems to have made her seem a bit prolapsed in the vent. It seems difficult for her to pass fecal matter through. She makes small droppings, about 1/3rd the size of a normal large sized chicken dropping. She does do large droppings every now and then, but its not common at all. I do have to say that her droppings smell 'off'... reminds me of when a cat has a urinary crystal problems- that smell. She has been eating, not so much her feed, but she loves to eat the 'yummy' stuff. Her appetite is voracious when it comes to scrambled eggs and devours them within seconds. She doesn't seem to be interested in drinking water, and when she is thirsty I assume she is getting that liquid from eating the yogurt I give her. I should note also that for a few weeks now I've been giving her some milk thistle extract in her yogurt. I thought it would not hurt to try.
So basically, all the problems are surmounting and its causing her pain and problems upon more problems. I don't want her to suffer this out for a long time, so.....
I called my vet today. (and the vet isn't in today, so I will have to call tomorrow morning) I was going to see if the vet would put her under the knife to see what might be going on inside of her. I largely suspect it is egg peritonitis. (spelling?) or maybe some thing wrong with the liver? I figured its better to try and give it a shot than for her to continue to suffer like this.... that is, if my vet is willing to try and do the operation. I don't know yet. I figure if she dies from the operation, then she is out of her suffering. If she does not, then well maybe she will be on her way to being a happy healthy chicken again.
I'm really curious about it and its times like these I wish I would have gone to veterinarian school so that I could do the operation myself.
