Bella recovering well from ?Infectious bronchitis? - update: new pics!

UPDATE:

We just got back from the vets. She was in a quite sorry state when I got home from work - swollen, messy, unable to pass much faeces, tail right up in the air, sad and slow-moving.

We rushed her in to the emergency vet's surgery, and whilst she was in transit in her carrybox she'd managed to lay a completely membrane-less egg in the bottom of the box. Literally a white and a yolk with nothing enclosing it.

The vet listened to her story and saw the evidence in the box and diagnosed egg peritonitis - our worst fear obviously. He spent a long while massaging her abdomen and examining her vent, and still looked doubtful.

Then, just as he wandered over to the computer and it seemed he was within moments of putting her to sleep, she strained, pushed and plopped yet another egg onto the examination table! To say I'm now astonished is putting it mildly.

So, then she really perked up, flapping, wanting to be let go, acting like the normal Bella again! Very feisy and naughty. Even the vet was rather surprised I think! He seems to think that if we wash her to stop her getting sore, get her eating as much calcium as possible, and restrict her diet to layer's pellets only (to firm up her poop and aid her in keeping that rear end clean), she'll recover well.

I'm, however, worried that there may be even more eggs sitting in there. She has never missed a day yet - so how on earth she's managing to lay daily and at the same time lay internally is quite a mystery. She's obviously working overtime.

Does anything else think the outlook still seems pretty bleak? Or should I stop being so negative?
 
Sorry, still obsessing about this situation, and have had another thought...

If she were internally laying, wouldn't we find that she was dropping the yolks into her abdomen, and would thereby be unable to simply push them out through her vent in the normal way, as she did in the vet's surgery? I had thought that once the yolks dropped down into the abdomen, as in internal laying, they could not be expelled in the normal way. We're also pretty sure that all of the abdominal swelling she had is now gone, so whatever was filling up her belly has now been passed.

Are we in fact looking at a case of several soft shelled eggs building up inside her, which she has now pushed out? In which case there's a chance she will be okay, isn't there?

My husband's theory (which seems to have been backed up by the vet) is that Bella eats too many treats (my fault) and has been ignoring the layer's pellets. Her diet is such that she's not getting enough calcium, and she's producing soft-shelled eggs, which are getting stuck inside her. So, in this scenario, she's not actually an internal layer, and I could make her better simply by cutting right back to layer's pellets only (no treats).

I do so hope that someone's got some experience of this situation that they can share with me... I'm distraught
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Okay, so it's 2am here in the UK, and I'm completely unable to sleep. Worrying about Bella is keeping me awake, and of course the baby is sensing something, and it is kicking me like mad under the ribs. After two hours of tossing and turning I've given up.

Can anyone at all shed any light on this for me - it's driving me off my rocker!
 
Okay, well, it looks like no-one else has anything to add, so I'm going to try going back to bed. It's half three, so my hubbie will be livid with me for staying up so long, but it was better than tossing and turning and keeping him awake!

I do hope someone has some thoughts for me by morning. I really don't feel at all sure of what I'm dealing with here.
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It's 9am here and I've been out with the hens since 7am. Watching, listening, examining.

Bella seems back to her old self today - scratting around, cawing at me for treats (which I bravely withheld of course), refusing to be handled, and doing normal-looking (if a little small) poops. Her abdomen was a little bulgy again first thing, but I assumed it was today's egg waiting to be laid. I have to say that after two hours' sleep and worrying myself sick all night, I don't mind admitting I stood and cried with relief next to the henhouse when I found her looking so well.
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However, she started to sing the egg song about an hour ago and disappeared into the coop for half an hour, but there's no sign of an egg in there. She back out now, behaving normally, just as if she'd laid one, but she hasn't. I also notice her poop has increased in size since she went in there earlier.

This is all very perplexing. Perhaps she's egg bound again and when we give her a warm bath to clean up her feathers tonight, it'll shift it along again? The normal-sized poops would probably rule out egg binding though wouldn't they? (She'd be obstructed?). I'm also pleased to note that the poop is entirely healthy-looking - no green runny stuff suggestive of septic peritonitis. (But then surely a month of internal laying would be enough to give her septic peritonitis?)

I'm considering a hysterectomy for this poor girl if this weird awfulness continues. Anyone here had success with that option - and was it hideously expensive?
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I went home to check on her at lunchtime, and to administer the strong calcium supplement our vet provided me with this morning, and she's definitely still not laid. Her tummy is still swollen and I didn't see her do a poop the whole time I was there.

She seems fine though.

Is this a case of 'conservative management'? After all, she passed those three eggs yesterday on her own, pretty much (with a little help from the vet's massage). So, perhaps we should just let her be, and wait until she shows any signs of being in distress again.

The more I see her the less I'm inclined to go down the peritonitis route - she's just too well and beahving in such an active way. It must be soft shell egg binding - and maybe she'll always do this on and off for her whole life. Perhpas she's had infectious bronchitis at some point and her laying will always be a bit erratic...

Poor thing
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Good news - Bella laid a huge egg again today, with a hard shell and with no mess on her tail feathers whatsoever! This is the first time since she started to lay a month ago that ther vent and bottom haven't been soaked and sticky after passing an egg.

She's had two days of calcium supplements and three days of no extra treats, so is down to a diet of layers pellets and grass only (except for the single cherry tomato that I'm using to hide the calcium supplement powder inside!)

I am astonished that this seems to be all it took to get her back on track.

Let's not count our chickens too soon though, as it's only one egg, but things definitely do look much brighter for her.

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So, my lesson is learned - spoiling her with treats almost killed her, and it would've been all my fault. From now on she gets a little something extra once a week, and no more than that.
 
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I am so glad she passed another e g g for you. I know it can be totaly nerve racking when things are not going right at the time, and just are not sure what else you can do. Will keep my fingers crosed for you
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that this situation is resolved for good now.
 

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