Broken shell fused with mucous membranes in uterus - what now?

Mar 5, 2023
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France
Hi everyone,

Me again, it feels like, with endless health issues 😞

This time it is Penelope, a 1.5 year old Araucana.

It's a long story, but due to a nasty infection that hit her really hard and fast, one of her eggs got too fragile and her internal organs too swollen - so it broke inside her, quite far in. Bad news! The infection was not from the broken egg though, just to be clear.

Anyway. She has been to the vet - who did a complete x-ray to see what was happening, that's why we know everything was increadibly swollen and the shell was there - and after some intensive care in the form of an iv and some antibiotics to see if she would survive the night, she tried to remove the pieces by putting Penny to sleep, dilating her cloaca, and going into the uterus. She found that the pieces had fused with the mucous membrane, and could not be removed. The only option seems to be surgery where they open up her back, cut open the uterus, cut the pieces out, and sew her back up again - or a complete removal of the uterus and oviduct, which is a risky major surgery that involves breaking her ribcage. This all sounds 100% awful.

For now, we brought her home (she spend two days in hospital poor girl) and are continuing treatment against the infection and inflammation - but we know that with the egg shell stuck in her tissues, her prognosis is likely very bad.

So I wonder... has this happened to anyone of you, that the shell fused with the mucous membrane and could only be removed by open surgery (rather than going in through the vent without cutting her open)? What did you do? What would you do? What do you think her prognosis is, if we just pray and hope that it will resolve, and don't opt for the surgery?

Sad 😢😢😢
 
This is a tough one. This would be my recommendation as well. Surgery sounds horrendous. Personally, I would not put a chicken through all that.
❤️🙏❤️
 
Nor would I.
I wouldn't even been able to pay for xrays and hospitalization.

Curious tho, what was the initial infection caused by?
I think it's maybe cheaper where I am, but yeah... I have no living kids, no mortgage, live a simple life and make a decent salary so I have the luxury to have some to spare when I want.

The vet is not sure but the theory is that it is a combination of a virus and a secondary infection, with the virus coming first and the infection being a result of an already weakened immune system. The virus could be endemic in my flock from almost two years back when those who were here had a really bad respiratory infection that resulted in laying problems for one girl - so suspecting infectious bronchitis. That's ages ago and Penny, who is a more recent addition, should be vaccinated, but there are so many strands etc I guess you never know. It would take two weeks of lab work to get a definite answer and the vet didn't recommend it since there is no treatment for viral infections anyway. I kind of would like to know since it knowing it is still latent in the flock really impacts flock management and adding (or rather not adding) new birds.

Great articles in your footer by the way, thanks! I am going to build a new coop for my big brahma girls and roo (I have two parallel flocks) and loved seeing your design.
 
I would get testing done if you can 'cause as you said, while it won't affect her prognosis at all, that knowledge is still useful for flock management
 

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