Chicken dying will be putting down soon...very sad

[DianeB]

sorry for you and your hen going through this I bet she will get better if you have a nice vet to help you
whats her name? do you have pictures of her?

Her name is Rose and she's a RIR. I don't have a picture available for her, right now.

 

[cleoandtheflock]

pretty name!

 

[DianeB]

pretty name!

Thanks

 

[Henriettamom919]

I'll see during the exam. But, I been through this enough times with chickens and other pets to know heroics don't usually work and just prolong their suffering.

Had to put down a cat with a long-term illness last week, too. They always seem to die at once.

Oh honey, that is sadly so true. I'm so very sorry; I'd be devastated too!

 

[DianeB]

She's perked up quite a bit this afternoon, comb looks better, too. This happens all the time. It goes from looking like she's on death's door, then alright.

 

[DianeB]

She ended up not getting surgery. The vet thought she recovered enough not to need it. For the remainder of last week, she made a remarkable recovery. Poops, appetite, comb, crop normal. That was she tried to "lay" again earlier this week. Now, she is not doing quite as well. There are times she is energetic, eating and running around. Then, she will stuff her crop and just hunker down the rest of the day.

Right now, I am giving her recovery formula and keeping her in a dark room all except for the morning. In the last day or so she's loosing feathers as if she is going into a moult. I'm hoping this allows her to take a break from ovulation so she can heal.

Her poops are still watery, but the solid ( bile?) part of it looks normal like she is digesting her food fine. (As apposed to the green poop she had a few weeks ago). Her crop goes down fairly quickly after she eats and drinks, but stops before it completely empties out. Her weight seems about the same, maybe a little better.

 

[cleoandtheflock]

That is nice to hear I’m glad she is recovering

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Keeping her in a dark room the better part of the day will initiate a molt. That is probably the best approach. Perhaps then she may resume laying by September, October or with declining day length she may wait till after winter solstice.
What makes up the 'recovery formula'?
Keep grit available for her.

 

[DianeB]

It's Harrison's Recovery Formula. So, mostly soy, vegetable fats and vitamins. Things that are easy to digest, nutritious and fattening. I just started giving it to her on a regular basis. Hoping she will put on weight.

She may have done something to her crop. Soft foods, fruit and water pass through her quickly, but feed gets stuck unless she drinks alot of water with it. Sometimes, her crop will be small and hard and she only poops water. But, after drinking alot of water or eating melon, she will poop large loose poops with lots of solid stuff.

I've had hens in the past that damaged their crops and needed extra water or massaging to get everything to pass. Also, had hens that had blockages due tumors and nothing passed, not even water. They would end up with sour crop not a hard crop. She had that earlier with her infection. But, now that that has cleared up, her crop is not functioning just right.

Ciuld

Thanks for letting me think outloud and bounce ideas of you.

 

[DianeB]

Update: So, my sweet baby has EYP, again. She's on 1.2ml of Baytril twice a day. Despite looking like she's on death's door, I do have a glimmer of hope that she might pull through. After all, she was like this last time. Up to this point she had returned to laying and was starting to molt last month. Then she stopped molting and this happened.

I'm definitely going to push for her to get spayed, if she pulls through. I was hoping that she would be in a deep molt and not laying by now.