Do antibiotics have a chance of helping this case? (vet says widespread salpingitis)

[Eggcessive]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[Mayalys]

So sorry for your loss.

Thank you. I did what I could to save this chicken, and I badly wish the outcome would have been different.

 

[Aoife123]

Hey everyone I know this is an old post but I have a hen with salpingitis. Isa brown ex commercial hen. Symptoms started out so gradual. I have a respiratory virus go through the entire flock over the winter and so a lot of them looked a bit miserable because of it bit I was watching this one hen in particular. I monitored her crop to make sure she was still eating but I was suspicious that she was a bit quite and not herself.

Eventually her illness showed when she was standing sleeping one day while the rest were free ranging. This was back I'm December.

I started so amoxicillin I hand on hand knowing that the likely cause of illness in these hens is reproductive infections. I took her to the vet and she gave me more antibiotic so I could finish out the dose. But she wrongly started treating for sour crop because I mentioned her crop being slow to empty but this was only a knock on effect from the infection. She improved slightly on the antibiotic so we went back to the vet again looking for a culture to be done but was instead given a stronger dose of the same antibiotic. This had no effect on her. I seen some blood in her poo one day so I started treating for cocci and this did help her improve but she didn't get better. Back to the vet again an a different antibiotic that would cover reproductive infection because of the presence of lash egg and the vet thought maybe a bacterial infection in the gi. This antibiotic also did nothing.

So I went to a different vet and I pushed for a culture and eventually got one. She had ecoli and strep. The strep was particularly resistant to almost all antibiotics.

She was started on baytril while we waited for the results and that seemed to work on the ecoli and she improved significantly and then we started treating with ceftiofur which was one of the drugs the strep was sensative to. After 5 days she was eating, preening, dust bathing just still fairly weak.

She relapsed within a couple of days and so I took her to another vet to try a different antibiotic and the vet I was with only had one antibiotic that should work. But it didn't.

The new antibiotic didn't do a thing and she declined fairly rapidly. I had to stop that mid course and go back to the ceftiofur.

She improved slightly again and on the Saturday and Sunday there was a mix up of the dosage and a vet nurse gave 0.06 rather than 0.6 so she declined again. Now sh3 had 2 more injection of the 0.6 and she not improving that way she did at the beginning.

She is very thin, lots of inflammation around the abdomen she feels like a football and the newest thing is her comb hasn't looked great in months but now it's turning purple.


I'm really willing this anyibiotic to work because on paper it should be really effective. I started reading medical papers about density of the bacteria means that a linger course is required and also a longer course Is needed for a very sick animal.


The worse thing is these rescues are the most docile and friendly birds to begin with but I've been nursing this hen for 4 months now. I'd take her home with me if it was a bit cold at night or if she was feeling particularly unwell. Feesing her when she couldn't eat and constantly battling with vets to please do something for her. The sicker the bird the more attached you get. I'm starting to doubt if I'm doing the right thing when she is still so poorly. But I can't seem to let it go. If a sensativity analysis says this antibiotic should work why is it not working?

I'm starting to think that her kidneys might be bet in addition she's very chesty like it could be spread to get lungs.

She such a sweet little hen. I just wish I could save her. I'd get her straight in an implant if I could clear the infection.


Any a word of advice for people. Vets even avian vets are useless ( in Ireland) not sure about other country's. Firstly they don't want to treat a hen because it's only a hen. Even when you have driven an hour and a half and you there willing to pay whatever price they still don't want to bother.


In addition the people who see a vet and the vets says its probably cancer and you should puy her down. I feel really bad for these people and furious with there vets!
I had an avian vet tell me her kidneys were failing months ago with nothing to back it up! No tests nothing. Talking people out of running tests even when they want them. We put so much trust in these vets and are at our most vulnerable standing there only to be lied to an taken advantage of!

The same vet also told me another hen had cancer and 4 months later she's still alive and is actually another hen with salpingitis that he's been passing lash egg. I won't ever trust a vets opinion after this.

I found that even when a culture and sensativity testing is done vets don't know what to do even then. I asked if it's common that a bacteria wouldn't respond to an antibiotic that is supposed yo be sensative to that antibiotic and turns out that they never have a culture done. So they don't know why it's not working.

This hen could have been saved if a culture was done straight away and I won't ever let a vet talk me out of it again!

If your looking for a vet to save your hen forget it you have to save your hen. You have to advocate for your hen, you have to question everything, research everything question the dosage when they are incompetent enough to be giving the wrong dose. I'd say the vets hate seeing me coming. I dont care if I annoy then anymore! I had a vet put antibiotic straight into a hens lungs because he didn't know how to give antibiotics. I nearly said something before he did it but I didn't and I know now that I should have!

Anyway after that long ramble I don't know what to do now! I would like yo give anti inflammatory to the hen with salpingitis but cemay is not for poultry and I'm afraid of drug interactions. The vet doesn't know either. I pray she starts to improve. Also if anyone has any experience using ceftiofur I'd be grateful to know what dose and anything that can be helpful

 

[LaFleche]

Sadly, the issues most of the rescued high production hybrids suffer from are not curable despite all the efforts their new owners are willing to take.

Although I understand your frustration with the various vets you consulted on this matter, they at least tried to help which is more than most vets are willing to do when the patient turns out to be a chicken.

Most vets are not trained to deal with birds, you would need to consult with an avian vet specialized in bird treatment. And even they cannot undo the damage these poor hens suffered while living and producing under despicable conditions in the egg factories.

 

[Eggcessive]

Salpingitis and E.coli are usually fatal eventually. Antibiotics have little effect on them, if you read a professional article. Chickens may live for awhile, but may eventually die from crop disorders, starvation, and sepsis. Breathing is also effected from infection. I would stop the antibiotics. I’m sorry that you will lose her eventually. Infectious bronchitis virus can effect the reproductive system as well as the kidneys. I had IB in my flock, and many stopped laying early in life and died early. I did not medicate them, but I made them comfortable and offered foods, and did not let them be picked on. A couple of them were put down due to their suffering.

 

[Aoife123]

Sadly, the issues most of the rescued high production hybrids suffer from are not curable despite all the efforts their new owners are willing to take.

Although I understand your frustration with the various vets you consulted on this matter, they at least tried to help which is more than most vets are willing to do when the patient turns out to be a chicken.

Most vets are not trained to deal with birds, you would need to consult with an avian vet specialized in bird treatment. And even they cannot undo the damage these poor hens suffered while living and producing under despicable conditions in the egg factories.

Thanks for your reply. It is very sad! I don't think I could rescue anymore as everytime one goes they take a little piece of me.id love to be the type of person who is compassionate but unaffected by their deaths but unfortunately It kills me.


I owned rescues for nearly 2 years now I'm not new to this or thr array of illnesses that cone with them. The problem is that i have more experience with sick hens than all these vets combined. They have the knowledge but no experience. They preach some shit that I could read on google but everthing isn't black and white.

The vets I've seen are avian vets but they just want to treat parrots and snakes they don't want to see a hen either.

I have 2 hens that had eyp. They had the fluid drained from their abdomen and strong antibiotic. Both hens had a deslorin hormonal implant and they are still alive today because of it.


I just need to clear the infection to get her the implant! I've dead about resistance to antibiotics and for people with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotic I read that they give higher doses or a mixture of antibiotics to kill the infection.

Also I believe that it is more to do with the genetics of the bird obviously the life in a cage didn't help but I woul never buy a hybrid hen because of these hens people greed just push the genetics too far and push the bodies of these little hens too far.

I learned that in Ireland anyway you have to specifically choose to study exotics in college otherwise they never learn anything about treating a bird.

I have another hen with crop stasis, recurrent sour crop and has now list a lot of weight and is very sick. I'm taking her to a specialist avian vet yo have an array of tests cultures,blood works, MRIs etc. It's going to cost an arm and a leg. They ate my teo favourite hens. I just hope it's not too late for them.

 

[Aoife123]

Salpingitis and E.coli are usually fatal eventually. Antibiotics have little effect on them, if you read a professional article. Chickens may live for awhile, but may eventually die from crop disorders, starvation, and sepsis. Breathing is also effected from infection. I would stop the antibiotics. I’m sorry that you will lose her eventually. Infectious bronchitis virus can effect the reproductive system as well as the kidneys. I had IB in my flock, and many stopped laying early in life and died early. I did not medicate them, but I made them comfortable and offered foods, and did not let them be picked on. A couple of them were put down due to their suffering.

Infection is treatable surely and I'm hoping with a hormonal implant yo shut off the ovaries then infection should not keep occuring.

I will keep going with antibiotics for now as it does take a couple of days to see improvement. I am thinking of given anti inflammatory aswell. I hoping for a vet to give it the OK. The small dose on Saturday and Sunday really set her back right as she was starting to improve. So I want to give it a chance for a few days again before I make the decision to stop. Every morning I look into the shed hoping to see her looking bright and alert and hungry but it just doesn't seem yo be happening this time.