Does my sick hen look egg bound? 🥺

[JoanieShrubs]

Hi friends,
My Pencilled Hamburg hen Angelica is around 7 months old. She’s been laying for a few weeks but stopped a week ago. We had a mite infestation arise while away on a camping trip so I assumed it was the cause, as the rest of the flock stopped laying too. They’ve all been treated with ivermectin drops to the neck and pestene powder in the coops, and the mites seem to have gone. The whole flock was dewormed with Killverm at Christmas time.

Angelica has been looking off for just over a week but now she’s really sick. When she started acting sick (lethargic, hunching) I started her on five days of amprolium, suspecting cocci from moving back into the run, and then when she didn’t improve i moved on to antibiotic Sulfa-3 to cover off coryza (her chronic condition) and coccidiosis from another angle in case the amprolium just wasn’t working. She shows none of the unique symptoms of either coryza or cocci, but i needed to know it wasn’t the root cause.

I’ve been torpedo feeding her a mix of egg, her Barastoc Darling Downs coarse layer mash and Neocare baby bird food, and then yesterday started tube feeding liquid Neocare to keep her nutrients up. She’s been drinking, a lot, but not eating.

Today I gave her an epsom salts bath for possible egg binding and have been doing the coconut oil and crop massages for her huge full crop, but it seems clear now that the crop literally can’t empty. Her poops are explosive water, liquid urates and light green material that’s quite liquified. This has been the case for around four days. Before that she had diarrhea for 5 or 6 days but it wasn’t severe.

I suspect now that we’re dealing with an impacted crop brought on by possible egg binding? She’s clearly in pain. I can’t feel a stuck egg in her vent but her tummy under her legs does feel hard and her cloaca is contracting. She probably doesn’t have an infection as she’s on the antibiotics, but she’s suffering and tired. Can the kind experts here advise next steps in either investigation or home treatment? Does her posture look like egg binding to you, or something else? Thankyou in advance

 

[igorsMistress]

If she’s egg bound you should be able to feel the egg when you lightly run your hand down her belly area and between her legs. Usually egg bound hens don’t defecate and I suspect it’s something else. Testing to find out what it is will be the best course of action.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

Hi friends,
My Pencilled Hamburg hen Angelica is around 7 months old. She’s been laying for a few weeks but stopped a week ago. We had a mite infestation arise while away on a camping trip so I assumed it was the cause, as the rest of the flock stopped laying too. They’ve all been treated with ivermectin drops to the neck and pestene powder in the coops, and the mites seem to have gone. The whole flock was dewormed with Killverm at Christmas time.

Angelica has been looking off for just over a week but now she’s really sick. When she started acting sick (lethargic, hunching) I started her on five days of amprolium, suspecting cocci from moving back into the run, and then when she didn’t improve i moved on to antibiotic Sulfa-3 to cover off coryza (her chronic condition) and coccidiosis from another angle in case the amprolium just wasn’t working. She shows none of the unique symptoms of either coryza or cocci, but i needed to know it wasn’t the root cause.

I’ve been torpedo feeding her a mix of egg, her Barastoc Darling Downs coarse layer mash and Neocare baby bird food, and then yesterday started tube feeding liquid Neocare to keep her nutrients up. She’s been drinking, a lot, but not eating.

Today I gave her an epsom salts bath for possible egg binding and have been doing the coconut oil and crop massages for her huge full crop, but it seems clear now that the crop literally can’t empty. Her poops are explosive water, liquid urates and light green material that’s quite liquified. This has been the case for around four days. Before that she had diarrhea for 5 or 6 days but it wasn’t severe.

I suspect now that we’re dealing with an impacted crop brought on by possible egg binding? She’s clearly in pain. I can’t feel a stuck egg in her vent but her tummy under her legs does feel hard and her cloaca is contracting. She probably doesn’t have an infection as she’s on the antibiotics, but she’s suffering and tired. Can the kind experts here advise next steps in either investigation or home treatment? Does her posture look like egg binding to you, or something else? Thankyou in advance

I’m very sorry to hear that your hen is sick. I personally don’t think she is egg bound, if you can’t feel an egg. Normally they would stand more like a penguin and constantly be pulsating their vent.
It’s great that your messaging her crop, does she eat? If a hen isn’t eating they can poop green, that’s what my hen did when she wasn’t eating and sick.
If you have a vet nearby you could try and contact it

 

[JoanieShrubs]

Just an update. My hen has been going downhill, crop not emptying, pale green diarrhea. I tried crop massage with coconut oil, sodium docusate stool softener, and have been tube feeding her baby bird food to keep up nutrients. Took her to the vet today and they took fluid from her crop and tested it and her poop. Massive bacterial infection. She’s been on Sulfa for 5 days (my choice as it helps with a few common illnesses) but it isn’t the right antibiotic for this pathogen. She’s now had injections for fluids and an antibiotic, and if it hasn’t moved anything by tomorrow morning the vet thinks the kindest next step is euthanasia. There’s no point operating on the crop when her reproductive and digestive systems have shut down due to the infection. Anyway thanks for your help, the vet visit was the right call. Not closure, but it explains why I couldn’t help her despite my best efforts.

 

[JulieHei]

So sorry to hear about you hen. Did the vet say anything about what the bacterial infection is called? And how she got the bacterial infection? Could your other birds be infected?

 

[JoanieShrubs]

So sorry to hear about you hen. Did the vet say anything about what the bacterial infection is called? And how she got the bacterial infection? Could your other birds be infected?

No, they haven’t sent it away yet, just saw it under a microscope. The other 11 birds are fine, this one seems to have a weak immune system after surviving infectious coryza when she was younger. We’ll def get the organism identified though.

 

[agarnp]

Just an update. My hen has been going downhill, crop not emptying, pale green diarrhea. I tried crop massage with coconut oil, sodium docusate stool softener, and have been tube feeding her baby bird food to keep up nutrients. Took her to the vet today and they took fluid from her crop and tested it and her poop. Massive bacterial infection. She’s been on Sulfa for 5 days (my choice as it helps with a few common illnesses) but it isn’t the right antibiotic for this pathogen. She’s now had injections for fluids and an antibiotic, and if it hasn’t moved anything by tomorrow morning the vet thinks the kindest next step is euthanasia. There’s no point operating on the crop when her reproductive and digestive systems have shut down due to the infection. Anyway thanks for your help, the vet visit was the right call. Not closure, but it explains why I couldn’t help her despite my best efforts.

❤sorry