Drained a Hen's Abdomen.. Rest in Peace, Olivia 11-5-10

[casportpony]

This is the one that died being prepped:


Necropsy pictures here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...scites-and-eyp-very-graphic-necropsy-pictures

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Quote: I had a couple that I didn't get much fluid out of, and one of those lived for six months before she died. I understand not wanting to do a necropsy, that's pretty normal, and some of my favorites I choose to just bury them.

-Kathy

 

[speckledhen]

So I drained her belly one last time. I feel bad I've done it repeatedly but I'm unfortunately learning as I go. I also picked up some penicillin for her. Now I'm going to wait. She'll get the penicillin but no more draining. My plan is to see how fast she refills. If she can live comfortably for a while longer I feel it's worth it. I'm sure there are people out there who think I'm crazy. That's ok. This is my first chicken illness and what will be loss. It's not in me not to try. I know when to give in to the inevitable but I don't think she's there yet.

You are not crazy. After having one temporarily recover on her own and even lay for awhile again, I don't count them out. They can be so far down and rally, you just never know. They're fighters, these hens. I'm not saying they permanently come back but they can go on for a very, very long time with bloat. You should see this thread of mine. This hen went TWO YEARS, no eggs, bloating, getting a little better, then getting very bad until I did drain her only ONCE because she was so huge. She was a very large framed Buff Orp from a breeder and she laid only a few eggs her first year and never again. She was over 3 years old when she died with two baseball size liver tumors that were actually reproductive tumors! Never had that happen before but a vet confirmed it for me. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...cc-yellow-fluid-rip-hope-graphic-photos-added

I think you're doing the right thing even though she's not long for this world, because treating her will be a good learning experience, and if you can bring yourself to do a necropsy on her when she passes, you'll learn even more, like if the fluids build up is from cancer or EYP. It's it's from just heart and/or liver failure, that's a little harder to see, but cancer and EYP are glaringly obvious.

to you and her, and I hope the rest of her days are enjoyable for you both.

-Kathy

I agree with Kathy. I have quite a few layman's necropsies under my belt. You learn so much from those.

 

[casportpony]

Here's another link with necropsy pictures:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/889268/swollen-abdomen-culled-and-found-tumors-graphic-photos

-Kathy

 

[Goodneatstuff]

Following

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

In less than a week I did my first cloacal exam and oral medication (when I suspected she was egg bound.) Then my first drain and medication injection (when I decided to treat for EYP.) I'd like to stop stumbling through medical procedures for a while. Even if my patient is no longer living.

I do sincerely appreciate the advice and support.

 

[speckledhen]

In less than a week I did my first cloacal exam and oral medication (when I suspected she was egg bound.) Then my first drain and medication injection (when I decided to treat for EYP.) I'd like to stop stumbling through medical procedures for a while. Even if my patient is no longer living.

I do sincerely appreciate the advice and support.

You did good. I know it wears on you. Just think of how I felt when my first hens began to drop off at just over 2 years old, one after the other, all from the same thing. I did that probably 15 times, not counting Hope with her weird liver tumors. I know way more than I ever wanted to know! In truth, it's why I took Dr. Peter Brown's advice (he's famous around here with some of us) after he walked me through the first few of them and said to get stock from elsewhere. So, I quit buying hatchery hens and stuck with hatching eggs from good breeders.Hope was my exception, being from a good breeder of Orpingtons. Direct hatchery hens, daughters of hatchery hens, had all of those with reproductive malfunctions, but not the breeder stock.

I did have one Delaware hen's humongous eggs do her in, though; one of her normal huge eggs enclosed a second egg and the resulting monstrous egg was too large to pass so left the oviduct and dropped into the abdomen, sealing her doom, but she never had cancer or anything of the sort.

At least you care. Some just don't. They don't observe anything wrong and just find a dead hen and don't care what happened.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

I joke I became the home for wayward hens. I had an empty coop and someone had four leghorns they couldn't keep. I said I would take them in and brought them home in less then a week. It wasn't two weeks later I got the call about two RIR in need. I took a crash course in chicken care and kept all six girls alive for the last year. I have no idea of any of their origin or even age. I was told "around two".

I'd like to get more but hatching eggs I know I'll get roos that I don't really want (then I have to take care of one way or the other) and not currently owning an incubator makes hatching kinda hard. I'd like to find more "chicken people" in my area.

I do feel better knowing it wasn't anything I did. It just happens to some hens. Knowing high yield layers are more susceptible will make me think about what breeds to choose when I expand. I have chickens for the fun of chickens.

 

[speckledhen]

I joke I became the home for wayward hens. I had an empty coop and someone had four leghorns they couldn't keep. I said I would take them in and brought them home in less then a week. It wasn't two weeks later I got the call about two RIR in need. I took a crash course in chicken care and kept all six girls alive for the last year. I have no idea of any of their origin or even age. I was told "around two".

I'd like to get more but hatching eggs I know I'll get roos that I don't really want (then I have to take care of one way or the other) and not currently owning an incubator makes hatching kinda hard. I'd like to find more "chicken people" in my area.

I do feel better knowing it wasn't anything I did. It just happens to some hens. Knowing high yield layers are more susceptible will make me think about what breeds to choose when I expand. I have chickens for the fun of chickens.

Be very, very careful doing that or you'll get a crash course in other things you really don't want to know about. If you put birds together from different sources, the new ones can be respiratory disease carriers (or the original ones could, really) and infect the others. You cannot always tell until there is a stress applied and BAM! Symptoms show up. Most of those diseases never leave a chicken's body-they are "Typhoid Marys" in the flock and can infect others even if they are currently asymptomatic.

Check out my thread here for details. Urgent Reminder-Always Quarantine Newly Acquired Birds

Chickens are fun, but disease can really take some of the fun out of that. You can't prevent the reproductive stuff other than buying stock not generally prone to it, however, the respiratory diseases can generally be avoided if you use extreme caution.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

Be very, very careful doing that or you'll get a crash course in other things you really don't want to know about. If you put birds together from different sources, the new ones can be respiratory disease carriers (or the original ones could, really) and infect the others. You cannot always tell until there is a stress applied and BAM! Symptoms show up. Most of those diseases never leave a chicken's body-they are "Typhoid Marys" in the flock and can infect others even if they are currently asymptomatic.

Check out my thread here for details.   Urgent Reminder-Always Quarantine Newly Acquired Birds

Chickens are fun, but disease can really take some of the fun out of that. You can't prevent the reproductive stuff other than buying stock not generally prone to it, however, the respiratory diseases can generally be avoided if you use extreme caution.

Yes that was in my crash course. They were all here so I kept an eye on them and my fingers crossed. I was super freaked out with the avian flu outbreak because we have a pond on the property. Luckily it's far from the girls and we don't have any permanent residents on the pond.