Egg-bound duck!

[Skipper81]

What kind of surgery? Did they say what exactly they would do?

 

[Skipper81]

Reason I'm asking is because I thought you could care for eggbound at home even if it came to breaking egg and removing (which i would do if she was going to pass anyway)
I could be wrong

 

[betsycam]

I didn't speak directly to the vet - a friend has a vet friend she consulted and that vet friend consulted the avian vet. It sounded complicated with anesthesia to knock her out, so I'm thinking abdominal surgery, not just breaking the egg and trying to extract the shell.

I have contemplated doing that, but her vent opening is so small, I am worried I won't be able to reach all the shell once it is broken and crushed. The egg contents broken inside is dangerous even when the egg is close to the opening? I hate to give up.

 

[Skipper81]

Have you done another calcium shot?

 

[Skipper81]

Have you tried warm bath and lubing up and trying to open vent today? I know it's hard to do I tried once and couldn't get it open but my Pekin ended up laying right after so I must have opened it a little. Don't give up

 

[betsycam]

I did do another calcium shot on Wednesday, and yesterday I tube fed her with a mix of yogurt, an egg yolk, bone broth powder (which has calcium), some electrolytes and some calcium gluconate added. When I've injected her, I gave her with 575 mg which is high by some advice on her, or not. Just not sure how often I can inject her, or if I should inject less more often...Last night I put a hemorrhoid suppository in her since that's all I had, no cream, but actually that's easier since it melts inside.

Still no egg this morning but I will give her another epsom salt bath, lube her up and try what you said, Skipper81. I don't want to give up. As long as she is strong, eliminating, and I can get food into her I'd like to succeed! I watched a lot of videos on youtube of people pressuring the egg out so I will give it another go.

 

[Skipper81]

 

[betsycam]

Crap, I checked again and the egg had broken, not sure if I caused that somehow but now I am dealing with the prospect of egg yolk peritonitis too? I forged ahead and got the bulk of the shell out of her. It was ugly and horrible for the poor thing. Still the other egg in there. I'm sure that process caused some cuts and she must be hurting, so I'd like to give her a pain killer. I have meloxicam on hand, 7.5 mg. Saw someone else gave a chicken 0.9 mg. I have a mg scale so could manage to get that small of a dose, but anyone know if it is soluble in water? Would be easier to make a solution that I could measure by syringe.

I also happen to have amoxicillin 500 mg my dog is taking. Saw up to 300 mg dosage? I'd like to give 250 mg so that one capsule lasts two days. I also have on hand Pen-G, LA200, Tylan and enrofloxacin injectible, but on the med list it showed only amoxi for egg yolk peritonitis. Others are good for necrotic enteritis, but not good enough for this? I ordered some fish amoxi to have hopefully next week and hope that it is ok to sub this back for what's taken from my dog!

It will be a miracle if she makes it through this, but at the moment she is still strong. Going to tube feed her again with the amoxi included but hoping to get feedback about the meloxicam and dosages She weighs just under 5 lb.

 

[nightowl223]

@nightowl223 could you give this lady advise or do you know anyone who can please

Crap, I got lazy about checking... I wasn't feeling well, and missed this. I will read on, but hope my absence didn't hurt the situation.

 

[nightowl223]

I would stick with the amoxicillin, as it's a good all around antibiotic. I would also put some triple antibiotic ointment (without pain reliever) in her vent as far as you can get, trying to get it mostly towards the product rather than the intestinal direction of the cloaca. That should help prevent infection, as well.

It looks like the amoxicillin dosage should be at least 300 mg for a 5 pound bird, once a day. The dosage is 150 mg per kg per day, and the conversion puts 5 pounds at about 2 1/4 kg, so that would be around 340-ish mg per day. I'd definitely dose at the high end rather than too little.

Also, I see no reason why the dog's medicine can't be replaced by the same amount of the one you're ordering.