Egg Bound?? Postmortem showed more than a litre of water in Bowel??

[Buster2nz]

Does anyone know what my 4yr old chicken my have had?

At first i noticed she was waddling, picking her up i discovered her belly was huge, and very hot.

I asumed she was egg bound, (never had one before) put my finger inside with glove on, i could feel an egg which felt like it was the head side of the legs, i tried to ease my finger along side and gently pull it out, unfortunately it broke.

I asumed that now that it was a little smaller she would push it out, next day i put a syringe full of olive oil in, next day still no egg. left her for another 2 days she wasn't eating or drinking, but watery stuff white and greyish was coming out, not a lot but enough.

After 2 days i tried to put my finger in her uterus again and just couldn't find the hole, kept ending up in her bowel.

A couple of days later still no egg, and still couldn't get into the uterus, belly was still just as extended. I felt she must be in a lot of pain, so i put her down.

I've just done a postmortem, sorted out just where the opening to the uterus is, after gently opening her up, this huge bladder in 3 sections fell out, one extremely large the other a lot smaller, and the other smaller again. i measued the contents and there was more than a litre of water, no colour, no really foul smell, just a chicken smell.

The uterus was much smaller as was the opening, no wonder i couldn't get in there or find it, the remains of the other half of the egg shell was in there. The shell had scratched the walls of the uterus and was bleeding a little. But the size of this bag of water was pushing against everything, no wonder she had been gasping at times & i would say this was why she couldn't pass the egg, because of this enormous bag of water. I don't know anything about the rest of her innards, what i was really looking at, but everything look very squashed. Does anyone have any ideas?

I do have Coccidia and Maricks Disease in my flock.

Any Help would be much appreciated. Regards Maxine

 

[Kim95037]

Wow Im so sorry for your loss. I just recently took my chicken to the vet and the vet took a huge amount of water out of her abdomen. She had so much fluid in her abdomen it was backing up to her crop and making it hard for her to breath. Unfortunately the vet was not exactly sure what it might have been. She said it could be some kind of infection that would go away if we were lucky or that it could be a tumor of some kind. Fortunately with much prayer I got 'lucky'. Thats amazing that you did your own autopsy. Are you a veterinarian? I dont think I could do that, I wouldnt know what I was doing anyway. I did talk my neighbors into helping me cut a small opening in one of my chicks crops to remove a screw that she swallowed, which turned out to be three screws. Thats the extent of my operating skills. The only thing I could think of for you to do is have a necropsy done, but not sure if its too late for that? Sometimes thats the only way to know. Chickens are tricky arent they??

 

[chickenzoo]

So sorry.... Do a search on a acities ( spelling)

 

[Buster2nz]

Hi Kim,

Thanks for your reply, no i'm not a vet, but after 5yrs of having chickens with Coccidia and Maricks Disease i have become desensitized to having to put some wonderful chickens down, some really good friends. Before having chickens i couldn't kill anything, and we still can't eat our chickens or cows etc, but this case really had my curiosity especially when i couldn't find the opening to the uterus, i felt that i needed to sort that out in case i needed to know in the future. I felt the first few times must have been dum luck, but after seeing how much water she had i realized it must have been because of the pressure.

Very interesting about your chicken, where abouts did the vet put the needle to draw off the water?

 

[Buster2nz]

Hi Chicken Zoo,

Thank you for your reply as well, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascites Ascites, very good explantion at wikipedia, doesn't say anything about chickens, just humans, but sounds very interesting, and a possibility.

 

[Kim95037]

Im not sure if she used a needle. They tried again to get some more fluid out of her abdomen a 2nd time, but the did it by sticking a tube down her throat, which looked a little scary. I would think a needle would be doable but I wouldnt have a clue on where to put it. I could never eat my chickens either. I would be one of these people that would starve to death before I ate one of my animals. I wonder what the the post by chicken zoo is all about? I'll have to try and do a search on it.

 

[Kim95037]

Oh I see the post, intersting. I wonder too if chickens can get that. I wouldnt be suprised.

 

[Kim95037]

Check this out

http://www.millerhatcheries.com/inf...nfo/Ascites (waterbelly)_in_Meat_Chickens.htm

 

[chickenzoo]

You can drain the bottom by using a 16 gauge needle and inserting at a angle, not straight in, into the thickest roundest lower area of the balloon shape say 5 inches from bottom of the vent in large breeds... If fluid flows good, pull plunger and let it free flow out. I often stand up the chicken and put slight pressure on the abdomen. It can be a lot of fluid....even in small chickens. Follow up with an antibiotic orally.

 

[Buster2nz]

Hi Kim and Chicken Zoo,

Kim the website you sent talks about fluid in the body cavity, and ChickenZoo's angle of the needle supports that as well, however, this fluid was in a bag,with the 2 smaller bags or compartments which were a part of the main bag. Tracing the line back, from the bag, i feel that it was the bowel.

So i'm not so sure now that it is Ascities.

Kim you did very well with the 3 screws.

Also my chicken before i scooped her up, was waddling around, i hadn't noticed her sitting panting anywhere. she only panted after i had been dealing to her, and i didn't blame her. but once she got over me working on her, she finaly stopped panting,