Egg peritonitis -- need advice!

[GGchick]

Hi everyone,
I have a 7-month-old partridge rock that my vet is pretty sure has egg peritonitis. I am so devastated, and she's being a real trooper. The vet wants to do surgery, but I'm not putting her through that. After me saying no, he was pretty flippant and offered no other advice. So, for those of you who have been through this, do I put her down now or wait and see? (I don't know what I'd be waiting and seeing for?) She's on Baytril. Not eating much at all, but is drinking profusely. What do I do? Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

I do not believe that there is much in the way of successul treatment for egg peritonitis nor much prevention. So you are likely just in not wanting to get to far into vet services that may not solve the problem.

That said some people will have historectomies performed by the vet and end up with happy pet chickens..... not so good for the feed to egg ratio.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Heat and warm baths may help eggs move along, calcium may help keep the shells strong so the move through as they are suposed too. Some herbal remidies (maybe someone can post which one, I forget) may reduce the lay, but I would doubt they will solve the problem.

 

[chickenlady08]

I would say this is a very hard thing to treat. What was your vet saying for surgery? Was he going to give her a hysterectomy to stop all egg production? But peritonitis is infection from internal laying isn't it?

 

[ChooksChick]

I lost a hen to this and the necropsy showed the devastating effects of intermittent normal laying mixed with the effects of having had an egg break internally. She looked and acted fairly normal, but the necropsy showed such scarring and inflammation internally I know now she must have been in terrible pain.

I encourage you to do the surgery if you are interested in quality of life and not interested in culling to prevent her from chronic pain. There's an intense discomfort in being on antibiotics for any prolonged period, and that's the only thing you could do to stave off the inevitable lethal infection other than a oviduct removal.

 

[GGchick]

The vet x-rayed her and her whole body was filled with fluid, squishing her heart and lungs. Surgery would entail opening her abdomen, cleaning it out, then her being on antiobiotics for 3 months. This just sounds terrible in and of itself. It cost me nearly $900 to get to this point, and I can't imagine how much surgery would cost. Though I am willing to do what I can afford to save her, I'm already over what I can afford! I guess if I knew surgery would help, I would consider it. But the vet sounded like it was maybe a 50-50 shot.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Yes, does sound risky. Even then I don't think that will prevent it happening again in the future.

 

[chickenlady08]

Quote:
Gosh GGchick I am so sorry. I can relate with the you. I have had the vet perform surgery on several of my chickens and I know how expensive it can be, but I would do it all over again. I wish I had gotten my Delaware hen we named Trooper back to the vet a 2nd time. She was an internal layer and the vet did surgery and removed a 2 lb mass of egg material from her abdomen. She did not do a hysterectomy which is what i wanted to have done. She said she looked good. She actually laid eggs after the surgery (This was in May) She unfortunatly started laying internally again and I wasn't aware of it so soon this time. She passed away but I would have gone to the vet again for sure.

The antibiotic will clear up some infection but that is just a temporary fix, I hope you can get her well again because I know how hard this is and wish you the best of luck and your chicken to recover.