egg peritonitis?, vent gleet?, something else?

[missychicky mom]

Help!!!!
I am missychicky's mom trying to take care of her chickens while she is at camp..... so of course one of our hens has become very sick. I think I am doing the right thing but could use some assurance.

) What type of bird , age and weight. Black sex link about 3 years old

2) What is the behavior, exactly. pooping at various times, clear liquid with yellow goo. milky white liquid, white with green bits. if you touch inside the vent at all she prolaspes. Milky fluid almost seems to be coming from the tissue around the inside of the vent. I got an egg yolk out of the egg laying part. Poop part looks ripped and traumatized. Large white plaques on the inside of the vent. Some rub off and are grainy.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? About a week or possibly a bit longer. Apparently she was laying bloody eggs for a while. I then had two broken eggs in the coop (one per day) brought her in about 3 days ago (I have been up day and night, am losing track of time) when laid a broken egg outside of the coop and it was painful for her.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? Not exactly, just finished treating one hen for sour croup however.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. She has a dislocating toe, but I think it is unrelated, it does not seem to bother her

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. I think we left some veggies in the coop too long and they went moldy
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. She seems to be drinking a bit. Gave her a bit of cat food (a rav fav) and she nibbled at it. is now sitting on the desk pecking at rice. doesnt want to move, seems tired, but not exactly lethargic
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. I have had everything- blood, clear with yellow, white and streaky, milky white, clear with white

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? I am completely broke so I have had to improvise alot - I hope it is helping not hurting. I have: given her warm baths ( she seems to like them, but it is hard to warm her up afterwards), keeping her in the dark, afrin (to reduce the swelling and the prolapse), econozol (rx anti fungal ointment), added white vinegar to her bath, wiping her vent with vinegar water, tetracycline mixed with milk (pleh!), "milked" the white fluid. That is all I can remember at this point -oh I just gave her an oz of electrolyte water which perked her up a bit.

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I have to do this myself, I can not afford a vet. I HAVE to keep this chicken going at least until missychicky gets home tomorrow night.

My guess is that she has/had egg peritonitis, straining has caused her to prolaspe her vent. The moldy food has given her vent gleet, and I am not sure, but the poop part might be ripped. She only prolaspes when she strains I have ACV, epsom salts, diflucan tabs, tetracycline powder,
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

 

[allieloveschickens]

wow, that doesn't look good. It sounds like you are doing all you can- I have heard you can put oil in and around the vent to help things slide out more easily. Warm baths and darkness are both good too. If you do a search on egg peritonitis you might find some helpful threads. Good luck! I hope some more informed folks come along, I fortunately have not had to deal with this yet with any of my girls.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Wow. No clue, really, but posting in hopes that someone else will come along who knows this terrain.

I've had an internal layer with egg yolk peritonitis so the yellow fluid looks kind of like that, but my hen stops eating and moving when she is in trouble. We've had her to the vet four times in six weeks for this because they have to drain the fluid that accumulates in the abdomen and then put her on antibiotics plus a hormone shot to try to shut down the laying process. It is expensive, to say the least. The experience began here: http://polloplayer.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-weekend-keeping-our-fingers-crossed/

But your hen is eating, so that seems a bit different. I kind of doubt it had anything to do with the moldy veggies - they'll usually turn their beaks up at something that doesn't suit them. Mine won't even eat most fresh veggies.

However, the broken egg laid outside the coop could be a clue to internal laying. It is serious and needs immediate attention. And I don't think you can really address it without veterinary care.

 

[Ema]

Wow that looks pretty bad....I haven't really gone through much of this so I am giving you a bump in hopes someone can give you a definite answer.

I have had chickens since last year and just lost one chicken yesterday to a weird egg issue where she laif a heavily bloody egg and then died. In my opinion it looks like she had prolapse but what I do not know is would her vent be so wide open if this was the cause??

do you feel or see anything just inside her vent at all, maybe she has an egg stuck inside or something....that looks real freaky...poor hen. Hope you get some answers and good help!!

Ema

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Ema - have you heard of Egg Yolk Stroke? The receptionist at our vet mentioned it as the possible cause of death of one of my other hens. She was a Delaware (hatchery chick) just a few weeks past point of lay when she died. She was fine in the morning and dead by afternoon. It happened on Christmas Day. Could not have been sadder.

 

[missychicky mom]

I forgot.... ( I have been working on this day and night for about 3 days now...) I did put vegetable oil on/in the vent- I think it helped some, that is when the egg yolk (which I could never "find" inside) came out. I just gave her a few more cc's of electrolyte water with a bit of ACV in it. I cleaned her up, rubbed some more econozole inside the vent and let her pick at some more plain rice. I put her back in the bathroom with the light off. I am not sure if she is hurting, sometimes I think she is, mostly not. She has always been a very feisty chicken and she is being somewhat docile at the moment. I am trying to decide if I should give her some aspirin or just let her rest.
This is REALLY hard, missychicky's favorite hen died while she was gone about a month ago and she has not gotten over that.

 

[missychicky mom]

I have been further inside a chicken then I ever thought I would be in my life...... I can not feel anything stuck anywhere in there, but I might not be good at it as I never felt the yolk that came out. All I can find in the egg area is stickiness and some possible egg white. The poop area has had grit, green blobs,blood, fluid (mostly white) that I have gotten out. I can not quite figure out where the white milky fluid is coming from- it seems to come from the flesh itself.
The vent goes wide when I put my finger in, that is mostly when the prolapses happen, although pooping causes a tiny prolaspe. When I put my finger in, she strains like she is trying to lay an egg ( I am trying to prevent that by keeping her in the dark).
Should I give the rest of the flock a squirt of ACV water? I just added it to the water can (which is unfortunately metal) Does the rest of the flock (5 hens) need some tetracycline?
I have to leave her alone at home tomorrow as I have an interview waaay far away from home (yes, I am desperate...) how can I help her while I am gone?

 

[missychicky mom]

sigh- sorry- I forgot to add, this chicken has been a problematic layer all of her life, she tends to lay shelless eggs ( and they have LOTS of oyster shell) and she always lays HUGE eggs. I am scared because I think this is similar to what happened to Doofy (her favorite who died a month ago). Both chickens are/were sex links and laid huge eggs.

 

[Ema]

Quote:
I have not heard of that at all!! might be looking that up and getting more info on that topic. Weird how some things are not mentioned at all when it comes to egglaying issues!!

Ema

 

[Ema]

Quote:
the one that died on me yesterday was a RIR, hatchery, and she too laid huge eggs, which led to her demise, some of her eggs were so huge they would not fit in an Xl egg carton at all.

makes me wonder if its even possible to stop a hen from laying altogether?? good luck with the hen I do truly hope she recovers

Ema