EGG YOLK IN HEN'S BUTT - LETHARGIC. HELP!

[Mayalys]

I hope your hen is feeling better right now. Sometimes, after feeling very sick due to egg laying issues, my hen would enter a partial molt which allows her to stop laying for a bit, Sorry, no experience with lice as it’s not something my chickens than free range during the day tend to get (worms, on the other hand…). I did hear of people that had luck with minor lice infestations with dusting of diatomaceous earth. It might be that only minor care is needed until she’s feeling well enough to dust bathe.

 

[MaeM]

Bianca is feeling better! She is no longer taking antibiotics and the swelling went down by itself. She started pooping normally and is herself again! She started dust bathing again and the number of lice is super reduced in comparison to last time. The vet thinks that she will remove them all with a few more dust baths. Which are great news because he didn't want to medicate her.

He told me that because he is a chronically ill hen that has taken more meds than any other hen, he is unsure of his kidney function, that is why he didn't even give her Meloxicam - and that is why it took her about one week to recover. It could've been earlier but this vet is not "her" vet and he has no access to the other vet's notes, medical history, etc., so he chose the safest option.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[MaeM]

I gave her 1 g of oxytetracycline in her water as the pack says 5g per 2l of water and her waterer has a capacity of 0.4 l.

I isolated her so that only she would drink from this and I could check her poop/discharges.

I haven't seen anything weird yet. No yolk and no fresh poop either.

She might have drunk a little - she refuses because she doesn't like meds in her water and oxyetetracycline makes the water a bit yellow, I'm pretty sure that she notices that.

I think that she is feeling better. She is in a secondary coop/run. At first she didn't move much and looked tired/sleepy. Now she saw me and got up from the ground and moved around A LOT. She is like begging me to let her out - this might be a good sign.

I don't know what to do with the medication now. It makes me nervous not to know if she drank it or not, or how much she drank. Should I still try with the enrofloxacin? I don't know if it's a good idea to give her that if she drank oxytetracycline. Or if she doesn't actually have an infection and was lethargic due to pain or something?

 

[MaeM]

UPDATE:

After mild activity, she started acting sick again, and expeled more yolk and what I think is egg white.

I removed the oxytetracycline and started with enrofloxacin directly on her beak.

But I'm thinking that perhaps her insides are inflammed, that's why she can't expel all the egg materials easily.

She went to sleep now. She went to sleep earlier than everyone else in the flock.

Is it a good idea to give her a shot of dexamethasone in the morning? The problem is that dexamethasone may affect her immune system as a side effect, making it more difficult for her to fight infections.

 

[MaeM]

Are you a vet or a vet assistant? If not, I would not give her the dex.

For obstruction, calcium each day she's in crisis is the best thing you can give, plus the antibiotic for the broken yolk still lingering in the oviduct. Be patient. Calcium will encourage the contractions to expel the egg remains. She will do a one-eighty when it's all out and return to her normal self. That's when you can stop giving the calcium.

The thing is that I wasn't able to give her calcium yet. It's holidays in my country and I couldn't find an open store to buy it. Ordering it online would take too long, and holidays end on Wednesday.

All I have until then are two multivitimin products, one of them is meant for feather regrowth and has 0.8 g of calcium pantothenate per 100 g, apart from a long list of vitamins from A to K. What you told me to use is calcium citrate and Google says that calcium pantothenate is closer to vitamin B5 than actual calcium, so I don't know if that would work.

The product does have vitamin D3 though - 25.000 UI per 100 g. Recommended dosage is 4-5 g in 1L of water.

Worth a try?

 

[MaeM]

Her vent is inflammed though. She poops very little - not whole turds. Kind of reminds me to when she was prolapsed.

I put some cream in her vent and she stayed still, I think she is in pain.

What was the reason to say no to the dex shot?

 

[MaeM]

I feel like the prolapse is internal, if that makes sense? Her butt looks pretty normal on the outside but when I put the cream inside her butt (as the vet told me to do when she had the first prolapse) I was able to see a bit of her insides... The flesh is inflamed and some poop passed through one of the sides of the channel. So yes, there's a partial blockage.

I can't feel any egg though. I didn't put my finger in her vent again but her abdomen is not swollen and I can't feel eggs in it. It's either a soft shelled egg or an egg that broke inside her, although when I put my finger into her vent, I didn't retrieve any hard pieces, just yolk and white.

I will try to take her to the vet tomorrow. In the meantime I will keep giving her enrofloxacin and egg shells.

 

[MaeM]

Chances are the vet will prescribe meloxicam for inflammation (this is what I got, but I'm unsure if it added something to the antibiotics). I would hold the steroids personally. I still think the most likely situation is that she got an infection from a previous broken egg. My experience has been that when a hen has eggshell issues, the problems get only worse as she ages, because she lays less often but the eggs are bigger. I'm now waiting for my hen with eggshell issues to drop an egg, since she's been suffering and trying to get it out all day. Most likely I will find a smashed very thin shelled egg under the roost tomorrow morning, and that would be the best case scenario. So I think you have to also prepare for the future.

I hear you. Bianca has always had egg laying issues. Calcium supplements never fixed them. The vet said that she probably has a congenital defect in her reproductive system.

After she got seriously sick last June, she stopped laying regularly. She is only 2 years old but is already laying only once in a while. Last time, she got a prolapse, and received Meloxicam shots.

Then laid the biggest egg ever. And now, this...

I also used to find yolk and soft shells below her roost. I didn't like seeing that but now I wish I would see that because I'm afraid of egg materials still being inside her.

What do you recommend for the future? I wish I could simply make her stop egg laying. I don't care about her eggs, I care about what's best for her.

 

[Eggcessive]

Some vets will use hormone implants to stop laying for 6 months.