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

[MaeM]

This morning I saw my favorite hen in the nest box. But she wasn't able to lay any egg.

She often lays soft shelled eggs and ends up releasing non-solid egg material overnight.

But this is the first time that she is this lethargic. She ate only a little, drank some water. I can see her trying to live normally but something is bothering her.

The worst part is that I saw her trying to poop and she made a weird movement and screamed like it hurt. Only yolk came out of her butt.

I put my finger into her butt and I didn't feel anything, but I'm not very experienced. I just took out some more yolk, and I think I saw a red thing - prolapse-like (she had a prolapse some weeks ago) but it is not visible from the outside.

I don't have access to a vet until at least Wednesday.

What I did so far:

- Warm bath with Epsom salts
- I put antibiotic/analgesic/anti-inflammatory cream inside her butt. This treatment was prescribed by her vet when she had the prolapse.

What I have at home:
- Oxitetracycline but it would be hard to give her that because it is meant to be poured into the water of the whole flock - so, hard to calculate dose for a single bird.
- Injections of dexamethasone - her emergency medication for her chronic "asthma"

I'm super afraid of EYP.

What can I do?

 

[azygous]

Yolk broken inside a hen will quickly allow bacteria to colonize in the protein. She needs the oral antibiotic now, ASAP. Calculate the dose for a single chicken from the instructions on the label for the flock dose. Usually, the way you calculate a flock dose is to add up the total weight of the chickens in the flock, and to get the individual dose, you divide that total by the total number of chickens. Then syringe the dose into the hen or give it to her as her only source of water if she can drink on her own.

Or order easy to give antibiotics such as this. https://www.kvsupply.com/item/aqua-mox-250mg-capsules-100-count/P06184/ 250mg per day for ten days.

She also needs a calcium supplement to help encourage contractions to get the rest of the egg material expelled. One of these per day directly into her beak. Get this at Walmart or any pharmacy.

If she prolapses again, it requires special care. Here's what to do. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ng-from-vent-prolapse-oh-my-what-to-do.76124/

 

[MaeM]

I FOUND ENROFLOXACIN! This is easier to dose. Would that work?

 

[azygous]

Yes. Use it.

 

[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?

 

[azygous]

Put a teaspoon of sugar in her water. Mary Poppins tricks work with chickens, too.

 

[Eggcessive]

Enrofloxacin is a much better antibiotic. If you have the 10% liquid, dosage is 0.25 or 1/4 ml for a five pound chicken given orally twice a day for 5 days.

 

[MaeM]

Enrofloxacin is a much better antibiotic. If you have the 10% liquid, dosage is 0.25 or 1/4 ml for a five pound chicken given orally twice a day for 5 days.

Thank you! This one comes with a dropper. She was prescribed this when she had a respiratory infection a few months ago. At the time, the vet said that it is better to give her the drops directly in her beak, and he calculated that 4 drops is the most accurate dosage for her.

So I thought that I could give her the drops. But that was when she was inactive and it seemed pretty obvious that she had an infection, as Azygous said. Right now, I'm not that sure. I see some improvement and it's been only a few hours. And my oxytetracycline is used as a preventive medication as well, so in this sense, perhaps it's better for this case?

Let me know if I'm making a mistake here! She has a chronic respiratory condition that makes her more prone to respiratory infections (she survived pneumonia back in June!), and the vet emphasized the importance of not making her resistant to antibiotics.

By the way, I just found fresh poop in her run, it looks wet and doesn't have yolk in it. I checked her butt again, it looks a bit inflammed on the outside but it doesn't look prolapsed and there are no contractions.

I'd like to think that she expeled it all and she will be fine. The problem is that when this happens, I'd normally find yolks and soft shells on the ground.

 

[Mayalys]

If she has a habit of soft shelled eggs, one might have broken in before and you might be seeing the results of it (aka an active infection causing further laying issues). I would give the antibiotics for a full treatment. Try mixing the antibiotic with cat food (mine are partial to Purina in gravy because it has little shreds in it).

 

[azygous]

Reproductive infections are more serious than respiratory ones, which can often clear up on their own. Once any yolk is broken inside the oviduct, you must assume bacterial infection is underway. Remember, egg yolk is what scientists use as a growing medium when they want to do bacterial cultures. It's like horse manure is to growing outrageous tomato plants.

Once a reproductive infection takes hold and is not treated, it becomes chronic and much more resistant to antibiotics.