Fat bellied 1 yr leghorn with xrays

[rebrascora]

Really by @Eggcessive... very succinctly put.

 

[TMChickens]

Agree with @rebrascora! Awesome post @Eggcessive!! Not only that...but love the name too!!

I will put her back with the flock soon. Just monitoring her “bodily functions” and was worried as I don’t have a diagnosis.

Thanks everyone!

 

[rebrascora]

She certainly is bright eyed. Lovely to see a photo of her and looks like her comb is becoming dry and less plump, so hopefully she is heading into moult/ceasing to ovulate, which should naturally improve her condition, if we are correct about it being a reproductive disorder.

 

[Melky]

Yes, that is what I think it looked like in the syringe. Also on the X-ray there is a shadow below that looks like it could be fragmented eggs. I’m no doctor and of course my doctor has vanished, so I’m just guessing. She always has been a good layer. Once she gets rid of this (ok, if) she will continue to “internally lay”. Is there a way to have her fixed so she doesn’t even have egg making capabilities so she can’t lay internally or externally? Should I also have her soak in a tub still?

Spay!

 

[Peppercorngal]

Hi

I'm sorry your girl is not well. I too would guess that she has been internally laying judging by those masses in the lower abdomen although the x-ray is not as clear as I would like.

@Wyorp Rock I believe your green arrow is pointing to the contents of the gizzard which would naturally appear like that on x-ray because it should contain grit etc.

@TMChickens ... you may not provide grit but chickens need it to grind up any food other than pellets or crumbles and they will find it whilst they are free ranging or scratch it up in their pen if they don't get to range. It is best to provide it, just to be sure they have an accessible source of it as it is extremely important to their digestive process.... it is essentially the means by which they chew up their food, singe they do not have teeth.

I appreciate what you are saying about her losing size from her abdomen and it may be that the medication is helping her body to remove fluids or perhaps she has stopped ovulating which will usually happen to adult birds over a year old at this time of year when they moult.... any sign of her dropping feathers? If her body has stopped producing egg yolks then she is no longer adding to the problem and her body has the opportunity to remove some of the surplus fluid produced from them. Unfortunately there is no process by which those egg yolks that are now inside her can be reabsorbed. Fluid leaches out of them and that certainly can but the removed by the body via the blood stream but the yolks themselves become a bit liked cooked egg yolk disks and there is no mechanism by which the body can get rid of them. They get squashed and flattened in between the intestines and other organs and can remain relatively inert for months until eventually the mass of them becomes so large that it blocks the gut and the bird is no longer able to poop properly and toxic waste builds up inside them and poisons them.
I would agree from your description of her activity level, that she is not unduly distressed by the problem at the moment although that upright posture may be putting a bit of a train on her. The surgery to remove those egg yolks and flush the abdominal cavity can run up to $1000 and beyond and there are huge risks, so I would not recommend it unless you are extremely wealthy and even then it may not be fair to put a chicken through it considering the risk. Hormonal implants should prevent the problem getting any worse but need to be replaced every 3-6 months at $100-150 a time, so again a pretty expensive undertaking. If the bird is starting to moult and has stopped ovulating ( her comb will go paler and less plump to indicate this) then I would not consider hormonal implants until she comes back "into lay" which may be anywhere from late next month to February, but you will be forewarned by her comb becoming bright red and plump again. To me that would be the time to get the hormone implant. If she is not moulting yet, then you may be able to trigger her to moult and stop ovulating by keeping her in the dark until lunchtime. The shorter exposure to daylight should cause her pineal gland to release hormones to stop ovulation.

@Peppercorngal How was your bird diagnosed as internal laying? There are a number of similar issues that can cause the same symptoms. Even if she was internally laying, I had one that improved dramatically over the winter when she moulted and stopped ovulating but the problem reoccurred in the spring when her ovaries started back up and she eventually got huge again and sadly succumbed to it. There is no way for those egg yolks to be reabsorbed, only the fluid that seeps out of them, which means you can see some improvement once they stop ovulating but the problem has not gone away. If your girl really is internally laying then it will catch up with her sooner or later, but it may be that she was misdiagnosed. If you have ever done a necropsy on a bird that has been laying internally, it helps you to understand that there is just no way for those egg yolks to get out once they have dropped into the abdominal cavity.

I diagnosed Beverly as the symptoms were obvious. And a chicken CAN reabsorb the yolk. "Internal laying by itself is not always an issue. Occasionally a hen will lay internally for no apparent reason and the yolk will simply be absorbed back into the body without complications if there is no bacteria present." This statement was found on a vet site. She may begin to internally lay again in spring, you are correct, but for now she is fine.

I'm sorry your girl is not well. I too would guess that she has been internally laying judging by those masses in the lower abdomen although the x-ray is not as clear as I would like.

@Wyorp Rock I believe your green arrow is pointing to the contents of the gizzard which would naturally appear like that on x-ray because it should contain grit etc.

@TMChickens ... you may not provide grit but chickens need it to grind up any food other than pellets or crumbles and they will find it whilst they are free ranging or scratch it up in their pen if they don't get to range. It is best to provide it, just to be sure they have an accessible source of it as it is extremely important to their digestive process.... it is essentially the means by which they chew up their food, singe they do not have teeth.

I appreciate what you are saying about her losing size from her abdomen and it may be that the medication is helping her body to remove fluids or perhaps she has stopped ovulating which will usually happen to adult birds over a year old at this time of year when they moult.... any sign of her dropping feathers? If her body has stopped producing egg yolks then she is no longer adding to the problem and her body has the opportunity to remove some of the surplus fluid produced from them. Unfortunately there is no process by which those egg yolks that are now inside her can be reabsorbed. Fluid leaches out of them and that certainly can but the removed by the body via the blood stream but the yolks themselves become a bit liked cooked egg yolk disks and there is no mechanism by which the body can get rid of them. They get squashed and flattened in between the intestines and other organs and can remain relatively inert for months until eventually the mass of them becomes so large that it blocks the gut and the bird is no longer able to poop properly and toxic waste builds up inside them and poisons them.
I would agree from your description of her activity level, that she is not unduly distressed by the problem at the moment although that upright posture may be putting a bit of a train on her. The surgery to remove those egg yolks and flush the abdominal cavity can run up to $1000 and beyond and there are huge risks, so I would not recommend it unless you are extremely wealthy and even then it may not be fair to put a chicken through it considering the risk. Hormonal implants should prevent the problem getting any worse but need to be replaced every 3-6 months at $100-150 a time, so again a pretty expensive undertaking. If the bird is starting to moult and has stopped ovulating ( her comb will go paler and less plump to indicate this) then I would not consider hormonal implants until she comes back "into lay" which may be anywhere from late next month to February, but you will be forewarned by her comb becoming bright red and plump again. To me that would be the time to get the hormone implant. If she is not moulting yet, then you may be able to trigger her to moult and stop ovulating by keeping her in the dark until lunchtime. The shorter exposure to daylight should cause her pineal gland to release hormones to stop ovulation.

@Peppercorngal How was your bird diagnosed as internal laying? There are a number of similar issues that can cause the same symptoms. Even if she was internally laying, I had one that improved dramatically over the winter when she moulted and stopped ovulating but the problem reoccurred in the spring when her ovaries started back up and she eventually got huge again and sadly succumbed to it. There is no way for those egg yolks to be reabsorbed, only the fluid that seeps out of them, which means you can see some improvement once they stop ovulating but the problem has not gone away. If your girl really is internally laying then it will catch up with her sooner or later, but it may be that she was misdiagnosed. If you have ever done a necropsy on a bird that has been laying internally, it helps you to understand that there is just no way for those egg yolks to get out once they have dropped into the abdominal cavity.

 

[TMChickens]

Spay!

@Melky
$1500...Surgery is out of the question. We could not justify paying that for a chicken. Understand it MAY be the only solution but time will tell.

 

[Melky]

@Melky
$1500...Surgery is out of the question. We could not justify paying that for a chicken. Understand it MAY be the only solution but time will tell.

Just answering the question really. It lets people know options. Cost is another thing and each vet might be different but I do not know what others would do in this situation. Some may pay it and some might not. I recently read about a family that paid to have their rooster neutered so they could keep him, so there you go but it was not in the thousands.

 

[TMChickens]

@Melky
Thank you for the suggestions. I’m sure there are lots of people who would pay it. We have 22 chickens, 2 donkey, 2 Llama’s, 2 goats, 2 rabbits and 4 dogs..I feel like we put our Vets kids through college! This is our first time we have let $$ be part of the consideration but we do have to draw the line. $125 for a X-ray was about the most we would shell out. If she has to be euthanized...well I don’t know what we will do. Hoping not to cross that bridge.

 

[Melky]

Understandable. Best Wishes!

 

[Saaniya]

Agree with @rebrascora! Awesome post @Eggcessive!! Not only that...but love the name too!!

I will put her back with the flock soon. Just monitoring her “bodily functions” and was worried as I don’t have a diagnosis.

Thanks everyone!

She looks so cute she's strong and brave ..I pray she live and recover with her sickness it's hard to lost a pet we love alot ..
With chickens there some kind of different attachment bulid up their faces are innocent ..hope u recover lil girl