Hatching Eggs / Paypal CHAT Thread

[AyeUpChuck]

Help! I have an 11 week old chick with a bizarre condition that has me totally perplexed.  He was fine this morning, but when I went to watch a little chicken tv late this afternoon, he was blown up like a balloon.  Seriously, his entire body except for his legs and feet have extreme edema.  I have googled until my fingers are about to fall off, and the only thing I found was swollen head syndrome which is caused by a respiratory virus.  This is definitely NOT what it is.  He has no respiratory symptoms at all.  The area around his eyes is not swollen, but is stretched tight.  His eyes are wide open and bright and clear.  No sneezing, discharge or breathing issues. He has a normal appetite and is acting completely normal except for the swelling.  The poor baby's skin is stretched so tight, it is nearly transparent when his feathers are pulled back.  Allergic reaction maybe? Insect bite?  It reminds me of the edema that occurs when someone is in congestive heart failure, but on a scale that is much worse.  Has anyone seen something like this before?  I don't know what to do for him, but surely this will start to effect his ability to expand his lungs if it doesn't improve.

Oh no! I had someone on one of your local swap pages who had a silkie that had something similar. I can ask her what happened or how it was resolved.

Hang in there!

 

[KYTinpusher]

UPDATE: We are back from our date night and I wanted to let everyone know that is interested in the Husky 100 lb. Tuff Bins that Celtic pictured to call their local Home Depot and ask them if they have the product. The HD website said my local store did not carry them and I took the printed page from the website down to the store to ask if they could order some for me. The clerk put the info in the computer and said, "We have 10 in stock." She said never to trust the website for in store stock info....ALWAYS call your local store and speak to customer service there. So......I now have 4 super cool brooders/or maybe nest boxes!! Thanks again Celtic for sharing your ingenious idea!!

DH picked up 2 at our Home Depot tonight, too. I may need to go back and get more.

 

[cluckitall]

Help! I have an 11 week old chick with a bizarre condition that has me totally perplexed. He was fine this morning, but when I went to watch a little chicken tv late this afternoon, he was blown up like a balloon. Seriously, his entire body except for his legs and feet have extreme edema. I have googled until my fingers are about to fall off, and the only thing I found was swollen head syndrome which is caused by a respiratory virus. This is definitely NOT what it is. He has no respiratory symptoms at all. The area around his eyes is not swollen, but is stretched tight. His eyes are wide open and bright and clear. No sneezing, discharge or breathing issues. He has a normal appetite and is acting completely normal except for the swelling. The poor baby's skin is stretched so tight, it is nearly transparent when his feathers are pulled back. Allergic reaction maybe? Insect bite? It reminds me of the edema that occurs when someone is in congestive heart failure, but on a scale that is much worse. Has anyone seen something like this before? I don't know what to do for him, but surely this will start to effect his ability to expand his lungs if it doesn't improve.

Oh how scary! I wish I had a single suggestion but that's nothing I've either seen or read about yet. Me, when I'm retaining water I take a little potassium which usually clears it pronto but that's in humans, not chickens, and I doubt excessive salt intake is the cause of his problems. Are you sure it's fluid retention?

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

I don't know what it is called. There is air coming out of its lung and is stuck under the skin. Sometime they will reabsorb it. Sometimes it will kill them. I read that you could put a needle in it to aspirate it but that could cause and infection. It is usually something in the lungs that causes the problem. I think several things can cause it.

Needle decompression. Not sure where on a chicken you would do this (I only know how to do it on people, lol).

Can we get a pic?

 

[cluckitall]

UPDATE: We are back from our date night and I wanted to let everyone know that is interested in the Husky 100 lb. Tuff Bins that Celtic pictured to call their local Home Depot and ask them if they have the product. The HD website said my local store did not carry them and I took the printed page from the website down to the store to ask if they could order some for me. The clerk put the info in the computer and said, "We have 10 in stock." She said never to trust the website for in store stock info....ALWAYS call your local store and speak to customer service there. So......I now have 4 super cool brooders/or maybe nest boxes!! Thanks again Celtic for sharing your ingenious idea!!

Just had to say, if Home Depot is your idea of a date night...

(I think that'd be a pretty cool date night, actually!)

 

[mzstre]

Needle decompression. Not sure where on a chicken you would do this (I only know how to do it on people, lol).

Can we get a pic?

It isn't a very good pic, but he seems uncomfortable when he's held. He isn't "squishy" like I would imagine he would be if it was just fluid. He really feels like a blown up balloon. Bizarre. His face (eyes to beak only, not the head) is completely normal size, and you can kind of see his legs. They are normally in proportion to his body and head. Not now. You can see in the 2nd pic how much the skin around his eyes is pulled back. :/

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

Look up "air sacculitis"

 

[reesepoultry]

Cluckitall how did you serama eggs do from me. Wish you could have picked them up because they tend to not travel well.

As for chicken eggs you do not need to wait for 10 days to candle if they are on day 7 and showing no signs they won't. It only takes 10 days for fowl, such as guineas, turkeys, ducks etc....

But if they are a dark egg it is really hard to see anything until they are partially grown.

 

[cluckitall]

Oh, the poor guy!

 

[AyeUpChuck]

I KNEW I should've asked them at the counter about the bins!!!!! We just got home. We looked around and didn't see them so DH looked it up and it said 0 in stock. Man I'm going to call them now!