Help! Second chicken mystery illness.

[Romeo Flahoy]

Hi,
I'm still a chicken novice really only having my three ex battery girls for 9 months. Alls been well with all three until about month ago. First sweetpea started laying shell less eggs and looked hunched. Was on antibiotics for 10 days and it sorted her out. Bluebell however then became ill, hunched, wings down, not eating, not moving much, standing up during night. Tried antibiotics but no change. Vet said fluid was building up in abdoman due to either heart failure, tumour or kidney/liver problems. Anyway diuretics didn't help and she became lot worse so sadly I had to have her put to sleep (6 days ago).

Now just found sweetpea hunch up in wooden coop. She's still been laying thinned shelled and shell less eggs or eggs with rubbery shell blob next to it but has been well in herself. However, she is now displaying same body language as bluebell did (hunched back, tail down, wings low, neck hunched in, not really eating and didn't come out of wooden coop and just took herself off to a corner and tucked down in straw, just as they do at bedtime but this was in the day and unheard of as she wouldn't normally miss out on food time. Don't know what to do. Can't face losing another girl.

I'm going to have to see how she gets on over weekend and will take her to vets on Monday morning if no change or worse but my vet doesn't really seam to know much about chickens even tho she has them herself. I just get the impression that they don't think chicken are worth investigating. They've all been wormed recently and they have a multivitamin in their water. Any ideas please...

 

[OregonChickenGal]

Has she been wormed? Also check for lice/mites. Check her crop also. Egg bound?

 

[Romeo Flahoy]

Yes been wormed recently, been demited and laying regular thin or shell less eggs so don't think egg bound but don't really know what to look for. Thanks for your reply.

 

[BaGAWK!!]

Egg yolk peritonitis?? Just throwing that out there, something else for you to lOok into anyway. I don't know much about it but it just came to mind after reading your post. Good luck with your girls.

 

[klmclain1]

Do you know how old she is? Re: thin shelled eggs - are you giving her oyster shell to eat? If she also is having the fluid build up - I've seen the procedure on this forum for draining it with a syringe...you might want to do a search for it. Although why she would have the same issue as the one you just had to put down - I wouldn't know. EYP is my only guess right now. One of my girls went through that a few months back and I gave her penicillin injections for 4 days and although she looked a bit strained for a few months (comb got all shriveled, quit laying, etc.) she's starting to bounce back - her comb is again supple an red and she squats when I come close so I think she is laying again. If indeed it's EYP - she may not last until Monday. She needs antibiotics NOW. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[cafarmgirl]

I agree that Monday is an awfully long way off for a bird that ill. Also, unless you very, very sure of what you are doing and what exactly is going on with the bird I would not recommend trying to remove suspected fluid, do it wrong and you will cause irreparable damage. At this point, if you want to save her and have a vet that will see her then that's what I would do. Birds hide their illness very well until they simply cannot any longer, so she is very ill.

 

[BamaSilkies]

Sounds like internal laying and it if it is there a only a few options. You could cull or have the vet do surgery to remove the mass and do a hysterectomy on her. Do a search theres a good link where someone had this done and the hen is doing well but I imagine this pretty expensive. I hope its not internal laying. Good luck and I hope she recovers.

 

[Romeo Flahoy]

Thanks for your replies. I'm going to ring vets first thing tomorrow. As its Saturday they'll be open until 12. I'll keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed for her.