HELP! Sick hen - maybe egg bound or vent gleet?

[ChasingChooks]

Hello again, everyone.

-Leghorn
-About 3 years old
-Just got through a molt
-Hasn't started laying again
-Been sitting in the nesting box this morning
-Comb looks slightly dark, but maybe just normal
-I brought her out of the nesting box, and she just stood there.
-Wings are hanging limply, kind of.
-Clear/white fluid dribbling out of her vent.
-She doesn't feel swollen.

Thinking I need to soak her in warm water/epsom salts? Give her calcium for egg-bound? Please help! Of course, she is one of my favourites...

 

[Farmgirl283420]

Hello again, everyone.

-Leghorn
-About 3 years old
-Just got through a molt
-Hasn't started laying again
-Been sitting in the nesting box this morning
-Comb looks slightly dark, but maybe just normal
-I brought her out of the nesting box, and she just stood there.
-Wings are hanging limply, kind of.
-Clear/white fluid dribbling out of her vent.
-She doesn't feel swollen.

Thinking I need to soak her in warm water/epsom salts? Give her calcium for egg-bound? Please help! Of course, she is one of my favourites...

Hope you can get some help for her! @Wyorp Rock @azygous

 

[ChasingChooks]

Thanks for tagging!

 

[azygous]

Yep. Sounds like she is egg bound. Do the calcium. The bath isn't necessary.

 

[ChasingChooks]

Update: I separated her. Crushed a calcium/magnesium pill and mixed it with water. Poured down her beak, along with electrolyte water. She is hunched, and won't move. Comb going purple.

 

[azygous]

Did she aspirate the liquid? Did she choke when you poured it into her beak? Is she breathing with a troubling gurgling sound?

There is a way to give liquids without risking aspiration, but pills can be given to chickens without going to all the trouble of crushing them and putting them into a solution. In fact, giving the pill will assure the hen gets the full dosage.

 

[The crazy Poultry hoarder]

@Goosebaby

 

[Goosebaby]

@Goosebaby

I don’t know what help I’d be as I don’t have chickens but if it were one of my ducks or geese and there’s white fluid coming out of the vent it could be an egg related issue or urates which could be from coccidia or a kidney problem.

 

[ChasingChooks]

Her beak was slightly open, so I poured the liquid in with a spoon. She 'drank' it back - like when they dip their beaks the in the water and tip their head back, and kind of smack their lips. I did this multiple times to get all the liquid in.

Came out this morning to find her dead. Is there any exam I can do to find out what was wrong with her? She had clear/whitish liquid dribbling out her vent, in a constant drip.

Glad she didn't suffer long, though.

 

[azygous]

I'm sad over this news. Yes, you have two choices to find out what was going on inside the hen. First thing to do is chill her body, do not freeze, in the refrigerator while you decide.

Next, you can locate an animal testing lab to get a necropsy or you can decide to open her abdominal cavity and take a look yourself. To locate the lab, you can do an online search for "your state + animal testing labs" or call your university extension office or agricultural office and ask them where the nearest one is.

Or you can do it yourself. Since there is a very strong possibility that this death was from egg binding or internal laying, or egg yolk peritonitis, you should easily see the egg or eggs. Taking photos and posting them here will allow us to give you our take on what you're finding. If cancer is the cause, you will easily see the hundreds of little white tumors dotting the organs or even see them floating in a noxious "soup" in the abdominal cavity.

If an avian virus is behind this, you would not be able to see the evidence, but a lab would. But you would be able to easily see the obvious and immediate cause of death if it's egg related.