Hen ate massive amount of old cooking grease

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Hi everyone! Been a long time since I was here!

I have a Moran hen that isn't doing well! I've checked her for a stuck egg and that wasn't the problem.

I rubbed her crop to see if she had the Yeast problem. Not that either. BUT? When I pulled my hand away from her crop my fingers were greasy! It smells like old cooking grease. She must have gotten into some grease dumped out of our Baby Fryer for French Fries and fish cooking.

The grease isn't on her feathers or feet. But her skin is greasy. It's like the grease is seeping thru her skin.

She's very lathargic and hasn't eaten in a couple of days.

Any suggestions for helping her is greatly appreciated!

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I forgot to mention: I'm only guessing at the cooking grease thing. It smells like cooking grease and her skin is greasy and leaves that kind of smell on my hand.

My husband poured some old grease in the driveway on the other side of the fence. The hen is an escape artist though and I'm thinking she might have gotten to it.

TC

 

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Would it be a problem to give her Mylanta?

TC

 

[azygous]

Is she eating? Is she pooping? If so, what do the poops look like? Put her some place where you can keep an eye on this. It will tell you a lot about how she's doing.

My guess is she isn't eating. If she consumed that pile of old grease it was probably rancid and now it's trying to go through her system. All I can think of is to try to get some food into her to soak up the grease so it can move through. If she won't eat her regular feed, try corn bread. Maybe she'll eat that.

If you smell this grease on her, you're probably correct that she has eaten it.

I hope you've cleaned up that old grease by now so none of the other chickens can get into it. There are better ways to dispose of grease, like old food containers you're throwing away anyway. Try saving food tins such as pork and beans come in. They make handy disposable containers that won't melt when you pour hot grease into them.

 

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As of last night she stopped eating what little bit she had been and isn't drinking water.
So tonight I mixed some "exact" baby parrot food and fed that to her
thru a syringe. I also gave her some small pieces of ham. She has in
her cage; canned corn, moistened bread pieces, hen scratch, ham pieces
and parakeet seeds.

Her crop on the outside isn't as greasy as it was several days ago. I
can still smell the grease though! It's grease from a baby fryer we used
for cooking FF's, tator tots and catfish. I always pour the old grease into
a coffee container and put the lid on it. My husband dumped it in the driveway.
On the outside of the fenced in yard. Miss Martha Mae is an escape artist. She
probably found a way to get out and found the spot he dumped it. I'm sure she's
regretting that decision now!

She only poops a small amount. And it's a little white spot with water. I'm hoping
the gritty'ness in the parrot food will attach with the grease and help pull it out of her.

I keep a close eye on her. Her cage is directly behind me here on the enclosed porch. It's
where I'm sitting right now! It's heated/cooled has a large screen TV to watch too.

So I wait it out at this point.

TC

 

[azygous]

Thanks for the update. I've been checking back here hoping for one. The fact she's still alive is a good sign she may pull through this. Her poop is showing signs of her not eating. The grease has to be processed through the crop, the gizzard, and the liver and all you can hope for is they're up to the job.

It's not her fault for eating the grease, and as far as regretting it, you can be assured she would do it again in a heartbeat. She was drawn to the fish taste of the grease, and that's more powerful than any thought process, if she is even capable of understanding she did the wrong thing by eating it.

I hope you gave your hubby what-for over being such a dumb@$$.

 

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Thanks for the update. I've been checking back here hoping for one. The fact she's still alive is a good sign she may pull through this. Her poop is showing signs of her not eating. The grease has to be processed through the crop, the gizzard, and the liver and all you can hope for is they're up to the job.

It's not her fault for eating the grease, and as far as regretting it, you can be assured she would do it again in a heartbeat. She was drawn to the fish taste of the grease, and that's more powerful than any thought process, if she is even capable of understanding she did the wrong thing by eating it.

I hope you gave your hubby what-for over being such a dumb@#$%.

I'm a night owl most of the time. So you usually will see my posts the next day!

I put a call into my Vet today. She's out of office until next Tuesday! ARGH! I called the former Vet I used to use for chickens and left a message for him to call me back. I gave the clerk all the info he needs to do any research he might need to do before calling me back.

Martha Mae will be six years old this year! She's a healthy hen and I sure hope she survives! I have one Moran rooster and she's the last of our large breed hens. Marvin will be lost w/o her. I'll write after the Vet calls!

As for the dumbazz husband? I got a good chuckle out of that! He's actually so smart he could be a walking google! But some of the simpler things is beyond his understanding. And I'm more on the common sense side of things. But he wears the pants and I wear the Army combat boots in the family. We are always having discussions! LOL

TC

 

[azygous]

Terrific! I'm real curious what a vet has to say about how an overdose of grease could be treated. This could help others who might run into a similar problem.

 

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I'm at a loss here!

The Vet called me back. After I explained to him what (I) think happened! He went into telling me: "The grease should not have made this kind of impact on her. If you're smelling/feeling grease on your hands after rubbing her crop? Then she probably has a lesion and that's what's causing you to feel/smell the grease." OMG! I want to just scream! I then asked him: "Shouldn't I have some sort of puss or blood on my hands TOO if there's a lesion?" He said: "Well? Without examining her? I can't really give you a diagnoses. But if there is a lesion? It needs to be stitched up!" Can we say I am ready to explode! Blow up!

I then said: "It was crisco oil and NOT hot either. It wasn't lard!" I then said: "I fed her "exact" baby parrot food last night. I'm going to give her some more tonight so she isn't starving." The Vet then said: "Now that ones on you! I'm not telling you what to do here!" Is he serious?

I talked with my husband and he starts telling me I'm chopping the Vet up into little pieces instead of listening to what he's saying. WTH? Then he tells me to go ahead and feed her so she doesn't starve. OMG! I just said the same thing to the Vet and you told me I was chopping him up in little pieces. I walked out of the room.

I have an appointment at 11:00 am in the morning. I can at least get an X-ray done if he thinks she has a lesion on the inside. Nothing is leaking out of her crop. Her crop is greasy like it's been seeping thru, because she doesn't have any on her feathers.

Can we say: I left him because I wasn't happy with him and his treatment of my chickens. He's gentle and caring. Just doesn't seem very knowledgeable about them. He gave me the same medicine for three hens with three different problems in the past. ARGH! None of them survived either.

TC

 

[azygous]

I'd certainly be aggravated, too. This vet seems rather arrogant, despite being kind, maybe to try to mask his lack of competency treating poultry. At least my vet openly admits he doesn't know the first thing about chickens.

I don't follow his reasoning about a lesion on the inside of the crop causing the contents to ooze out through her skin to the outside of the crop. Sounds like double talk.