Hi everyone, I hope everyone is staying safe and distancing themselves from others! Well, my Buff Orpington Noodles turned 5 years old recently, and I knew that would come with health problems. A few months ago she started acting differently, her tail went down more than often, her comb was paler, yet she still walked around with my other girls and ate every treat I gave her. Recently my mom noticed that she was waddling (not good..) and she gave her a bath thinking she was egg-bound which wasn't the case. I was at school, I'm currently home for spring break now and when I touched her I noticed she had a fat belly, but it was fluid. I researched her symptoms and found she had water belly (ascites) and was very sad to find it to be incurable. I saw videos of people draining the fluid to help make the chicken more comfortable, so we just took her to the vet to get it drained (I couldn't find big enough needles ANYWHERE and no syringes either or I would've done it myself to save my mom from the $180!) and he drained about 1 liter of brown fluid. I was a little shocked, she went from 6lbs to 4 lbs just like that, she was already underweight now shes extremely underweight. She has close to no muscle mass at all shes as light as my easter egger (maybe even lighter). He tells us the brown fluid means liver damage, her liver isn't processing proteins/breaking them down/or whatever else goes with liver damage. Either way, she could BREATHE! The fluid was pushing on her lungs and she strained to breathe but now she actually cam breathe without gasping for air, and she walks normally and ate like a pig. She's enjoying her time being alive but I wanted to know how long this would last. Has anyone had an old hen with liver damage or ascites? I'm expecting to get different answers like "oh mine lived another year" or "mine died just a few weeks later" but in any case, I want to know if liver damage hurts the hen, am I doing the wrong thing keeping her alive? She doesn't seem uncomfortable, but how would I really know? Will her death by liver failure be miserable or will she die in her sleep?
TL;DR How long do y'all think she has left with just drained ascites when its been developing for months? It is liver damage and shes underweight but acting like a normal hen otherwise. I go back to school Sunday (3/22/20) and won't be here for her (my mom will be) will I at least see her make it to Summer? I want to be there when she passes, I come home for summer break in May. Also, feel free to tell me about your chicken with ascites or any old chicken you've had to see go or make the decision to put down, as I may have to do that at some point.
ALSO, she is my PET chicken, not for meat or eggs, simply my pet who I love like my own child, so please refrain from any rude comments.
Stay safe everyone and hug your chickens daily you may never know when they'll leave you.❤
TL;DR How long do y'all think she has left with just drained ascites when its been developing for months? It is liver damage and shes underweight but acting like a normal hen otherwise. I go back to school Sunday (3/22/20) and won't be here for her (my mom will be) will I at least see her make it to Summer? I want to be there when she passes, I come home for summer break in May. Also, feel free to tell me about your chicken with ascites or any old chicken you've had to see go or make the decision to put down, as I may have to do that at some point.
ALSO, she is my PET chicken, not for meat or eggs, simply my pet who I love like my own child, so please refrain from any rude comments.
Stay safe everyone and hug your chickens daily you may never know when they'll leave you.❤
