Hen passed blood clot & weird egg membrane

[Tailwise]

(yes, this is the moment I have to post a gratuitous picture of my rooster Beertje and his son Beekje from earlier this year...)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

(yes, this is the moment I have to post a gratuitous picture of my rooster Beertje and his son Beekje from earlier this year...) View attachment 4016544

This is precious!

You should enter this in one of the many photo contests they have here on BYC!

 

[Tailwise]

This is precious!

You should enter this in one of the many photo contests they have here on BYC!

I should probably drop by here more often when I don't have something heartbreaking to ask about, yes. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Sondraa]

Omg!!!! I have never seen a father son rooster combo ever.

 

[Tailwise]

Omg!!!! I have never seen a father son rooster combo ever.

They're more distant now for obvious reasons (though not so much that I've had to get rid of one of them, thank god) but dad was pretty hands-on in the raising of the son. It was adorable to watch.

 

[Sondraa]

Do you have a video of the dad and son?

 

[Tailwise]

Sadly not of the parenting, though I do have a funny one of dad, mom and son all doing the danger-danger-call-and-response while sitting on a cabinet together indoors.

Anyway, I'm back from the vet. Pluisje is now officially on birth control.

They're still not fully sure what happened (that would require more tests and they're still technically closed for everything but emergencies), but the emergency vet couldn't find any serious damage or further blood in the oviduct. She did think Pluisje was a little skinny, but Pluisje has always been skinnier than my other silkies and when we put her on the scales she was at her normal nonlaying weight (always 200 grams less than her sister, SOMEHOW), so I'm not too worried about that at present.

She called one of the avian specialists, who came back with the very firm advice to put in the implant. Either Pluisje has a serious vitamin and mineral deficiency that would "require us to shovel an unrealistic amount of calcium into her system right now", or there's something structurally wrong with her ovary that may or may not heal on its own. They don't know which it is.

They did offer to do an X-ray, but noted that whatever came out of that, the advice would be to get the implant anyway. If it's something that can recover in three to six months, the implant will allow her system to do that recovery. If it's something else, the treatment is a full salpingohysterectomy, and that is a much more dangerous procedure so shortly after she's been laying than it will be in three months, when her system has fully calmed down. So I opted to get the implant, and we can figure the rest out later.

They warned me up front that putting in the implant would mean anaesthesia and that always comes with a risk, but joke's on them - Pluisje is a very well-behaved human-enjoying chicken and held still, so they were done in ten minutes and she didn't have to go under at all.

Cried a little while thanking the emergency vet, not going to lie. I'm so very grateful to have access to doctors who care this much and are willing to put in this much time and effort for a tiny, dainty fluffy chicken.

The emergency visit + procedure + implant came down to roughly 250 euros (260 USD).

 

[Sondraa]

You are so fortunate to have such expert care for such a reasonable price! I would have cried too by the way. Glad you will both have some peace for a while at least AND a less stressful New Year holiday than Christmas. Dont forget to post the pic!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Sadly not of the parenting, though I do have a funny one of dad, mom and son all doing the danger-danger-call-and-response while sitting on a cabinet together indoors.

Anyway, I'm back from the vet. Pluisje is now officially on birth control.

They're still not fully sure what happened (that would require more tests and they're still technically closed for everything but emergencies), but the emergency vet couldn't find any serious damage or further blood in the oviduct. She did think Pluisje was a little skinny, but Pluisje has always been skinnier than my other silkies and when we put her on the scales she was at her normal nonlaying weight (always 200 grams less than her sister, SOMEHOW), so I'm not too worried about that at present.

She called one of the avian specialists, who came back with the very firm advice to put in the implant. Either Pluisje has a serious vitamin and mineral deficiency that would "require us to shovel an unrealistic amount of calcium into her system right now", or there's something structurally wrong with her ovary that may or may not heal on its own. They don't know which it is.

They did offer to do an X-ray, but noted that whatever came out of that, the advice would be to get the implant anyway. If it's something that can recover in three to six months, the implant will allow her system to do that recovery. If it's something else, the treatment is a full salpingohysterectomy, and that is a much more dangerous procedure so shortly after she's been laying than it will be in three months, when her system has fully calmed down. So I opted to get the implant, and we can figure the rest out later.

They warned me up front that putting in the implant would mean anaesthesia and that always comes with a risk, but joke's on them - Pluisje is a very well-behaved human-enjoying chicken and held still, so they were done in ten minutes and she didn't have to go under at all.

Cried a little while thanking the emergency vet, not going to lie. I'm so very grateful to have access to doctors who care this much and are willing to put in this much time and effort for a tiny, dainty fluffy chicken.

The emergency visit + procedure + implant came down to roughly 250 euros (260 USD).

I'm glad you were able to see the vet and get an implant.
Hopefully this will help her reset and heal.

Thank you for the updated. Keep us posted on how she's getting along.

 

[Tailwise]

Well, so far she seems somewhat more cheerful now than she has in days. (Though that's been on the uptick for few days now - she spent half her time at the vet's happily chewing on my hair. And it wasn't like she was unusually depressed before, just... overserious? Does that make sense?)

She's eating, drinking and pooping well - I'm feeding her plenty of corn alongside her regular food and she's been mauling every tomato I give her (within range of her nest). I've been checking her to see what the vet meant by her seeming skinny, but so far she continues to feel like her usual condition (not a lot of fat, you can feel the keelbone, but not her ribcage and the muscle is still convex if not overly so). I do wonder if her predilection towards being skinny might have contributed to a potential nutritional deficit during lay periods.

I'm allowing myself to feel slightly optimistic.

Will update again if anything changes. Thanks for supporting me in this, guys.