hen waddling and sitting on tail - sick for 2nd time

[sharon rides]

Hello - I have a 1.5 yr old hen heritage breed bought from a hatchery, walking very splayed in her legs, stretches up and sits on her tail. I spoke to a vet about 2 weeks ago - she suspected kidney or cocsid., we separated her and gave her 2 days of Bacox (sp) and then about 7 days of sulfa pediatric pills - a sliver 2x a day. She seemed to recover but she seems sick again. She is not laying and does feel thin on her breast bone. She also felt swollen, water filled in the back of her gut. One night during that whole medication part, she seemed to have a prolapse, but after I went and bought all the suggested things for that during this pandemic....and picked her up in the morning her vent was perfect....go figure. I haven't had a chance yet to catch her to check her vent - waiting for dark. Any ideas? thanks --

 

[Isaac 0]

Hi there, sorry no one was able to respond, how is your hen doing?

 

[sharon rides]

She is dead. We consulted with a government pathologist and he determined that she had yolk peritonitis. His comment:
It looks to me like your hen most likely has yolk peritonitis. This occurs when the hen has an "internally laid" egg (not uncommon in laying chickens) that ruptures in the abdomen and causes inflammation. There is often secondary bacterial infection, as the yolk provides a good media for bacteria to grow in. Unfortunately, there isn't an effective resolution for this condition and the bird will likely continue to worsen over time, so euthanasia is recommended as it will eventually become an animal welfare concern.

The positive thing about this condition is that it's not contagious so your other birds are not at increased risk of developing this condition, though it is relatively common so your birds could develop it as a separate incident.

I have since taken the hen to a vet and she is doing a post mortem to confirm. She did get better with the antibiotics which he confirmed made sense, but that you would never actually get on top of it.