Hen with blue comb tips and swollen abdomen- emergency she's dying!

[HorseFeathers]

We put her in the nest box but she went outside with the other chickens. Now she's just standing and preening. She can walk but oddly.

 

[Msbear]

If you handle your birds frequently, you may want to separate her. Since she cannot do all the chicken things, she may feel more relaxed when confined

The blue comb, unsteady gait and weak muscles is a sign of vitamin B deficiency which is easily treated.. don't know about the internal stuff?? try googling "vitamin b deficiency chickens"

 

[Judy]

You can give a chicken one baby aspirin twice a day, I have read on here. Doesn't sound like much, but it's something. I've also read arguments about whether ibuprofen is safe (Advil.) I might even try that.

Maybe she is more comfortable standing up.

So sorry.

 

[purpletree23]

Sounds like she had an egg break inside her. The yellow infected substance might be rotting egg. It sounds promising that after some of that was removed she seemed to feel better. I would try another warm bath and a gentle stream of water into her vent to see if anything else flushes out. You can use a needleless syringe or even a baby ear washer.

Let me know if you try this.

 

[dlhunicorn]

TUMS (regular) is advised not Rolaids (which has 110 mg magnesium hydroxide in it) read here one of the reasons why :
http://www.poultryscience.org/toc/papers/97/ps97703.pdf
....Atteh and Leeson (1983) suggested that excess
magnesium in the diet increased the need for calcium
and that when excess magnesium is fed, the calcium
content of the diet should be increased for improved
eggshell quality and bone integrity. This experiment
would suggest that hens fed lower calcium levels would
be more likely to have a negative response when excess
magnesium is fed....."

dont go sticking your finger up her (wont accomplish anything and might make things worse)... KYgel is a sterile lubricant you can use.
Danger now if this is a broken egg is sepsis/peritonitis from that... I have read that a shot of Baytril is the norm when that is suspected.

 

[SeaChick]

Thanks folks- this is Horsefeathers's mom....

Rita (the hen) is the same as she was this morning. She has periods when she seems in pain/distress, standing with her eyes closed, head trembling a bit... then she'll perk up and go running after the other chickens for a bit.

She is waddling- the whole abdomen area between her legs is very swollen and hard.

In retrospect I can see that this has been developing for a while. Several days ago I picked her up and thought, "My she is getting hefty" because her abdomen felt bigger than usual. Wish I had known it was a problem then, perhaps we could have done something? But we don't think it's egg-related..... Horsefeathers swears she collected an egg from this hen a couple of days ago, so it seems unlikely that it is egg related, doesn't it? Of course Horsefeathers could be wrong about whose egg it was. I do know that she kas not been laying regularly for at least a couple of months, and I just thought that it was her age (just turned 3) and breed (sex-link) and that it was normal for her to slow down dramatically. But maybe that was an indication something was wrong internally....????

In any case, this morning before I read not to (DD was begging me to do SOMETHING) I did put a gloved, lubed finger in her vent a ways. I did not feel an obstruction IN the vent, but could feel a very large hard mass through the wall of the vent/intestine I was in. I suppose it could simply have been an obstruction further up the tube around a bend, though.

I guess we'll try the warm bath again- but I really don't know what else to do. We have no access to antibiotics this holiday weekend

Thanks.

Stacey

 

[EweSheep]

Possibly very much like the rest are saying, egg bound or tumors. Those are nasty things to have and it is very much certain death will follow soon.

I've lost a few hens just like what you are describing and there was nothing I can do even one had died while at the vet. The xrays revealed that she had more than ten eggs inside of her reproductive tract and she was unable to pass them on her own at all.

Just do the best as you can!

 

[SeaChick]

Well- our dear hen is till pretty much the same. Her abdomen is more swollen (it's VERY noticeable) and her comb tips are more blue. But she still has periods where she goes around scratching with the other hens, tail up, seeming pretty happy.

So we don't know what to do. She is not very interested in food, although she eats little bits here and there. Very occasionally she squeezes out a tiny poop, but not normal size or frequency. She has periods where she stands around with her tail down and eyes squeezed shut and head trembling.

I sent an email to our state vet, but am not hopeful there's much we can do. We're just trying to make sure she is as happy as possible for as long as possible. We've been letting them out into the grassy yard a lot more than usual since it makes them so happy (the chicken yard is pretty bare by now.)

If anyone has any ideas what we can do (short of surgery or whatever) please let us know. There is clearly some very, very large obstruction and/or infection somewhere in her abdomen.

 

[Ribbit]

Our hen had the same thing; she walked around as if she were drunk and this only started to happen 2hours before she passed away. Her comb turned blue in the morning; it also seemed as if it were painful for her to move. She had an appetite but she never walked to the food bowl.


Near to the end, she was sitting down with her eyes closed; comb blue; and head on the floor.

(she also had a slightly swollen abdomen).
I thought it was egg peritonitis, but our light sussex a while back had egg peritonitis but she had slightly different symptoms.


I really hope your chook gets better soon, I know how sad I was when this happened to mine x

 

[speckledhen]

This thread is 3 years old and this member hasn't been here in awhile.