Internal/false Laying = inevitable death???

[ChicknThief]

I have done searches and read a LOT about this, and I seem to have learned that it leads to peritonitis, which is usually caused by E coli, which will eventually kill the bird outside of an expensive surgery. Is that correct?

I am asking because I have a RIR pullet (about 6 mo) who I believe is laying internally. She will lay in the nesting box, but get then she will get up and there will be no egg. She does this often. Also, she almost always has yellow fluid on her feathers under her vent. It sort of looks like yolk, though I cant be sure. She does not seem to be in pain, and I have not noticed a change in appetite, though I could be wrong.

Diana, I have read the link that you posted a while back on, I believe the hen's name was Peggy and the owner's Maggie? It was very informational and I thank you. Do you think that my bird has the beginnings of peritonitis?

Edit: She has also layed several soft shelled and shell-less eggs. Her abdomen does appear slightly distended, but not so much as to immediatly cause concern.

 

[dlhunicorn]

That was Mandy's bird Penny... (btw Penny is still with Mandy and is doing just fine

)

As far as peritonitis goes, there is no way to tell...it remains a danger with an internal layer and the only cure for that condition is surgery .

 

[ChicknThief]

Quote:

I was kinda close. I'll take a break, its 2:18 am here.


Well that is great news for Penny, not so great for Sunny Side Up though. I guess all I can do is keep an eye on her until she goes. There is no way on Earth that we can afford that kind of surgery.

 

[dlhunicorn]

Just curious...did she ever have a "cold " ?>possible Infectious Bronchitis which is notorious for damaging the birds reproductive organ.

 

[ChicknThief]

When she and the rest of our original 4 were just little chicks, they all went through this thing where they would sneeze all of the time. We chalked it up to the dust in our cedar shaving and changed to pine. The problems seemed to clear up after that, though occasionally we have pullets that sneeze for a few days, then recover. I don't think we have ever positively ID'd the problems as bronchitis though. Hmmm. That does give me something to think about though. Does this type of bronchitis commonly affect chicks of the ages 2-4 weeks about?

 

[crystalchik]

Hello,
I just had a chicken that died of Yolk Peritonitis. I noticed too, that Sunlight(a RIR X), that her abdomin was slightly descended. For me she stopped laying, and she did sometimes have a dicharge comming from her vent. At first I thought she might be egg-bound. I began to feel in her abdomin what felt like a tumor, and slowly over a period of about 6-8 months, it got bigger and bigger. She began to lose weight and became very sickly. I treated her with Ivermectin and Sulmet and antibiotics at different times, thinking maybe it was worms or who-knows-what! (at the time, I had not a clue in world that it was Peritonitis). She then laid an extremely scary foreign object, which I now believe to be a few fermented soft egg shells. But that was it. Even though she was eating, she became increasingly skinny and ill, and I could not afford to bring her to the vet. So I decided to let her go, because I had a feeling she was past the point of recovery.
This past month, Sunlight past away during a cold front which must have been too much for her. Out of curiosity, I did an autopsy on her. What I found was astonishing! Her abdomin was very discolored, not from the death itself. As went farther, I noticed she had about 50-75 immediately noticable yolks in her abdomin. They ranged from fullsized, mature egg yolks to about the size of this Icon:

. After I found this, I did bring the body to an avian vet to have it examined, I didnt know what it was, and that was when she told me. But when I got her back, it was too late to continue the autopsy were I left off, and had to burry her. If you are interested, I do have pics I may be able to post or send via email.
It does, to me, sound like your chicken has early stages of Yolk Peritonitis. Truethfully, I do not know a cure or what will help, or even what causes it. I, too am doing research on it. Please, if you or anyone else is interested, I will try and post the pics (they are not as bad as they sound!)
I hope this helps!
Good luck and God bless! Please keep us posted!! Crystalchik

 

[GwenFarms]

I would be interested in those pics, I'm sure alot of other folks would be too. The more we learn the faster we can catch these problems in our own birds.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Do you have oyster shell available? If she's laying soft shells maybe it is a calcium issue.. Just trying to knock out the simple solutions.. I hope it is an easy fix and not such a horrid disease.

-Kim

 

[ChicknThief]

She has ample access to grit and oyster shell. However, we ran out for a few days and that was when she layed her first soft shell. It was after this soft shell that she began having problems. The other day I brought her into the house to give her a chicken bath (her backside was covered in the yellowish fluid aforementioned

) and I noticed that her skin on her abdomen looked inflamed and rashy. Upon closer inspection I realized that her skin was coated in a hard layer of the yellow stuff, and I believe that that is what was causing the inflammation and rash. I washed it off, but in vain because she just keeps getting this stuff all over her. I will go out and check her abdomen carefully and see if I feel any "tumorish" stuff...

 

[ChicknThief]

I checked her abdomen again, and didn't feel anything unusual. Where exactly in the abdomen is the buildup usually located?