Laying hens with "water belly" or "ascites"?

[Shabana]

My hubby gave in to my sad panda face and so boots has a vet appointment at 2:30pm tomorrow.
I think you are roughly 5 to 6 hours in front of the UK so as soon as I get back I will let you know the prescription and dosage but don't forget that boots is a small sablepoot so bitsy might need a slightly bigger dose.

She said it was 5 ml of the oral liquid, at the 20mg strength once a day but that might change when they see she's small.

Remember the time difference so don't think I've forgotten - I will post as soon as I get home tomorrow.

Hope bitsy is doing ok.

Best wishes x

 

[chicknmania]

Thank you and I appreciate the info. I have some feelers outl but haven't heard back yet.

 

[chicknmania]

I've read that dandelion root/tea is a diuretic and there's a few articles with people using it for Ascites.
It's available in health food shops.

I don't know what's the best thing to do for boots, she's over 6 years old, uurgh it's so hard

Her little friend is called flipflop. They are as thick as thieves ! I feel so sorry for her too.

I could quite easily sit and cry.

This is funny because we have a hen called FlipFlop too.

I'll look into the dandelion tea. Thanks!

 

[chicknmania]

I wonder if I could just try feeding her dandelions? Or maybe make my own tee. Normally they'd be everywhere this time of year but I haven't seen many this year, for some reason.

 

[Shabana]

I think it's the dandelion root too that's potent, as well as the leaves.
The rate boots is filling up again I don't think it would be enough for her. Hope they can sort her out this afternoon.

When I brought boots and flipflop home ( they normally live 100yards away in a field) I put their cockerel in with some different hens so he wouldn't be lonely. His name is Slipper. It's all about the feathery feet hehe!

 

[chicknmania]

I think it's the dandelion root too that's potent, as well as the leaves.
The rate boots is filling up again I don't think it would be enough for her. Hope they can sort her out this afternoon.

When I brought boots and flipflop home ( they normally live 100yards away in a field) I put their cockerel in with some different hens so he wouldn't be lonely. His name is Slipper. It's all about the feathery feet hehe!

Cute name.

I doubt it will be enough for Bitsy either, but I am gonna try it. I found a dandelion plant. What the heck! I think it's been too cool and cloudy here for them to be prolific yet, but I did read about the roots and also that you can make a sort of tea for them by soaking the dandelion in ACV. I'm going to give her some fresh dandelion, and hope she eats it, and then make the tea for her water. She is in a pen by herself through the evening and early morning, so she can drink it then and Bluebell won't get it.

 

[Shabana]

Ok am back. Seemed to take forever.
It says on her bottle:

10ml of frusol 40mg/5ml oral solution.
Give 0.15ml once or twice daily.

She did ask originally for the 20mg but they didn't stock it so she adjusted the dose.
It's the same as furosemide or lasix but in a liquid form.

She says I am to start with 0.15ml once a day and up to twice a day or I can give her 0.2ml once a day. Basically gradually increase it until she's feeling less baloony
She's given me 5 repeat prescriptions so at least that's 6 months taken care of.
Less than £50 all in as they didn't charge much at all as I was kinda telling them what was wrong and what I needed so I was really grateful.

On the bottom of the bottle where the patients name is it says Mrs Boots Lewis !!

Hope the dandelion helps bitsy and that you can get hold of this medicine for her xx

 

[chicknmania]

Thank you for the info, and I hope Bootsie does well with it! We have just one hen with feathery feet, I wanted to name her Boots, but her name's Shorty...my son wouldn't let me change it, lol. Bitsy ate all her dandelion....so we'll see. I will keep up with it for a few days. I think Bluebell ate some too. I still haven't heard back from the one source where I might be able to get Lasix. Did the vet think that it was heart or liver related?

 

[Shabana]

She listened to Boots' chest and she thought it might be heart related. I don't think she was sure though. She only listened to her chest and felt her tummy.
The medicine started to work quickly though yesterday. Very much just water coming out, with the odd normal poop.

She said Boots might be a little bit more thirsty so to always have fresh water down, which I do anyway.

Fingers crossed for us both xx

 

[chicknmania]

Good, I'm glad it's working for you. Couldn't tell if it was working for Bitsy...but i left her food dish in the pen when I put Bluebell in there..and apparently Bluebell ate some too because it DID help her..SHE lost some water and had some diarhea too. She doesn't have a fluid buildup but she has been getting fat, because she limps, and can't get much exercise as a result...so proof that dandelion does work in a normal situation anyway.