Lethargic hen, swollen crop and abdomen, watery poop?

[missbeasty]

Our gentle giant Princess is feeling poorly... I appreciate any and all advice. I combed through threads with similar symptoms and I'm pretty lost, seems like a lot of potential causes??

Sparknotes:
- lethargy
- swollen, watery crop
- swollen, watery abdomen?
- watery poop

- Currently attempting treatment for sour crop via withholding food and monitoring
- She seems a bit young (1 1/2 yrs) to be having reproductive problems / pendulous crop right??
- I'm afraid of EYP, it's my understanding that this condition is basically vet or death?

Going to call the avian vet tomorrow, and will also pick up:
- Miconazole
- Dewormer (e.g. SafeGuard)
- Corid
- Syringes
- Calcium pills

~~~~~~~~~

The questionnaire:

1) What type of bird, age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Jersey Giant (I think?) hen, ~1 1/2 years old, not sure of weight but she is quite heavy compared to the other chickens.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
She is normally pretty mellow, but noticed this morning she was walking veryyy slowly when I came out with frozen treats. She turned around and slowly walked back toward the coop. I watched her for a while while she stood next to the waterer, looking sleepy & a bit puffy between drinks. (It has been in the low 90s F here, so I go out a few times a day to make sure everyone's looking okay, toss out some frozen watermelon, and cool down their water & wading pans.) Upon closer examination, it seems that she has a large, watery-feeling crop and her abdomen may be swollen as well - it feels large and more watery than "meaty". I don't detect any sour odor on her breath.

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Just started today, as far as I know.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
6 other coopmates (all hens the same age, different breeds) seem normal.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
Not that I can tell.

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
No idea.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
She seemed to be drinking a lot in the run -- not sure when she's eaten last, she doesn't seem to have much appetite. I don't know whether she has laid today or recently (we've been getting an average of 4-5 eggs daily out of 7 hens, can't tell which eggs are hers).

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
She had some very watery poops in the tub... mostly yellowish fluid, some urates. Successive poops are becoming more solid. Nothing unusual in it as far as I can tell.

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
- Put her in the bathtub a while with some lukewarm water, trying to assess for heat exhaustion / egg binding. Her behavior stayed the same. I felt around and I'm not convinced she's eggbound.
- Offered water with electrolytes, feed, and treats (BSL). No interest in food/water.
- Isolated her in a small pen indoors for monitoring.
- Concern of sour crop - withdrew feed, massaging crop periodically and monitoring for changes. I was thinking to keep her in overnight to see if her crop empties. Would it be better to put her back out with the flock? Or keep her isolated in case it's something potentially contagious?

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I'm planning to call another vet in the morning, but two offices I contacted today aren't available for days. If I can treat her at home, that would be great, but I don't want her to suffer if this is something more serious. If she declines further, there's a 24 hr pet ER in the next town I can take her to.

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
(no pics at the moment, sorry - let me know if they can help.)

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Their coop is an "open" style, 3/4 walls around nest boxes and roosts, opening out into the attached run (16'x6' total I believe). The bedding in this area is play sand. It stays pretty dry, but I sometimes hose down some spots for dust bathing on hot days. I use PVC tunnels and another 16x8 enclosure to give them daily access to grassy areas outside. No true free ranging, too afraid of hawks


Thanks so much in advance!!!!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would work on the crop according to the article below. Do provide her access to food/water.
Give her 1 Calcium Citrate tablet once a day for a few days as well.

She may be having reproductive issues if she's got a bloated abdomen.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[missbeasty]

I would work on the crop according to the article below. Do provide her access to food/water.
Give her 1 Calcium Citrate tablet once a day for a few days as well.

She may be having reproductive issues if she's got a bloated abdomen.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

@Wyorp Rock, thank you!! I appreciate your time. I'm picking up some calcium tablets ASAP.

Good news - I was able to get an avian vet appointment for Thursday @ 5 pm, with a promise to call sooner if they have an opening.

Princess seems a bit livelier today in spirit. Her crop still felt pretty full this morning with access to only water overnight. No odor as far as I can tell, but I'm assuming sour crop? I'm starting treatment with miconazole and continuing to massage periodically. I haven't seen her eat, but she is still drinking a lot of water.

I'm not 100% sure about the abdominal swelling - I think she feels less "watery" today (and well enough to protest palpation, lol). I'm not very confident in my ability to distinguish swelling from a normal chunky chicken belly. Hopefully the vet can tell more.

Another thing I didn't catch until her butt feathers dried -- she is missing a patch of feathers below her vent. I put her back outside with her coopmates, and they immediately noticed the bald spot and started picking at her backside. *facepalm* I took her back in and sprayed some Veterycin where they drew blood. Ugh... I'm getting some "Pick-no-more" online, and I'll see if I can rig up a kennel inside the coop for her to keep her safe from her bloodthirsty sisters.

Any ideas about the bald spot?? The watery poops are really wreaking havoc on her feathers. I'm wondering if she was plucked by coopmates. I couldn't find any signs of mites, but again hoping the vet can tell for sure!

I got a couple pictures of sweet Princess, the nipped bald spot and her feeling a bit lethargic.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I treat the crop.

She may have more going on like a reproductive problem, hopefully the vet will be able to tell more.

Her bare bum looks to be from some feather plucking. NuStock cream or Hen Healer can be used to help protect the skin and keep urates from burning the skin.

 

[missbeasty]

Good morning! More good news so far! Princess is a lot more herself today, and her crop felt normal this morning!
*happy dance*


I'm continuing with the miconazole for now to prevent reoccurrence, and keeping her penned separately inside the coop until the "pick-no-more" lotion gets here (sometime today).

Her appetite is coming back. No eggs since I first took her in, but she may have been off lay longer, I'm not sure. I had a good feel of her abdomen, and also managed to catch the next-biggest hen for a comparison feel. The two seem about the same to me. I'm really not sure at this point if she was actually swollen up or just a lot bigger than the other chickens, and I wasn't experienced enough to tell the difference in my alarm, lol.

I'm not sure what would make her feel soo poorly for a couple days -- can that happen if they eat a weird bug or something? I'd like to rule out parasites and reproductive issues in any case. I'll keep the vet appointment and will update y'all with what he says. Thanks so much again @Wyorp Rock !!

Edited to add: Actually, I just rescheduled the vet appt for a later date -- it dawned on me that the appointment slot I had for Thursday was meant to be for emergencies and Princess seems to be out of the woods at this point. I took the Dr's next wellness check appointment on the 16th, and left tomorrow's urgent slot for someone who might need it more, with their assurance that I could call them anytime if she goes south again.

 

[PiGE0N]

I found this thread below a similar, older thread from googling my chickens symptoms. Any updates on Princess?? Mine is a Jersey Giant too!!

About two weeks ago noticed my girl looking a little slow n lethargic, and had a pale face, she did a really small poop so I checked her crop to see if she had been eating at all; it was full and somewhat firm so I waited til the next morning to see if it was actually impacted. It had not emptied out so every morning I separated her from my other girls to prevent her from eating anymore.
I've dealt with a impacted/slow crop before successfully so I did the usual again with only providing her water with a little bit of ACV, some oil, a little bit of plain yogurt and massaging her crop few times a day.
Eventually it started becoming more soft and malleable throughout the week, but it still wasn't emptying completely in the mornings, infact sometimes it felt like there more in there, I thought maybe she was still eating whatever she found in the coop/run.
I read somewhere online to feed them live maggots to eat away whatever is in the crop so I bought some and dropped them at the back of her throat to swallow, otherwise she would've just pecked em til they were dead. This didn't seem to help but massaging her felt like it was getting smaller.... unfortunately again in the mornings it felt almost full so I decided to finally make an appointment with the vets which happened yesterday.
Upon examining her the vet found that her abdomen also felt abnormal, they did ultrasounds on her and found she had ovarian tumors and other things going on.... such as multiple small pockets full of liquid. They couldn't find any good tissue within that area and all that blockage happening down there is what's causing the food to be stuck and going back up to the crop... unfortunately there isn't much that can be done for her. Vet said laying hens are just prone to these reproductive problems, even surgery wouldn't have done much because of how much bad it was, I didn't even realize her abdomen felt off. She hasn't laid any eggs at all since I separated her and probably wasn't laying before then.
There was the option to put her to sleep yesterday night, but I decided to take her home to at least have some more time with her... I don't know how much longer she will last but at least she doesn't look like she's in any active pain; I put her outside this morning and she walked around with all the other chickens, still showing interest in drinking water and wanting treats like worms... I prefer her passing away at home but I just worry how painful it might get

I hope your Princess is doing better, losing these sweet girls is difficult

 

[missbeasty]

Sad update... we had to say goodbye to our sweet Princess.

In short: The only cause we could find was a positive test for cryptosporidium. She was up and down for weeks on antibiotic treatment. When she continued to decline under increasingly aggressive measures to keep her alive, we decided to put her to sleep.

------

The full details:

After seeming so well for a few days that I almost felt silly keeping the vet appointment, she started to have issues again: squishy crop that wouldn't empty, losing weight, poops mostly water. I treated the flock with Corid for 6 days before our vet appointment. I thought about deworming as well, but I decided to wait for a fecal test to see what exactly we're dealing with out here.

The vet did a fecal test that found no parasites but some level of gram-negative bacteria. He didn't find anything unusual with cloacal palpation and guessed that she wasn't laying, or maybe on a slower than normal cycle. A blood test found elevated white blood cells, indicating an infection, and ruled out kidney issues. The vet was inclined to believe it was a gastrointestinal issue, like an intestinal infection, but acknowledged that these kinds of issues are hard to pinpoint since infections can spread internally and a lot of different problems can cause the same symptoms.

He prescribed sulfatrim (an antibiotic), metoclopramide (I believe to aid in digestive motility), meloxicam (an anti-inflammatory to help ease her discomfort), and a probiotic. During treatment, her crop remained full and squishy and her poops watery. She drank a lot of water and was interested in food, but seemed to be eating little. One day I found in her kennel what appeared to be a tiny (lima bean-sized) lash egg. I despaired thinking it was something like salpingitis -- the vet advised continuing the current treatment for now.

A few days later, she started having serious mobility issues, falling over when she tried to walk. She could still stand without issue, head up and steady, drinking and picking at food, had plenty of fight in her during our morning medication session; but she seemed a bit sleepier and walked like she was drunk. The vet agreed to see her for this concerning new symptom that afternoon. He said she was very weak from dehydration, gave her subcutaneous fluids, and suggested syringing water with electrolytes down her throat to keep her hydrated. He also wanted to do a test for cryptosporidium, which seemed maybe a little pointless since she was already on the treatment he would use for crypto (sulfatrim), but in hindsight I'm glad I paid for the test so I could have some amount of closure on the "why". She did test positive for crypto.

Princess slowly regained enough strength that I put her back out with her sisters. It was probably a bad idea for the health of our flock, but I thought her best shot would be in allowing her to be a normal chicken as much as possible... keeping her isolated inside seemed to sap her will to live. For about a week she behaved a little more normally, but the sparse watery droppings never stopped, and then she started wobbling around again. She seemed to have no interest in eating or drinking by this point. I took her back inside and spent a few days syringe feeding her Kaytee Exact handfeeding formula and electrolyte water to try to get her strength back up. Her crop function slowed to a crawl and by her last day, it was so full first thing in the morning that she regurgitated some fluid when I picked her up. We went back to the vet that day and he confirmed my fears that she wasn't going to get better. She was exhibiting signs of neurological damage (e.g. foot curling), at which point he said the infection usually progresses into encephalitis and death.

We let her go peacefully. I cried more and harder for this chicken than any pet I've ever had. I've never tried so hard to save a critter. It was awful seeing her so poorly and having to torture her multiple times daily with treatments that ultimately just prolonged her illness for over a month. I feel guilty for not taking this more seriously from the start and even delaying her initial vet appointment, when she may have been strong enough to fight this off. I don't know if I made any right choices along the way.

I've been monitoring her sisters like a hawk since, and fortunately they all seem to be fine. It's possible they had/have crypto in their systems as well, but it just didn't knock them down the way it did Princess. I'm not sure how exactly she got it or why it was so hard on her. The vet said ordinarily chickens just present with some diarrhea and improve with antibiotics after a few weeks. Maybe she was dealing with additional internal problems -- I did not opt for a necropsy. I'll make sure from now on there's nothing in the uncovered part of the run that can hold potentially contaminated water (since the chickens will pick dirty poopy rainwater over clean fresh water every time). Other than that... I don't know what I can learn from this. Just a very sad time for our family.

Thank you to the folks who read and respond to these threads to help people in crisis. To anyone searching threads in the future, I'm sorry you're going through this, and I hope our experience can be helpful to you in some way.

R.I.P. sweet girl.

 

[missbeasty]

@PiGE0N I'm so sorry you're going through this. I hadn't experienced crop issues before Princess, but this was an eye-opening experience in terms of crop issues being flags for other, potentially serious health issues. I'm glad you were able to find a vet to see your girl, and very sorry to hear the prognosis is not good. It's an awful position to be in, trying to figure out when it's "time". I understand chickens are pretty good at masking their discomfort. I've heard vets say it's better to do it a week early than a day late... but it's hard. I wanted Princess to enjoy every moment she could -- sunbathing, playing in the dirt, eating treats, lounging around with her sisters. As it turned out, her last "good" day was probably a week before her actual last day. I hoped she could have more good days, after we soldiered through the bad, but it wasn't in the cards. I can't tell you what to do with your girl -- I hope you're doing okay with however it turns out -- but I can tell you that Princess's miserable final days will weigh on my heart probably as long as I live. Being able to spare our lovely girls from a slow and painful end is a gift.