Lethargic pet hen- not egg bound that I can find

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OMG I just had the same thing. Sounds the same anyway, hope this helps.

I have a 6 month old bantam faverolles that is a house chicken. I can tell when somethings up with her because I live with her :) SO for the past month or so she's been gavin soft shelled eggs. Weird, so we upped her calcium. Still no luck. Yesterday she was making noises like she needed to lay and egg but never did. Started getting mopey, not eating/drinking, fluffed feathers, sulking head her vent was doing the same puckering like fish lips when a fish is out of water, her eyes were just not responsive to me... like she was looking straight through me. I immediately started researching and came up with egg bound or egg peritonitis.. As far as I felt there was no inflammation or any lumps. Finally she laid a shell less egg, but was still not right. Her poops were runny and had yellow, like the chalky yellow color of a cooked egg yolk. This matched up with egg peritonitis symptoms... maybe an egg had popped and she was pooping yolk. I decided things couldn't wait. Took her to the vet, they ran a culture test and said she has a raging infection at her egg tube opening which causes it to malfunction and not shell eggs. The vet also said that many people misdiagnose this as egg peritonitis or being egg bound. Beep got a big shot of antibiotics and was better last night. If you have an avian vet, I would go. If not, antibiotics could't hurt. I hope this helps! Crazy out of all the hours of internet research i did, nothing was the same answer as the vet gave me. I hope your girls get better.
 
tbourdon said:
OMG I just had the same thing. Sounds the same anyway, hope this helps.

I have a 6 month old bantam faverolles that is a house chicken. I can tell when somethings up with her because I live with her :) SO for the past month or so she's been gavin soft shelled eggs. Weird, so we upped her calcium. Still no luck. Yesterday she was making noises like she needed to lay and egg but never did. Started getting mopey, not eating/drinking, fluffed feathers, sulking head her vent was doing the same puckering like fish lips when a fish is out of water, her eyes were just not responsive to me... like she was looking straight through me. I immediately started researching and came up with egg bound or egg peritonitis.. As far as I felt there was no inflammation or any lumps. Finally she laid a shell less egg, but was still not right. Her poops were runny and had yellow, like the chalky yellow color of a cooked egg yolk. This matched up with egg peritonitis symptoms... maybe an egg had popped and she was pooping yolk. I decided things couldn't wait. Took her to the vet, they ran a culture test and said she has a raging infection at her egg tube opening which causes it to malfunction and not shell eggs. The vet also said that many people misdiagnose this as egg peritonitis or being egg bound. Beep got a big shot of antibiotics and was better last night. If you have an avian vet, I would go. If not, antibiotics could't hurt. I hope this helps! Crazy out of all the hours of internet research i did, nothing was the same answer as the vet gave me. I hope your girls get better.
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Good advice, if you can, take her to a vet.
 
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Thanks! I may have found a vet that will do birds! He is a hour away, but ill call in the morning. I did give her some Tylan, along with the other hen. I syringe fed then some gruel and electrolytes. Their poop is very minimal and mucousy and runny. Not bloody mucousy, clear mucousy. The red hen is weezing slighlty when laying down, but not when standing up. My only choice is to closely monitor them and help them through the night. I'll be on the phone first thing in the morning! You would think there would be more vets for chicken around here! I've called....A LOT! Im glad there are folks out there who understand what we go through for a chicken.
 
I talked to the vets office and they don't have available appts till tomorrow evening. I have collected stool samples and began Tylan. We are also adding Cordid as a precaution. Neither of us think she's egg bound. We have massive flocks of geese migrating through our property right now, so they probably brought something with them. If the Tylan and cordid do not work, then after the exam, we may go to something else. fingers crossed for Sunnyside and Curry!
 
This diagnosis is in... I made the decision to take the RIR hen in as well and am very thankful I did. THEY ARE NOT CONTAGIOUS!!!! Im very sad that they are no longer with us but the reasons are not a concern to the rest of the flock, as of now. Sunnyside, the ameraucana had severe peritonitis, probably secondary to a broken egg at some point. It is being cultured but was more than likely was E.Coli. It happened very fast and although she was on antibiotics, it just wasnt enough. She also had a severly inflamed oviduct with large amounts of white casts.

After seeing how dramatically Sunnyside passed, I made the hard decision to take Curry, the RIR, in to be euthanized and have a necropsy as well. She had SEVERE peritonitis secondary to a large tumor on her ovoduct as well as multiple neoplasia along the intestinal wall. The tumors were so great that the peritonits pushed fluid everywhere. The gurgling sound was from her lungs being compressed by the peritonitis and tumors. They was no way to save this one. Any treatment would have just prolonged suffering.

We are running cultures to see what excatly the infection consists of on the rare chance that anyone else gets sick and we can treat. But by time anyone shows symptoms, its too late as we found out. My chickens (ESPECIALLY Sunnyside) are interacted with multiple times a day. As soon as I noticed a problem, I went into action, and even at that, it was too late. Everyone hug their chicken tonight!
 
I live in King county and I have the same problem. Mine has been like this for a week and I have done everything I can think of but she isn't changing. I can get her to eat a little by coaxing now. I picked up meal worms, treats, an acid pak, very good scratch and pro biotic crumble. The other hens are fine but she still won't perk up for more than a day.


I went out this morning and she was still in the coop, I was hoping I wouldn't find her dead. I put her out and kept her moving to water and food. I don't know what to do, she doesn't have cold symptoms, isn't eggbound, and doesn't have worms. She's just droopy and now really skinny.
 

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