- Mar 4, 2015
- 24
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I have a hen with a very large, squishy abdomen. At first I thought she had EYP because there was a bit of yolk on the outside of the eggs she laid and because she'd had EYP before. The last time she had EYP she responded well to erythromycin. This time she didn't improve at all and has gotten larger and is now behaving like she's not well.
Specifics:
2 year old Whiting True Green hen
Food - layer pellets, grass, bugs, worms, BSL, and BOSS
Environment - I have 7 chickens in a yard that's about 4000 sq ft. They have free run of the yard all day and a large secure coop at night. They have access to an open compost pile. I never, ever use chemicals in the yard - no pesticides, weed spray, no fertilizers (the chickens do a fine job fertilizing everything).
She's in the middle of the pecking order. I don't think there's any particular stress on her from the environment.
Timeline:
Early March - I saw a few streaks of what looked like egg yolk on the outside of her eggs and her back end was a little messy from what might have been egg white and yolk. Since she'd had EYP before that was my first suspect. I put her on antibiotics, erythromycin @ .75 mL, 2x/day for 7 days. At this time she weighed right around 3 lbs. She was behaving normally and laying about 5 eggs/week. The only observed symptoms were the yolk on her eggs and the mess on her back end.
Late March - I noticed her belly was getting larger and was quite squishy.
Two days ago (April 3) - she weighed 4 lbs. 9 oz. That's over a pound of weight gain in a month, and it looks like it's from fluid build up. Her back end had a fair bit of whitish poop stuck to the feathers but not all the way to the skin.
The past several days - her belly has gotten quite large. She's less active. She moves more slowly but does still come with the flock for treats. She's still laying eggs - 5 in the last week.
This morning - she didn't come out of the coop when the door opened. She was standing still and hunched up.
Five minutes ago - she was with the rest of the flock and moved quickly for treats. I don't give a lot of treats - a handful of BOSS and BSL every morning for a flock of 7.
I've read a lot of posts here about ascites and understand if that's what she has all I can do is comfort care. If it's EYP I don't know what to do other than antibiotics and I've tried that with no results. I don't know what else it could be or what else to do. Suggestions? Thoughts? Questions?
Thanks for your help.
This is her this morning:
Specifics:
2 year old Whiting True Green hen
Food - layer pellets, grass, bugs, worms, BSL, and BOSS
Environment - I have 7 chickens in a yard that's about 4000 sq ft. They have free run of the yard all day and a large secure coop at night. They have access to an open compost pile. I never, ever use chemicals in the yard - no pesticides, weed spray, no fertilizers (the chickens do a fine job fertilizing everything).
She's in the middle of the pecking order. I don't think there's any particular stress on her from the environment.
Timeline:
Early March - I saw a few streaks of what looked like egg yolk on the outside of her eggs and her back end was a little messy from what might have been egg white and yolk. Since she'd had EYP before that was my first suspect. I put her on antibiotics, erythromycin @ .75 mL, 2x/day for 7 days. At this time she weighed right around 3 lbs. She was behaving normally and laying about 5 eggs/week. The only observed symptoms were the yolk on her eggs and the mess on her back end.
Late March - I noticed her belly was getting larger and was quite squishy.
Two days ago (April 3) - she weighed 4 lbs. 9 oz. That's over a pound of weight gain in a month, and it looks like it's from fluid build up. Her back end had a fair bit of whitish poop stuck to the feathers but not all the way to the skin.
The past several days - her belly has gotten quite large. She's less active. She moves more slowly but does still come with the flock for treats. She's still laying eggs - 5 in the last week.
This morning - she didn't come out of the coop when the door opened. She was standing still and hunched up.
Five minutes ago - she was with the rest of the flock and moved quickly for treats. I don't give a lot of treats - a handful of BOSS and BSL every morning for a flock of 7.
I've read a lot of posts here about ascites and understand if that's what she has all I can do is comfort care. If it's EYP I don't know what to do other than antibiotics and I've tried that with no results. I don't know what else it could be or what else to do. Suggestions? Thoughts? Questions?
Thanks for your help.
This is her this morning:
