My experience with ruptured oviduct

[UrbanPHXChicks]

Hello-

A few months ago I lost a hen to a ruptured oviduct, I thought I would share my experience in case it helps others.

My ten month old barred rock showed the following symptoms:
Lethargic- a few days with decreased activity levels and declined further though the 6 days
No appetite
Loose droppings- suck to her rear, seem to be greenish yellow in color and pretty smelly, later in the week they looked oily.
She seemed to have a little labored breathing at about day 3, which also increased though the week.
Stopped laying eggs- very consistent layer stopped laying the weekend before she died (about 6-7 days before).

I took her to the vet after a few days on Corid with no improvement (actually declined in health). She died while I was in the office with the vet, she went into cardiac arrest. I opted to do a necropsy with the vets office, the results were that she had a small tear in her oviduct. They told me there is really nothing to be done about this, though surgery may help in some cases (I'm not sure how this would be diagnosed though?). Also mentioned that it's fairly uncommon.

Here are some photos of her droppings:

 

[amanda1]

I just lost a hen to an infected and burst oviduct. My hen was two and never laid an egg, ever. She’d had labored breathing for over one year! She was misdiagnosed a year ago with aspergillosis. The vet who performed the necropsy said she was also an internal layer. I can’t imagine how she lived with this condition as long as she did. And, I agree, there really isn’t anything that can be done to help.Up until the end my hen ran for treats, eat and drank normally and free ranged with the flock. She was much more “sleepy” than the others, though, often napping under a bush while the rest foraged.