My poor Miss Red is sick! Advice please!

[petesgirl]

She has had her tail drooping and I found her in the corner not on a roost. I brought her in, felt like she may be egg bound. I did the water trick, cleaned up her rear end and felt in there, possibly an egg but I am kinda bad at this! She has been inside for 3 days, no egg. She has been eating and drinking. Drinking more, not eating very much. I fed her yogurt. I gave her a calcium shot and put electrolytes in her water plus an antibiotic. She poops, but still fluffed up and not moving much. Her crop is full, not hard at all, soft and mushy. While we were checking her out she either burped or farted, not sure which end it came out of but it smelled really bad. She is about 5 years old. We are trying to avoid the vet because my husband is losing his job. It has been about a total of a week since she has been looking a bit fluffed. 3 days inside so I don't know how long it has been since she laid an egg. What is my next step? She is breathing normal and doesn't seem to be in pain, but really how do I know? I don't want to let her suffer. She has always been a very calm, sweet hen.

 

[Eggcessive]

She sounds like she has sour crop, but that can just be another symptom of another problem. Here is a link about crop problems: http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html
Usually with eggbinding, they don't make it past 2 days, so I wonder if she is an internal layer, and may be getting egg yolk peritonitis. Those 3 things tend to go together eventually. Here is some reading:
http://www.avianweb.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/egg-laying-issues/index.aspx

 

[petesgirl]

Thank you so much! I still do not know what to do My hubby does not want me to take her to the vet, but I probably would, I just don't know. The last hen I took to the vet cost a lot of money, and wound up having her put down. After a necropsy they said it was ovarian cancer. So the question is how far do you go for a chicken? Is it time to cull her? Is that the right term? So sad.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would probably try to treat her for the sour crop if that is what she has. Feeling her crop to see if it is flat and empty first thing in the morning is the best time. The drug Nystatin for sour crop is also available online without a prescription under the name Medistatin. Many people do not take their chickens to the vet because it is very expensive, but also because most vets won't see chickens. That is a big reason that this forum exists. Culling is something that I would consider when they are wasting away or in obvious pain.

 

[petesgirl]

I do think she is suffering from sour crop, and she probably does have one of the other things going on also. How hard is it to vomit a hen? I am so worried that I will make her choke. I did find a chicken site that said to try fluconazole which I happened to have. It is a 150mg tablet and supposedly you are supposed to give 5 mg once a day for 7 days. So I split the pill into many sections trying to be as accurate as possible and fed her a small fraction with a small piece of egg. Hopefully it will help. I want to try to help her vomit tomorrow and then give her another dose. I will keep you posted. Thank you for all the info! We have been rather fortunate with our flock, they are a great group! Earlier I took Miss Red out to see if it would perk her up and one of my roosters went up to her like he was going to mount her, and I thought really, now? But he didn't, he gently danced around her encouraging her to the middle of the group! She walked away eventually and my other rooster did the same thing! The roosters did not want her off by herself. The other hens were very kind to her. Isn't it kind of unusual for a flock to be nice to a sick member?

 

[Eggcessive]

You must have some more docile breeds to be so nice to a sick chicken. I'm glad they are not picking on her. Many people do not recommend vomiting a chicken because they can choke to death if they aspirate. But others say it needs to be done. The fluconazole is a good idea--it helps too if there is a yeast infection. Here is another site about crop problemsjust to compare advice: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html