Sick Chicken: Not eating well, not really pooping, water belly??

[daisyag13]

I have a 2 yr old golden laced wyandotte that is my one eyed blind chicken (from about a year ago-not sure from what). She has done great with her blindness up until 2 days ago when she wouldn't come eat her chicken snacks, which is unusual for her. She was walking around, but she had her tail almost always down. When checking her out, her keel bone is protruding and very prominent compared to her sister. She had runny poo on her bottom as well, so we brought her in and soaked her in warm epsom salt water to clean her off. Got her cleaned and dried off and then started the whole tube feeding process thinking she wasn't eating for some reason (first, two rounds of fluids only and she pooped a very little but bright green). I also started her on Enrofloxacin in case it was egg peritonitis or some other infection. It was really late at night, so we waited until morning to see if she would start eating on her own. Next morning she did eat about 3/4 cup of pellets all on her own. That night, her crop was empty and she hadn't eaten any more, so we tube fed her some pellet mash at 3% her body weight. I thought she wasn't really pooping because she wasn't eating, but she really hasn't pooped at all since then with 2 full meals in her, just yellowish liquidish droppings like before. Today she's only eaten about a 1/4 cup of food this morning and still no significant poop, so we tubed only liquids this time (3% body weight) in case she is impacted somewhere. Her crop feels normal and doesn't seem to be impacted and seems to be empyting like normal. Her abdomen is very squishy like a water balloon and is about the size of my hand. When in the run with the other chickens before we brought her in, she was kinda waddling like a penguin or sorta limping on one leg. I checked to see if she was egg bound, and didn't feel any egg either externally or internally (though hard to tell externally too much because of her swollen abdomen). I just checked her foot she was sorta limping on, and it looks like there may be some bumblefoot that I'll take a closer look at and take care of later today. Nothing really swollen there, just a 1/4inch sized black scab on the bottom of the foot.

She weighed about 5.6 lbs when we first brought her in and is at about 5.8 lbs today. She mostly just sits in her pen right now and doesn't do anything.

Any thoughts on what it might be or what else I should try or do? Researching and it seems it could be so many different things. See attached pics.

 

[Eggcessive]

She probably has salpingitis and egg yolk peritonitis from the looks of her droppings and swollen belly. They usually also have water belly as well from the EYP. How long has she been on the enrofloxacin? I would not even worry about the bumble foot infection right now, since she has more serious problems. I would complete the enrofloxacin, but if she is still not eating and if her crop stops emptying overnight, I would use your judgement to decide if she is suffering. I have had a couple of hens with the bright yellow urates and swollen lower bellies live for a year or two, just hanging out with their flock. But if she seems to act like she is suffering, the best thing would be to consider putting her down. Of course that is up to you, and I hope she does improve for awhile. I usually do a home necropsy to visualize the abdominal organs, and to look for lash egg material or yellow ascites fluid. Those are very common in hens over 2. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[daisyag13]

She probably has salpingitis and egg yolk peritonitis from the looks of her droppings and swollen belly. They usually also have water belly as well from the EYP. How long has she been on the enrofloxacin? I would not even worry about the bumble foot infection right now, since she has more serious problems. I would complete the enrofloxacin, but if she is still not eating and if her crop stops emptying overnight, I would use your judgement to decide if she is suffering. I have had a couple of hens with the bright yellow urates and swollen lower bellies live for a year or two, just hanging out with their flock. But if she seems to act like she is suffering, the best thing would be to consider putting her down. Of course that is up to you, and I hope she does improve for awhile. I usually do a home necropsy to visualize the abdominal organs, and to look for lash egg material or yellow ascites fluid. Those are very common in hens over 2. Let us know how she gets along.

I started her on the enrofloxacin Tuesday night.
Drats. Hoping it was something curable.

 

[daisyag13]

So just checked her again, and her crop still has a bulge that's about a large egg size. I would think the fluid we gave her from over 6hrs ago would have already gone through her system by now. Still just has the draining runny poo, but not even enough to show up on the shavings in her pen. Could this be an impaction in her digestive system somewhere or even sour crop?