Sick hen with foamy yellow poop. Help! Update: Diagnosed with egg yolk peritonitis

[Eggcessive]

I think you are right about it being possibly egg yolk peritonitis or internal laying. It can be treated with penicillin and Baytril, but that may only give her time. It is a fairly common disease. Here are some links to read:
http://simplelifeainteasy.blogspot.com/2012/03/egg-yolk-peritonitis-diagnosing-sick.html
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/egg-laying-issues/index.aspx

 

[Hanna8]

Gander- Thanks so much for your advice! It's helped keep me sane through all of this.

Eggcessive- I've been hoping I wouldn't hear that... Many of the symptoms match up, but enough don't that I keep searching for other possibilities. She does seem to be improving slightly at the moment, which gives me more hope that the problem is something else, but if she shows any signs of regressing again I think I will take her in to the vet and see if he thinks that is the problem and what we should do for her.

 

[Hanna8]

Update time!

She's more alert today than she's been- She's looking around and responding to sounds. I have been taking her outside for a while every day, but today she had no desire to go out and acted on that. She walked back in immediately and took a nap near the door. Her flock later ventured bravely onto the porch to say hi, and although she didn't get up, she did "chat" with them a bit through the door.

She still will only eat watery egg. She seems to like eating and drinking at the same time. I think she's eating a bit more, but that might just be wishful thinking. Her poops are still very watery and gross, as is expected of a bird who isn't eating enough.

Still not sure if it is egg peritonitis or not. From what I've read, it sounds like she would be wasting away more and more if that were the case. She is definitely not out of the woods yet, but she has shown slight improvement. And a lot of the telltale signs are simply not there, like the swelling.

Today I saw the first sign of something amiss in the rest of the flock. There was a big worm in one of the hen's poops. This was a surprise, as I wormed them all fairly recently. I used ivermectin, though. During the day's research, I have learned that this isn't actually an effective wormer for chickens. I'm going to order some valbazen and worm the main flock with it.

I have been getting very up close and personal with my sick hen's poops over the last week or so, and have seen no signs of worms in it, so I don't think she has a worm problem. I don't want to put her under undue stress by worming her, but if some sort of worm could be the source of her problems I want to get rid of it. I haven't read about worms causing her set of symptoms, but I might have missed something. What are your thoughts?

 

[Eggcessive]

Worms can cause foamy poops. It won't hurt her to be wormed with a proper wormer. Valbazen is one of the best wormers, and SafeGuard liquid goat wormer is probably only second to Valbazen. For valbazen 1/2 ml will treat most chickens, repeat in 10 days, and toss eggs for 24 days total. EYP and internal laying seem to be so common on BYC these days. There are many threads to see up at the top of the page by doing a search.

 

[gander007]

Worms can cause foamy poops. It won't hurt her to be wormed with a proper wormer. Valbazen is one of the best wormers, and SafeGuard liquid goat wormer is probably only second to Valbazen. For valbazen 1/2 ml will treat most chickens, repeat in 10 days, and toss eggs for 24 days total. EYP and internal laying seem to be so common on BYC these days. There are many threads to see up at the top of the page by doing a search.

X 2

It is good to read she is still hanging in there

 

[Hanna8]

This morning she took a turn for the worse. Her energy level is lower today, and so far I haven't seen her eat or drink anything. She pooped this morning, and it looks like there might be blood in it, but I'm not sure. The spot I'm looking at is at the lower right of the picture.


I took her off the corid a few days ago, and I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it. She's still on the antibiotics.

She's lost a ton of weight and gotten much skinnier since this started (yet another thing that makes me think it might not be internal laying or EYP), as she's only been eating about a tablespoon of egg a day at most. I could hear her stomach making all kinds of noises today, too. I'm very worried about her.

I will worm her when the valbazen gets here, but it's still in the mail. In the meantime, what do you recommend I do? I'm at such a loss.

 

[Hanna8]

Another update! Already!

I turned around after finishing that last post to find that she had pooped again. It looks more solid than anything I've seen from her lately, with no signs or anything that might be blood, but it is very stinky.



She's still clicking her beak. She also keeps putting her beak really close to food and water like she's going to eat or drink, then changing her mind and pulling away.

I have some vitamins I can give her, too, but I know corid won't work if I do that.

 

[Eggcessive]

What antibiotic are you using? Those poops could be from EYP or E.coli, but it is hard to diagnose something that serious from a poop picture. That last one looks like she is not eating--mostly bile. I would just try to make her comfortable if possible, give her egg or anything that she likes. You may soon need to make a plan about what to do if she gets miserable and is suffering. If you want a necropsy done, some state vets are willing to euthanize at no extra charge. But it is hard to do that to a pet unless you are wondering about infectious disease.

 

[Hanna8]

We've been using tetracycline hydrochloride powder. Should we go ahead and treat her as if she were internally laying and give her the penicillin and Baytril? Would those hurt her if it isn't the problem? We might take her in to the vet this week and see what he thinks. He's not an avian vet, but he's owned chickens and knows a bit about them health-wise. Or do you have any links to a list of good chicken vets? I'm sure there's one floating around here on BYC, but I don't have time to poke around for one at the moment.

I know it's tough to diagnose those from poops, is there any other information that would help?

We have thought about making some arrangements, but we all agree that it is not time yet. She still seems to want to hang on. If she gets to the point that she doesn't anymore, we'll take her in to the vet.

 

[gander007]

We've been using tetracycline hydrochloride powder. Should we go ahead and treat her as if she were internally laying and give her the penicillin and Baytril? Would those hurt her if it isn't the problem? We might take her in to the vet this week and see what he thinks. He's not an avian vet, but he's owned chickens and knows a bit about them health-wise. Or do you have any links to a list of good chicken vets? I'm sure there's one floating around here on BYC, but I don't have time to poke around for one at the moment.

I know it's tough to diagnose those from poops, is there any other information that would help?

We have thought about making some arrangements, but we all agree that it is not time yet. She still seems to want to hang on. If she gets to the point that she doesn't anymore, we'll take her in to the vet.

Loosing weight not good

This is what I use to manually put feed into the crop
of my chickens and it can be purchased at a local
medical supply store for less then $ 10. dollars ....

The feed I found out needs to be put in the blender
and mixed with water to work correctly and when the
hose goes down it always goes into the crop with out
a problem but the chicken will need to be held and to
have help always makes it easer ...

If you have any questions or concerns just ask please ...

Do you by chance have a photo of her ?

All chickens hate this but some get excited when they
see it, ya for sure chickens are like everyone else ...







gander007

Having difficulty with the computer this morning